Has anyone else on here that suffers Chronic Pain,been dicriminated against by the "so called" medical prfessionals.A few years ago I had gone into a Hospital claiming I was having intense abdominal pain.When I told them I was on Chronic Pain management,thinking they would take me more seriously ,considering I should not be feeling any pain at all.I sat in a lobby 4 days strait for up to 13hrs.waiting to be seen.I was never seen.After the 4th day I finally came to the realization that the woman at the desk just thought I was looking for drugs, and I would eventually give up and go away.So I went to my primary physician finally,and was rushed strait to surgery from her office.I was having an acute Gallbladder attack.By the time I finally got in the hospital,I was almost in complete organ failure.I was in intensive care for 9 days and had to recieve 5 blood transfusions just to get the poison out of my body.This is not the only time this has happened.Does anyone know of any organizations I can join to make the Medical community more aware of the fact they are potentially killing patients,by discriminating against them ??

Wow.. did you end up at the same hospital? Thats terrible.. Absolutly discusting.. I would send a complaint to the hospital board, it's never too late, it may save someone else some agony.. talk about discrimination wild.

I did have a couple experiences too, not so life and death though, I have had doctors offices refuse to take me on as a patient because I am a WCB client and because I have RSD/CRPS. Also I had an angeogram done through my radial artery without any anesthesia, freezing or pain relief afterwards because the doctor thought I was making up a fictacious disease (RSD/CRPS!) and just wanted drugs.. all because I asked for extra freezing due to the nature of my condition. He made fun of me becase the paper sheets hurt my legs when he put the clip board on them and called me hysterical to the nurses after the procedure.

This was the head of cardiology at a major hospital in Canada. makes me sick to think about.

I would definately write to the board of directors at the hospital you went to. i recently also went to the ER for breakthrough pain from my Trigeminal Neuralgia. In the last ten years I have gone to the ER 3 times for pain and the last two times they always gave me a shot of Demoral for immediate pain relief and an RX for 20 Percocet until I could get to my dr. I had not been to the ER for 4 yrs and this last time the dr. on call would not give me a shot for pain and would only give me percocet after I insisted that vicodin makes me vomit. Needless to say I got no pain relief and felt humiliated, I wrote to the vice president of the hospital and got a phone call from her and a letter, she told me the dr. was talked to by the people who are experts in pain in the ER. It doesn't sound like much but It made me feel a little better. So yeah write to the president of the hospital, someone is in charge of customer relations, I don't know if you are in the US but hospitals are in it for a profit and they want your business, so they try to make nice if you aren't happy so you might go there in the future.

Hi Sandal,

WCB patients are definitely descriminated against - but they aren't alone. I"ve had doctors refuse to treat me because I'm a car accident victim (mva). They either think I'm faking for insurance or they don't want to offend the insurance company because they're making a mint doing "Independent Medical Assessments" for them outside of Canada's public system. It's sickening and it's made me lose all respect for the medical profession.

As a WCB or MVA patient, if you don't do everything the doctors say, you're "non-compliant." If you seek help, you're "hysterical, scheming, attention-craving or drug seeking." Tell me how we can possibly get quality care in this scenario?

Cheers

Andie, you may be pleased to read this post, which I submitted to another forum. It received lukewarm response, some for, some against-which I found hard to understand.

"Good news at last. This article appeared in our local paper, The West Australian, today:
"Australia could become the first country to recognise chronic pain as a disease in its own right, giving sufferers greater credibility and access to more integral services.

Chronic pain, which affects one in five people and costs the economy about $A34.4 billion a year, is the third-most expensive health problem in Australia, but most sufferers were still seen as malingerers or drug seekers by general practitioners and busy ED staff, pain specialist Michael Cousins said yesterday.
Pain is one of the biggest health issues in Australia today-every bit as high as cancer, AIDS or coronary heart disease.
It affects a person physically, psychologically and environmentally and destroys all aspects of individual and family activities."