Angry mom treated rotten in ER today

Specialties Emergency

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I just am not sure what to do. I'm sure if i call the hospital tomorrow to complain i'll get transferred here and there and finally to an answering machine or get hung up on or no one will return my call. My mom is going through the change and her hormones are messed up causing dramatic lady partsl bleeding. she often wears 3-4 pads at a time, underwear ruined, our chairs have towels on them, it's bad. she had a d/c and removal of polyps, cancer ruled out. no health coverage and medicaid won't help. she's weak, looks pale, gets horrible leg cramps etc. today was no exception and our bathroom looked like an operating room. she's had the problem for almost 2 years and apparently little can be done. she's falling asleep and uncomfortable in the waiting room like she might pass out. after 3 hours of waiting i finally told them she had better get examined right quick. got in there the nurse drew blood, and then helped her clean up and changed her bed. so far good, that nurse was an angel. the doctor comes though and basically says they can't do anything for her today, she has to make an appointment with her gynecologist which of course is ALWAYS SO BUSY, might not see her for a couple months. meanwhile she was told if she had problems to go to the ER. then they draw more blood. her count was ok so no transfusion or anything. another guy comes in to start an iv and mom asked for what and he didn't know! so she wouldn't let him so he takes his cart and leaves. another nurse comes in says here's your paper you can leave. she had to go to the bathroom and told them that but they wouldn't even give her anything to cover with to go out in the hall. i won't say what my loving mother did next but well a mess was made. her pants were soaked from blood so she had to leave in a hospital gown, no scrub pants were offered to walk out in the cold. and they didn't even really offer a wheelchair since she is weak and gets light headed. i pulled my car up had the heater going and luckily had a blanket in the car. i realize it's christmas but god last christmas i worked 3 days later i was terminated from my job because they wouldn't hold my position for recovery and 2 days after that i was in the operating room having surgery. medicaide won't help me either. i'm soon to be a nurse, helping people, and no one cares when you or a loved one is sick. what is this world coming to?

Specializes in 6 years of ER fun, med/surg, blah, blah.

Has there been any feedback to our suggestions from purple princess? Wonder how her Mom is doing now?

I just am not sure what to do. I'm sure if i call the hospital tomorrow to complain i'll get transferred here and there and finally to an answering machine or get hung up on or no one will return my call.

Write a letter to the administrator and find out who is in charge of the ER and send a copy of the letter to them as well. I have found this to be effective as it goes right to the people in charge. Also, even if your Mom is not Medicare/Medicaid eligible, there should be some local medical support. Especially for such a quality of life and potentially life threatening condition (that kind of blood loss is potentially very serious). Best of luck and give your Mom a hug from us all:balloons:

I feel bad for your mothers problems. I think the thing to rember is that if your mother is "stabel", then her problem is not concidered an emergency. Unfortunatley, many people are without adequate heath care coverage and resort to using the er as their Dr. That is why the er dc instructions say , if the problem continues fallow up with primary care etc.. I have to agree , I do not discriminate between medicade and insurance pt's . If the pt is an inapropriate admission the insurance co. will not pay the hospital either. If the pt doesn't meet admission criteria they can not be admitted. I also agree that if I gave every pt free meds, free gowns and blankets and taxi cab rides home ,the hospital would be in further financial problems. Pt's need to have a different view of the ER. If you know your mom is bleeding, take clothes with her to wear home or leave and bring some back. Don't expect free stuff, hospitals can't afford it. It's not that medical staff don't care they are just overwhelmed with pt's who are having the same problems. Granted the man doing the IV should have explained things, but stand up for yourself. If he didn't insist that someone explain. Don't just sit by. As an er nurse I find that there are many times I explain things to pt. they don't understand , don't bother to attempt to clarifie and are angry when we go ahead with procedures, when we are under the assumption they understand because they didn't ask further questions. I remember the good old days that we could do all kinds of things for pts. But those days are gone. I also remember when people only went to the er , dr etc.. when they really need to. (Your mother really needs a Dr.) It's amazing how many people go to the ER with colds, cough and fever with children that have not gotten tylenol or motrin.

Sounds like the hospital down the road from me and where I used to work. First of all, your mother definitely needs to see the gyno, sounds ( I know we aren't suppose to diagnose) like she has hyperplasia and it can be corrected without a hysterectomy. A procedure call Nova Sure does the trick. As far as the ER goes, I have found most to be cold, and impersonal. Most do not care anymore about the patient coming in for help, needing that help to reassure them all will be well. My daughter had a bad experience not once but several times with the ER dept here. The last time was the last straw, we complained and acutally got somewhere. Most hospitals have a patient complaint dept of some kind. After all they are a business now and consider the bottom line the most important factor. And just like any other business customer satisfaction carries weight. So COMPLAIN, no matter how many times you are transferred. If you don't get anywhere call the Administrator or the CEO. Good luck and God Bless.

Specializes in ER.

It sounds like your mom really needs to see another GYN. I'm not sure how it works in other ERs, but the registration department is not allowed to ask for insurance information until after the patient is seen by the doctor at our hospital. As for the ER - they are there for emergencies - not as long term care givers. Please don't take that the wrong way. I am not saying that your mom was not having an emergency (i was not there). What I am saying is that is it a real problem in our country when people come to the ER for basic medical care and do not have a regular physician, that may be why we have the long waiting times. I have seen people come in by EMS with the hiccups!!! (we promply triage that person and he/she is sent to the waiting room). Anyway, I hope your mom finds the appropriate care and they help aleviate her symptoms.

Specializes in Emergency.

It sounds like the ER folks might have messed up.....but, sounds MORE like there is MORE to this story....

Specializes in 6 years of ER fun, med/surg, blah, blah.

Still no feedback from all the advice we have given purple princess about her mother & the ED visit.

Some people think the ED has a magic wand to cure their problems, when the ED is all about rescue & stabilization, not for chronic problems. Can't fix everything, but can help save your life if you are truely unstable, as in "fixin to die."

Still no feedback from all the advice we have given purple princess about her mother & the ED visit.

Some people think the ED has a magic wand to cure their problems, when the ED is all about rescue & stabilization, not for chronic problems. Can't fix everything, but can help save your life if you are truely unstable, as in "fixin to die."

Unfortunately, for the uninsured, poor and even middle class, the ER is often their only source of medical treatment. And in many communities, physicians will not accept new patients without insurance or the money to pay their fees at the time of the visit. So, the comments regarding the purpose of ERs is moot. I worked in one of this countries largest ERs---Kings County, Brooklyn. We saw a large number of chronic problems as well as Level One traumas. And we treated everyone, making no distinction between chronic or acute, unless you were actively bleeding, in acute respiratory distress, suffering from chest pain. I am so tired of hearing nurses complain about people cluttering up THEIR ER, with their non-emergency problems. The 'purple princess' felt the extent of her mother's bleeding was an emergency, even when some do not believe it was. Hate to tell you this but you are there for the convenience of the patient. The patient is not their for your convenience.

Grannynurseretired:balloons:

Specializes in ER, NICU, NSY and some other stuff.

"she's had the problem for almost 2 years and apparently little can be done. she's falling asleep and uncomfortable in the waiting room like she might pass out. after 3 hours of waiting i finally told them she had better get examined right quick. "

"she had to go to the bathroom and told them that but they wouldn't even give her anything to cover with to go out in the hall. i won't say what my loving mother did next but well a mess was made"

I have read and reread this a couple of times. THese 2 quotes just continue to jump out to me.

THis is a chronic condition and the OP never mentions that anything new, worse or different happens. I do understand that persons waiting to be roomed are not feeling well nor are they comfortable BUT demanding to get roomed right away does not magically make a room available. Once she was roomed labs were drawn and she was deemed to be stable.

It was sompletely appropriate to ask why the IV was needed, but sometimes if I am busy I may simply ask a coworker to go and start a line for me and they may not know anything about the particulars of a given patient. Yes, that person could have gone to glance at the chart and see what the plan was and returned to fill them in. I sense much hostility on behalf of the patient and her mother also, as evidenced by the above quotes. So it may be that when she said NO he took her at her word, at which time she was refusing treatment and they discharged her. If you are not going to agree to treatment then there is nothing more that can be done and you may go.

THe second quote sounds like (feel free to correct me if I am wrong) that since she was not offered a gown that she proceeded to void right where she was. THIS IS NOT APPROPRIATE behaviour. It is also mentioned previously that she had already been discharged.

Most ERs do not have the resources to give out extra clothing and blankets to everyone who soils themselves. Can you only imagine the expense involved in this? This was not a new problem, hence all the chairs in your home are covered in towels, then you should have had the forethought to bring a change of clothing.

I am sorry for the troubles that the Op's mom is having and I hope that she has been able to find a resolution to these. Good luck to you both.

I had a similar problem a few years ago. My OB/GYN was satan incarnate. I told her that I could not take birth control pills b/c they effectively made be depressed and crazy. Well, she ended up using her authority as a doctor to bully me into taking BCP. She basically said it was my duty as a ptient to try new things and that the BCP's available now were of much lower doses than available previously. She said if I didn't take them that I wasn't being a good patient...yadda, yadda, yadda.

I took them even thoug I knew they were going to make me depressed, I believed the Dr knew best. What ended up happenning was horrible. I went into some kind of horrible BCP induced delerium. I was trashing my house, acting utterely insane, and attempeted suicide twice before my husband found me. I stopped taking the BCPs and in a few days everything was back to normal. That Dr., by not listening to me, almost cost me my life.

I went to another OB/GYN who when I told her I couldn't take BCPs, just said "O.K., let's look at tother options to stop the bleeding." I had a D&C to stope the bleeding and it worked. I haven't had any other problems since.

I still feel I need to get in contact w/ my former GYN and let her know what her ego almost cost me.

Specializes in 6 years of ER fun, med/surg, blah, blah.

So, where is purple princess' reply to all this advice we've given her?

So, where is purple princess' reply to all this advice we've given her?

Given some of the replies, I am not surprised she hasn't responded.

Grannynurseretired:balloons:

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