Quote:
Originally Posted by milt
Agree with getting medical attention. If he were in SoCal, I'd stay home and follow Tobra's advice. ER around here is a joke and it can make you worse off. Average 8 hour wait for a broken bone.
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My mom lived to be 95. The last three years of her life I had her in an assisted living apartment a mile and a half from me. I can't remember how many times a caregiver called me telling me she needed to go to the ER and she wouldn't let them call an ambulance because it was too expensive. Her insurance covered that but she didn't care, they charged too damn much! Damn, I miss her.
She'd demand that they call me, so I'd be there in five minutes and hustle her to the ER.
It was infuriating! We'd have to sit in a jam packed waiting room, sometimes for hours, waiting her turn, while they took the cut thumbs, overturned ankles, et al, who were ahead of her while my 90+ year old mom sat suffering without complaining.
After a few of these visits I discovered that if, when being questioned by the nurse at the admitting station, the person being questioned even mentioned chest pain (and the nurse would always ask), the person was immediately taken in.
When I brought my mom back from the hospital a few days later I told her, Mom, the next time we have to go to the ER, you're going to answer the nurses questions like you always do AND you are going to tell her that you also have chest pains. She said, But that would be lying! So I told her, Yes Mom, and that is what you are going to do because I'm not going to allow them to make you sit and suffer for hours without even being able to lay down while you wait.
Subsequent to that there were a number of return visits, Mom fidgeted, but lied and she was taken in, given a bed and monitored immediately while waiting for the doctor to get to her ( I have nothing but high praise for the doctors and nurses who treated her).
When the urgency increased as her health continued to decline, I told her facility to always call for an ambulance, then call me and tell my mom that I'd be waiting at the hospital when she arrived. When the ambulance arrived the paramedic would check her vitals and stabilize her immediately and take her to the ER where she was admitted immediately.
Was I cheating the system by making my mom lie to the ER admitting nurse? I couldn't care less. I have my own priorities.
Sorry for the long rant, but Milt's observation is so true and set me off. I'd do it again and recommend doing the same to anyone who feels they are being seriously compromised by a system which doesn't function as it should, I don't care HOW busy they are.