I just want to share what happened in the Emergency Room while we were waiting to have Nathan seen by a doctor.
We arrived at the ER at 8:12 p.m. Sunday July 12, 2009 and as the EMS guys were helping me down from the back of the ambulance another ambulance was backing up next to us. We got inside only to be shuffled into a room out of the way of the trauma that was coming in the door. (I mean I was traumatized doesn’t that count?!) My baby was on a back board with complete with neck stabilizer and head taped down. I think that it should count as trauma, I’m just saying.
We had a nurse come in and “assess” the patient, nobody even bothered to ask me if I was feeling faint, or needed something to calm me. She determined that he didn’t have a fever, had good blood pressure, that he wasn’t bleeding anywhere, and that I was his mother. Still no one asked about me…whatever.
Then within 15 minutes of our arrival I had the registration lady come in to get all of our information: insurance card (so they could get paid), address (where to find us if we didn’t send money), social security numbers for John (who is going to pay with or without insurance), if he was our kid (duh, he looks just like his dad) and then we were told they would be back to finalize paperwork soon (take our money/co-pay).
Registration lady comes back 2 1/2 hours later and says here is the final paperwork, sign here (yes, I promise to pay you and I know that you will hunt me down if I don’t), and would you like to pay cash or credit (seriously right here in the room with my hurt baby)? I hand her my credit card for the pricey ER co-pay and out she goes, but not before we tell her that we still haven’t seen a doctor. She does a good job of expressing concern, since we have been here since 8:12 p.m. (this is how I know what time I got there). She tells us the doctor has been assigned to us and she doesn’t know why we haven’t been seen. She does tell us that the TV on the wall can be turned on to distract Nate. (Which just for the record, I had mentioned this to John 2+ hours ag0 and was promptly told, that it wasn’t a regular TV because the ER wouldn’t have those in rooms.) Needless to say this was funny to me (remember I am still in shock and no one has even asked about “me”) because we could have been watching something with Nathan to pass the time.
Nathan is still laying on a back board crying over the fact that the back of his head “hurts so bad” from laying on the hard plastic. He wanted off that board and out of that collar. The doctor finally comes in 3 hours later, taps his arms and legs with his “little man” hammer, makes him squeeze his fingers, lift his legs and then says, “I think he is fine but we want a CT scan and then we will know for sure if his neck is broke”. Well thanks Dr. Seuss we knew he needed an x-ray of some type, duh. (Are you sensing my irritation yet?) He does agree to take the back board out from under him but not the collar.
The nurse who followed the doctor in the room told us that several traumas had come in and that they are really busy. Now I have all kinds of sympathy for hurt and wounded people but my baby is still laying with an uncomfortable collar on and he is hungry and sleepy. (So am I but I am sure no one even cares about that)
At this point now Nathan has to pee, but he can’t get off the bed and the nice nurse lady hands me one of those handy dandy plastic jugs and runs out of the room as fast as possible and leaves me with the job of helping Nate pee. John is saying “I’m not touching him” I’m just thinking this would be easier if I had a little help. Yes, I got a little spray but no spillage, that is what you call success. Nothing that a good hand wash with some soap won’t cure.
4 hours into our visit to the ER we have now found ourselves witness, via our ears, to a young man told that he has a broken pelvis in light of the 4 wheeler accident he had while under the influence. We heard the policeman administer the Breathalyzerand then subsequently read him his rights. Then we heard the man dissolve into hysterical crying upon learning that his girlfriend who was on the 4 wheeler with him had died.
We heard 1 elderly man choking on the fluid in his lungs and moaning to leave, though he was in no shape to leave. We saw another elderly man crawl down in the floor and lay down because they wouldn’t let him leave. He hadn’t been going to dialysis and his kidneys were failing.
So at 4 hours into our visit they finally come to get Nathan to have a CT scan and they roll us through the hallways of the ER and just like the TV show, the halls are lined with people with no room to go into. It’s surreal. Then they leave Nate in the hall outside the CT room to wait. The CT tech makes some adjustments to Nate’s bed and in the process flashes John with more crack then he ever wanted to see. Thankfully I am spared this “show”.
I got to go into the room with Nathan while they did the scan and then we rolled him back to the room, still in the neck brace to await the results. 1:00 a.m, July 13th the doctor comes in and tells us that he still has a neck (idiot) and that it isn’t broken. He takes off the collar and does nothing but tell us that he has torn ligaments in his neck and then 5 seconds later that it is badly strained. I was left not really knowing what was wrong, other then he wasn’t broken. He tells us to give him Motrin and then he leaves. We begin to help Nathan up to leave and then the boy, who has been laying there that whole time not complaining over the neck pain, begins to hurt again so badly that he basically drops into his dad’s arms and begins to shake violently with pain. We had to lay him back across the bed. Now I am one hostile momma! That ding dang doctor never stayed around to see if he could even get up, to check his range of motion, or anything that seemed at all compassionate towards my baby! I looked at the nurse and said to her, “This is why I put him in an ambulance and brought him here.” All she had to offer me was a Motrin before we left and she did manage to bring a wheelchair.
That ride home was the most awful thing. He cried in pain all the way home (without any neck brace because the doctor apparently found no need for one) while I rode in the back trying to hold his head still and John trying not to hit any big bumps. John had to carry him up the stairs to his room ( he cried in pain the whole way) where I fed him at 2:00 a.m. while he laid down. We prayed that he would recover overnight.
Next day a visit to the chiropractor got us an actual diagnosis (severely strained neck with vertebra out of place), a plan of “attack” for a cure, and crazy as it sounds, a neck brace to wear for at least 2 weeks! Oh and I was comforted in the process…go figure!
So note to self: heaven forbid there is a next time but if there is a next time, that we have a possible neck break, stabilize the patient, take swig of something calming and call the chiropractor for a house call! ER’s are for people who don’t really want a diagnosis, people who want to wait a really long time, no sympathy offered for mom, and for people who want to hear tragedy all around you. Oh, and the ER does have TV’s for your viewing pleasure (my co-pay probably took care of that).
