Mark,

That reminds me of a similar situation. I live in a large city and very close to a major trauma center with an excellent emergency department. A few months ago, I woke up in the middle of the night with shoulder pain so severe I could not lift my arm more than an inch without terrible shooting pain. After struggling to get out of bed, I decided to ask my wife to drive me to the ER.

It turns out that she was doubled over with stomach problems and was about to wake me to drive her to the ER! Well, we ended up calling an ambulance for transport. When we got to the hospital, we were put in separate rooms.

She received lots of attention immediately. They took tests, did a full work-up, the whole works. On the other hand, I was pretty much ignored. I was told to lie on a hard bed. I could barely climb up because of the shoulder pain, but had no assistance, no lowering of the bed. I was given no pillow, call button, and could not reach the phone (it rang several times – but people walking by never stopped in.) The bed was so uncomfortable my arm hurt even worse. I had a very cursory exam by a nurse and after a long time, had a short visit by a doctor who did no exam of the shoulder.

I was asked by more than one person – triage nurse, doctor, and other personnel – why I came there when my regular doctor normally practices at another hospital way across town. They seemed to resent that I was there. The ER was very slow. When I climbed out of bed to walk down the hall to the men’s room, (again with no assistance because I had no call button) most of the staff was gathered in the nurse’s station watching TV and discussing the Packers!

All I wanted was to have my shoulder looked at by someone who knew what they were doing to make sure there was nothing serious going on. When this happened to me several years ago, a different ER rushed an EKG because shoulder pain is one of the warning signs of a heart attack.

I finally figured out they were rude because someone had decided I was just a junkie looking for drugs. When they were preparing to discharge me after literally doing nothing for five hours, the doctor sheepishly offered to write a script for three or four Tylenol 3. I said “no thanks I have plenty of much more powerful stuff at home.” It seemed like he was surprised to hear that.

Needless to say, I immediately called the ER supervisor when I got home and also composed a letter of complaint to the hospital administrator.

Sorry this is such a long post, but Mark’s story triggered the memory of that indignity and prompted the rant.

Mark – I hear you, buddy.

Mike