Starznight,

Sorry you had to go through all of that and hope you are starting to feel better. One thing I would for sure do when you feel up to it, is explore the possibility of filing a complaint with the state's medical licensing board. The hospital has very little incentive to take any feedback you give and do anything constructive with it. They will respond to things that will cost them money...like lawsuits. If you aren't filing a lawsuit, they will say and do as little as possible to the doctor, because anything they do now could be future fodder for somebody else's lawsuit.

The state medical board on the other hand has the ability to directly sanction the doctor for the behavior, and the doctor can't avoid it simply by changing jobs. I think the distinction between drug seeking behavior, and neurologic pain not caused by a visible injury is one that is very difficult for doctors to diagnose. However, their inability to distinguish between the two doesn't give them the right to abandon the concept of respect for the patient or their family. That lack of respect is something the state board should know about, especially if it was accompanied by physical contact that left bruises. If the bruises are still there, get them documented by somebody with pictures very soon.

Well I am feeling a good bit better. I've been downing copious amounts of cranberry juice since my release. And I have contacted the hospital concerning my stay with them. I was given the most heartfelt apologies for my treatment, was told, at least, that my complaint did raise a lot of concerns for the hospital and the way the staff treats patients. And of course I didn't forget to rave about the first doctor who oversaw my care nor the many wonderful nurses who also cared for me during my stay.

How much of what the hospital said was lip service and how much was true concern for what happened.... Who can ever really say. And I'm unlikely to know for sure as I will only be going to the hospital that is part of my health group from now on, even though the nearest one is a non-admitting ER which means picking up an extra tab for ambulance transport to the main hospital if I should need to be admitted in the future and am incapacitated enough to not be able to ride the extra 20-30 mins in the car down there in the first place.

But hey, I survived and will survive to see another day and I'm improving health wise so while the doctor may not have been my cup of tea, to put it mildly, at least the physical medicine she did have down and placed me on an appropriate antibiotic to speed along my recovery. And the Tordol that I sort of begged for, are now a bit excessive as I haven't had to take any beyond my first day and half- two days home. And that was after falling backwards on my porch Sunday and whacking my back against a 2 x 4, oh the nice bruise from the blood thinners and a heavy hit, just above my oh so tender infected kidney's nice one on my part.

But it's a bruise, made worse by the blood thinners, but just a bruise all the same. I'll be fine and probably end up with the bruise out living the infections. Even a master faller like me will have the occasional 'slip-up' Pun intended

But in any event, it did feel nice to have the hospital apologize, and they sent me through to like 4 different department heads to receive apologies too. There was the head of nursing, the head of the ER, the head of Admitting and then the head of administration, and I think I also got sent through to the cafeteria over the 3 hour late breakfast, which I had to tell them, no no... wasn't your fault, you had the food there, you guys were good and the food is excellent, don't change cheeseburgers oh so good, and the fresh fruit cups were delicious, as is the broccoli.

Thanks, TXBatman,

You stated this soooooooo much better than I did. Glad to have you express what I was trying to convey but had done such a poor job of getting into words.

Dear Starznight,

I am so glad to hear that you are on the mend. (Other than your additional at home injury.)

I am also glad to hear that you at least got "lip service" apologies. Better than nothing and at least the powers that be have been notified. It is now in their ballpark to act upon it or not, but, if no one ever speaks up, we can't expect anything to change nor can we hold the administration responsible for allowing such behavior if they are unaware of it.

I truly believe that this behavior was so egregious that it really necessitated being reported. There are a lot of things that do not reach a level of complaint, even though not proper, but this was far beyond just improper.

I wonder how many other people with "invisible" disabilities, suffering from chronic pain, on prescription pain relief, are treated in a similar fashion. Once again, I sure hope this is not a trend of what is to be the future in medical care for people with chronic issues.

Wishing you a VERY speedy recovery from the acute issues for which you needed medical care. Thanks again for sharing your experience with us. It is something we all need to think about when we seek medical assistance.

Starz, please don't ask me what sites they are, but there are many sites in the internet to rate different providers. Use those sites!!!!! You and the rest of the world need to see how you were treated.

When I was a nurse, I know at the nurses station only we used to verbally judge those who we knew and i'm sure sometimes who we thought were drug seekers. But it was in our cancer care training that they stressed so much. Drug users also have real pain and need medicine. They also need compassion. And no, I am not saying you are a drug user, I am saying the exact opposite. But what I am saying is that as nurses we were taught to treat those who are drug users with respect.

Please, use every measure you can find to let people know how you were treated. Good luck in your recovery. And next time you feel like this, immediately check to see if you have a UTI. Let your neuro or PCP know so they can do this for you.

i don't know if this is passee but....i thought that the measure of pain was called the 5th vital sign. the medical profession is morally & ethically obligated to treat pain. that's why they came up with the 1 to 10 pain scale.

flipping off someone else's pain just isn't right, it's also bad medicine, IMHO.

I think this is an excellent point. Being pampered as mentioned multiple times in the OP isn't something that ED staff have the luxury to provide so if there were some compassionate nurses going above and beyond I'd also remember that when the entire experience is considered.

OPs symptoms certainly sound worthy of a trip to the ED although do keep in mind there are car accidents, critically sick babies, strokes, heart attacks and drug overdoses that all take precedence over pain complaints in the ED. Not ideal for the person in severe pain but just the way it has to go to triage and save the lives of those who are in immediate danger of dying.

I took the original poster to relay the events as they happened but did not see anything in the post relating to triage. I also did not think the poster was looking for pampering, but was "offered" a small amount by some caring staff. I see no harm in medical personnel showing compassion. Personally, I don't consider compassion a luxury, but I do agree that there is not always time for it in a crisis situation.

I have tried to see why some posters seem to feel that the original poster had unrealistic expectations. I just don't see it. Maybe it is a matter of personal perceptions. Having worked in a hospital, including ICU and CCU, I have seen unrealistic expectations but I just do not see it in the post here. Just my perception and opinion. I have NOT worked in an ER so maybe that is why I see things differently.

One thing that may not have been clear, at least not to me until further explained, but it is my understanding now that this was not just an ER visit, but was extended into an admission to the hospital, but no beds available on the floor, so the patient remained in the emergency department.

My "take" on the original post was the objectionable manner in which the physician spoke to the patient and family. I took that as the MAIN point of the entire post, well at least to me. That the physician made an immediate jump, unsubstantiated, to the idea that the patient was using "drugs" in an unwarranted manner. Even after being told by family members to the contrary, the physician's snide remark of "to your knowledge" was totally uncalled for and very unprofessional in my opinion. To think it is one thing as a physician, but to utter it to the family is another. That is so disrespectful of the patient and the family. The physician was calling the patient a liar.

Expectations ??? I surely do NOT expect a physician to call me a liar when they do not know me nor have any evidence to make that assumption.

I have a friend with very untypical migraines that absolutely hates going to the ER because she knows how she will be perceived and treated.

My husband has been to the ER 4 times in our married life. He was treated immediately in 3 situations. First time was a concussion from a real bad fall, second and third was heart attack and last one was TIA type symptoms, very minimal that had occurred an hour before. It was the last one that we waited and waited. Now the way to get through triage and into a room and treated is for possible heart attack. My, my, you don't even have a chance to catch your breath. But I am grateful. Oh, the time with the TIA symptoms....turned out to be meningitis and he was in for 2 weeks and rehab 2 weeks.

Yeah, again I wasn't going to the ER with the expectation of being pampered and coddled and given a cookie. I was however in a massive amount of pain that was starting to cause symptoms of shock, I was severly dehydrated, and my kidneys were starting to shut down, so it's not exactly like I went there with a paper cut and I'm upset that they called me a druggy.

I went to the ER with a very real medical emergency, one that ended with my being admitted to the hospital, as they tried to rehydrate me and pump me full of antibiotics to kill the infection that was rather rapidly becoming life threatening. Especially while I continued to be in massive amounts of pain as they really couldn't pump fluids into me fast enough against the cold sweat causing me to lose them immediately. This compounded the kidney failure and hindered the antibiotic from working.

That really is even more so why I was upset with the admitting doctor for calling me a liar and saying there was nothing wrong with me, when let me tell you, when your internal organs start shutting down, you know there's something seriously wrong.

But yes I liked the nurses going the extra little mile for me once they knew who my admitting doctor was. I won't lie, it was nice to get a little bit of spoiling after probably my most horrible experience in life. That they joked around with me, checked on me frequently, and were constantly bringing me lots of juice to drink even running to the cafeteria for me when they didn't have the juice on hand up front by the nurses station... it was apprieciated greatly. Though most of their pampering was in the form of simply joking around with me and making sure that my tordol didn't wear off. And of course telling the doctor what for when it was time for me to go home and she wasn't going to give me a script for tordol despite my still being in a lot of pain.

But I didn't ask the nurses to do all that for me, I just was lucky they were willing to and had the time to do so.

But again, my only expectation with an ER is that they provide basic medical care, determine with some knowledge as to whether I need to be admitted to the hospital or if I can be released, and treat me with a reasonable amount of respect. I don't expect them to hand everything to me on a silver platter, or to kick someone dying of a heart attack out of their bed so I can get called back 5 minutes after I arrive. I really don't mind waiting (I hate it as much as anyone else when I'm in pain or sick as a dog, but then so does everyone else) but once I'm called back, and once the doctor is able to spare the time to see me, I expect basic care to be delivered.

And if the ER doctor so deems it necessary for me to be admitted to the hospital, I don't expect the admitting doctor to call me a liar flat out. To treat me like some kind of criminal, and pretty much go out of her way to humiliate and torture me, especially in front of my family members, and to beat me on top of all of that, only to come to the realization that I wasn't a druggy, but did in fact have a serious medical condition going on. That is really the only thing that had me angry over the whole trip to the ER. Was the admitting doctor and the way she treated me. That's all.