Satan runs a Hospital: Warning way TMI

The BBQ Pit
21

My experience with a teaching hospital was UPMC in Pittsburgh. After several months of doctor after doctor being unable to figure out what was wrong with me and why I had a rash resembling poison ivy that would not go away, several doctors decided I might have lupus.

It took a really fresh intern to figure that I do have an immune disease, but not lupus, and not deadly. Thankfully something that can be controlled with medication. I’m thankful that she didn’t see my set of symptoms as a disease, because the drugs they had me on before they figured out it wasn’t lupus were awful.

So, hospitals. Never can tell by lookin at one.

22

That was abusive. The letter with the assistance of a lawyer is a good idea. At the very least there should be some record of that so that the next time someone suffers so, it won’t be treated as an isolated incident. They might even heed the letter a wake up call and at least have some ER Staff review pain management. When I worked at a hospital at least one such letter did result in some reform. Unlikely, but it could happen.

I’d think that an abcessed fistula would be potentially life threatening. If it bursts to the inside the pus could lead to septicemia or something else nasty. Lancings are sometimes done in the ER depending on the location and nature of the abcess, but doing one with out pain relief is unconscionable.

Reminds me of procedure instuctions I read for dealing with an infected Bartholin gland. It warned the doctors that they should not attempt to lance and drain the abcess without proper local anethesia. Any attempts to do so would likely be violently resisted by the patient and rightfully so. I wondered at the time what kind of clod would need that warning. I believe you met him.

I hope you feel better soon.

23

Thanks.

You are right that I should put in a complaint. At the same time it would take alot of work on my part, probably lead nowhere and I don’t have the time to deal with it. I also did consult a friend of mine who is a Doc and he said that it would be almost impossible to get Surgeon #2 sanctioned in anyway because a) it wasn’t life threatening b) the only witnesses were Surgeon #1 and the Nurse and c) the hospital would likely just trash my complaint without any proof. Also, right now I am pretty stoned from the pain medication. I’ll think about filing a complaint when I am not doing the percocet high.

I would love to get that bitch fired but it ain’t gonna happen.

Slee

24

Thanks.

You are right that I should put in a complaint. At the same time it would take alot of work on my part, probably lead nowhere and I don’t have the time to deal with it. I also did consult a friend of mine who is a Doc and he said that it would be almost impossible to get Surgeon #2 sanctioned in anyway because a) it wasn’t life threatening b) the only witnesses were Surgeon #1 and the Nurse and c) the hospital would likely just trash my complaint without any proof. Also, right now I am pretty stoned from the pain medication. I’ll think about filing a complaint when I am not doing the percocet high.

I would love to get that bitch fired but it ain’t gonna happen.

Slee

25

First, mmmm percoset. Its a nice happy high, init?

Second, Give them a paper trail. Put together a nice, neat, specific letter and make sure it gets to the hospital, cc’d to the relevant wath orgs. And maybe the local news.

But later, for now, enjoy the goodness that is percoset.

26

They just started a new policy at one of the ERs in my town. They divide people by ‘quick fix’ and ‘needs immediate help’. (Well, moreso than most ERs do.) Apparently the wait time to see a physician is down to 30-45 minutes.

The problem in my town with ERs is that a lot of people use them because they have no personal physician. Basically, if they have a bad head cold, they go to the ER. Or, if they have a hangnail, they go to the ER.

sleestak, I would follow Medea’s Child’s advice. Copy the letter to anyone who you think would help. That way they will know that you are serious in your complaint, and it may lead them to think that you will pursue it until you can get some resolution. I’m glad you’re feeling better!

27

Sleestak,

I’m sorry you had such a hard time with all of this. I had my first abscess last year, and hope to GOD that I never have another one (Chron’s).

When the abscess first developed, my doc couldn’t se me right away and sent me to the ER. Never again! Not as bad as your recent experience, but still…there was not much they could or would do for me. My GI now has me set up with a surgeon, and I am supposed to just call them if I have more of that kind of problem. Could you get set up that way, and avoid having to go to the ER again?

28

On monday I took my SO to the hospital because he took a bad fall in hockey practice and his back hurt ALOT.

This was at a University Hospital which shall remain nameless but was recently ranked #7 in the nation for care and is located in Ann Arbor, MI.

We arrived at 9:30 am and were checked in promptly. We departed at 7:30pm, having spent 9, yes 9 hours in the ER, in a bay. The first resident told my SO to take 2 advil and come back in a week (after he ahd rated his pain 8 of 10). Luckily the attending ordered x-rays because he had a fractured vertebrae. Oops. Then there were cat scans, visits from an orthopedic surgeon, visits from othodics. There was a strange… lack of urgency is the best way to put it. Like they didn’t care about getting us out the door.

Really the strangest thing is that no one seemed particularly concerned that we had been there through an entire workday and a change of shifts. Except the x-ray tecnician who said “you’ve been here 9 hours? That’s fucking ridiculous.” For which we felt very warmly towards her indeed. I started getting a bit testy and saying things like “so, can we get someone to look at the x-rays and maybe we can keep this visit UNDER 12 hours?”

Oh, and the nurse who said my SO couldn’t have a drink of water because “he might have procedures” and then was never seen again. Oh, and the doc who said “wear this brace 24 hours a day!! Don’t take it off for 12 days!!” versus the Orthodics staff “this brace is not designed to be worn 24 hours a day; take it off when you sleep, otherwise you’ll get skin infections.”

there was a homicidal/suicidal case in the same time, and a bipolar man with bad burns. You could say we weren’t the most urgent case on the floor I suppose. But um, aren’t spinal injuries pretty goddamn serious?

29

BTW, I have had many pleasant experiences with this same hospital, I adore my gynecological clinic. It’s actually strange that their ER is so lacking.

30

I think all med students should be forced to be undercover hospital surgery patients before they are allowed to TOUCH patients. After surgery to put the 6 pieces of my tibula and fibula back together, I had a surgical attending wake me up at 5:00 the next morning by yanking my recently operated foot back and forth. This was about 12 hours since my last pain meds. I screamed bloody murder and told him I was going to report him to Amnesty International. Don’t they realize that this stuff HURTS?! Are they stupid or something?

31

Anal fissure, huh? Been there done that.
I had a doc cut one out in the office once. The next time it happened, they decided to do the work under a general. I think my screaming from the procedure in the office had upset all the other patients in the building.

You could do what a lady friend of mine swears she does with her dentist. (Only works with male doctors) Grab the doc by the crotch and ask
“We’re not going to hurt each other, are we?”

32

Holy crap, what an ordeal. That sounds horrible, Slee.

Fortunately, my most recent experience in an ER wasn’t so bad. My friend had a bladder infection that had her in bad pain so we ended up sitting in this room and whenever someone walked by, I told him/her that we were starving and could we have one of the banana popsicles? By the end, we’d each had about 6 and all the nurses and techs showed up staring at us holding all the sticks. Good thing they had a good sense of humor.

Rick, your friend has to be lying. She can swear it is the truth but man, I’d call her on that shit. :slight_smile: I’d fucking sue her ass so fast if she did that to me (if I was a guy), her head would spin. She’s fulla shit. heh. :slight_smile:

33

I can’t tell you if hospitals in the US work in the same was as in Canada, but here at least, if you filed a complaint, it would, if not immediately acted upon, enter into Quality of Care statistics.

I promise you that the Quality Director of that hospital WANTS to know about it.

Lauren (who works in the Quality department of a large hospital)

34

Not familar with the concept of a joke I see. No she probably didn’t do that to her dentist. But ever since she told me that I have to admit when I am in a MD or DDS office and there is a possibility of pain, I think about that and have to laugh. I even mentioned it to my dentist. He thought it was a hoot.

35

Once upon a time, I was having horrible abdominal pain. I couldn’t lay down without passing out from pain (laying down made it worse for some reason) and so I decided the ER would be a good thing.

I arrive at 2am on a Sunday morning and get seen fairly quickly. They make me lay down for examinations, even though I explained that it would be a bad idea,and I pass out. I wake up to the sound of my own screams and about 8 different med type people crowded into my tiny emergency room area, all drawn by my gawdawful shrieks. I still haven’t been given anything for pain, but it’s only been about an hour.

I go to have x-rays. My nipple rings and bellybutton rings are visible. The doctor tells me he has to tell my mother (I was 16) because it was illegal to get that done. Wrong. A law regarding underage piercings had just been passed, but I tried to explain that it did not apply to me because I had been pierced since 15, when the law was different. He didn’t care to listen and told my mother anyway. What ever happened to doctor-patient confidentiality, anyway?

They jab me with a catheter and enemize me (blech!) and perform plenty of painful tests, all involving my poor vagina. At about 9am (seven hours after admittance) they concluded that I had a hemmhorragic ovarian cyst. Great. I finally got a bed and some morphine.

Fast forward to the next evening. Surgery time. They gurney me into the OR, then make me crawl from the gurney to the operating table. Great. I wake up after what was supposed to be an easy, routine surgery. I was told I could go home the next day. Wrong. Somehow, my poor little lungs had filled with fluid (flash pulmonary edema), effectively drowning me.

I woke up in ICU, unable to move or breathe properly. I stayed there for a week, under the care of a sadistic pulmonologist who told me repeatedly that I wasn’t even trying to relearn to breathe. It seems as if she forgot that my lungs were still full of fluid, causing a particularly nasty bit of pneumonia.

Once I escaped from ICU, the nurses would poke and prod me all through the night, all seemingly unable to figure out how to stick me with an IV properly. One ran away crying because she had tried and failed so many times. I eventually ran out of space and had to get IVs in my feet. Oh boy.

So, that’s my commiserative hospital horror story.

B.Pants

36

Funny, all my experiances with the ER have been pretty good.

  1. Car rolled over, jaws of lifed out of the crumpled vehicle by really nice and helpful emergency personel, including a police officer who I think was first on the scene (shock makes for fuzzy memories), only left my window to calm my little sisters down, and came by the hospital after his shift to make sure I was okay. Teh ER trauma surgeon set my broken finger for me and let me pick the invasivenss of my treatment. (My choice was none. He accepted that and joked with my family.)

  2. Middle of the night hauled in by friends from my dorm. I am hysterical and in lots of pain, three states from home as a college freshman. The ER nurse got me the specs for the pain drugs they were given me (I deal better when I have information. Having gone through O. Chem I wanted to look at what they were putting into me. Unreasonable, yes. See above re: terrified and hysterical.) And they gave me good drugs, none of this waiting business, they got me good and doped up, then began the rest of the crap. Which I was willing to put up with, because I was much happier and calmer. She also stopped by after her shift was over (and I was checked in, never get checked in. Bad things happen then) to see how I was doing.

Of course that was the hospital where I was stopped on the street four months later by a really hot guy who asked me how I was doing and if I remembered him. One of the people who took care of my emergency surgery.

  1. Assualt by my roomate. ER personnel wouldn’t let me wait in the lobby but put me in a little office with the nice police officers while I waited to get x-rays.

Oh well. Win some-lose some. The vast majority of my experiances with non ER medicine have sucked hardcore. I don’t know that I would trade that pattern.

37

Glad to hear Satan’s got work. Haven’t heard anything about him for a while.

Sua

38

I suggest contacting the state medical board BEFORE writing to the hospital.

39

I had an interesting experience in that ER once!

21 years old, suffering from impacted wisdom teeth. Had appointment at the dental college to have them extracted, but dental college=how’s the end of the month. Two days before my appointment, ibuprofen is as effective as M&M’s, so I drag myself, weeping, to UPMC so they can give me a stronger prescription.

Miserable but knew I wasn’t dying, so waited patiently. Elderly man sits next to me, moaning and groaning. How awful! He’s in such pain, and they’re ignoring him! Why…why, he might die if someone doesn’t see to him soon!

Go up to reception. [bleeding heart college student voice]“Aren’t you going to do anything for the man in the red jacket? He says he’s having heart spasms, and he’s been waiting since this morning!”[/b-h-c-s voice]

Nurse (without looking up): “There’s nothing wrong with that guy except that he’s an alcoholic. He comes in every day and it’s easier to let him sit there than have him make a scene with security.”

[meek voice]“Oh. Sorry to bother you.” [one-inch-tall Rilchiam toddles away]

40

Nah, he’ll get better results if he sends a letter marked cc: State Medical Board. And sends the copy to the SMB.

Robin