Poor Hospital ER Care Left Them At Risk

Women: Poor Hospital ER Care Left Them At Risk

Patient's Appendix Burst While Waiting For Treatment, Mom Says



POSTED: 6:29 a.m. EDT June 4, 2004
UPDATED: 6:50 a.m. EDT June 4, 2004


WEYMOUTH, Mass. -- Two women are going public Friday with complaints about the emergency room care at South Shore Hospital in Weymouth, where one mother said her daughter's appendix burst while she waited six hours to be treated.

NewsCenter 5's Gail Huff reported that both patients tell the same story of waiting to see a doctor. Virginia C. said her daughter had been diagnosed as having acute appendicitis, but still waited in the ER.

"My daughter having her appendix break like that ... and the doctor said she was a mess when he opened her up," said Virginia C.

Virginia C. said her daughter's life was at risk.

"She sat for six hours. She got up, someone came in with a sandwich. She got deathly ill, she threw up. I went to the nurse, I said, 'She has to be seen.' The lady coulda cared. And they got that new facility there. I think it's about time they look at it and do something differently," said Virginia C.
Braintree, Mass., hairdresser Christine H., 39, said she waited two hours in April at the same emergency room while experiencing a severe asthma attack.

"The triage nurse, when I said to her, 'I need to see a doctor,' she said, 'You and everybody else needs to see a doctor,'"

Christine H. ended up calling 911 for an ambulance that took her to Quincy Medical Center where she was promptly given intravenous drugs to treat the ashthma. She spent two days there recovering, she said.

South Shore Hospital has responded to Christine H.'s charges by saying, "Christine H. was not at medical risk during her emergency department visit ... despite her allegations, she was promptly given treatments," said Dr. John B., the hospital's director of emergency medicine.

Christine H. said twice nurses gave her the same inhalant treatments that she had taken at home which did not help her breathe. She said she plans to file a complaint against the hospital with the state.
2004 by TheBostonChannel.com

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Can you believe that she called 911 from a hospital ER (to take her to another ER) ?