Hi, I am not a nurse yet, so I would like to ask ya'll a question. This post is a little long, so just try to bare with me. What makes a situation an Emergency??? I will explain myself:
Yesterday, my husband had a slight stomach ache all day. He took some pepto thinking that would help, but at about 10:00 PM, he came wake me up and told me I needed to bring him to the hospital. Since we don't have any insurance, we drove about 30 minutes to the Charity Hospital. At this point he is in a good amount of pain. He is having trouble walking and every 2 minutes is seems like he needs to urinate but only a little comes out at a time. We get into the ER and they must have had about 100 people in their. He and I both knew their would be a bunch of people. Well he picks his # and goes sit down, and asks me to go talk to someone to see if they can give him some pain medication. So I went ask a lady (I'm assuming she was a nurse) and she asked if he went through triage yet (I think that is what it is called) and I told her no. She walked away and came back and said that there was nothing they could do, that he had to wait to be called and they would be starting to call #'s soon. :stone He was #9. I could tell she really sympathized for him, but there was nothing she could do.
We sit down for a few minutes and my husband asks me to take him to another hospital. We will just pay the bill, just get me to that hospital, (hoping it would be a little faster since it isn't charity) It is about 15 minutes away. So he gets in this ER and by this time he is obvious pain. The lady at the desk looks like she is in NO hurry at all to try to help him. He went to the bathroom again, came out and basically begs the lady at the desk to let him talk to someone. So she says in the rudest, most hateful way, Sure, Go knock at that door. :flamesonb It was the way she said it, with a hateful smirk on her face like she knew the woman behind this door would make him feel like it didn't matter what he was feeling, and that is exactly what this lady did. He knocked on the door, knocked and knocked, and finally just opened the door to try to talk to her; she yells at him and tells him he needs to knock and this & that. He told her that he did knock and that he can't take the pain anymore, then she tells him he needs to wait like everyone else. He is almost in tears.
So he tells me to bring him to the other hospital, about 25 minutes away. I didn't know what to do, I wanted him to just wait but he couldn't. So the whole way to the hospital (which is about 10 minutes from my house in the first place) he is yelling in agonizing pain. I feel like crying, he is scaring me to death, & he is also scared to death because he had no idea what was going on, he's never felt pain like this before. I almost wanted to pull over and call 911 but I might have been at the hospital by the time they got their. We finally got to the hospital and I drop him at the door. The nurse looks at him and immediately takes him into triage and into a room. I was so HAPPY :roll .
We eventually found out it was a kidney stone and he did pass it before we left the hospital. So I ask... Do ya'll think this should have been considered an Emergency??? The whole time I kept thinking that he's having an Appendix attack and it is going to rupture or has ruptured and will poison his body while WAITING for someone to acknowledge that he is desperate need to some kind of comfort. Obviously this wasn't the case, but what if it was???
Am I overreacting? Should we have called an ambulance in the first place??? Is their any way that I can complain to someone that will really listen about the hospital's lack of urgency?
Hi, I am not a nurse yet, so I would like to ask ya'll a question. This post is a little long, so just try to bare with me. What makes a situation an Emergency??? I will explain myself: 
The lady at the desk looks like she is in NO hurry at all to try to help him. He went to the bathroom again, came out and basically begs the lady at the desk to let him talk to someone. So she says in the rudest, most hateful way, Sure, Go knock at that door. :flamesonb It was the way she said it, with a hateful smirk on her face like she knew the woman behind this door would make him feel like it didn't matter what he was feeling, and that is exactly what this lady did. He knocked on the door, knocked and knocked, and finally just opened the door to try to talk to her; she yells at him and tells him he needs to knock and this & that. He told her that he did knock and that he can't take the pain anymore, then she tells him he needs to wait like everyone else. He is almost in tears. 
I didn't know what to do, I wanted him to just wait but he couldn't. So the whole way to the hospital (which is about 10 minutes from my house in the first place) he is yelling in agonizing pain. 
I feel like crying, he is scaring me to death, & he is also scared to death because he had no idea what was going on, he's never felt pain like this before. I almost wanted to pull over and call 911 but I might have been at the hospital by the time they got their. We finally got to the hospital and I drop him at the door. The nurse looks at him and immediately takes him into triage and into a room. I was so HAPPY :roll .