fuming b/c of NMMC!
i need to vent and this seemed like a decent place to start. my husband (djembe) fell from a ladder sunday evening just before 6 PM and broke both arms. the left one pretty bad and the right not as bad. we arrived and checked into the ER at 6:39 only to wait for HOURS before he was seen. now, i understand that if you go to the ER you will have to wait and it will take a while. what i don’t understand is why so long. it was 2 AM b/f they did anything to him and 4 AM before we returned home. i saw people there who didn’t seem ill enough to warrant an ER visit and saw people there who had been there for many hours more than us. one elderly lady in particular had been there since noon. she left around midnight w/o being seen, but was obviously very ill. there were babies there that were also really ill. one was finally taken back when the parents were almost frantic b/c he couldn’t get his breath. he had been there longer than us and was still there, at least now in an ER room, when we left. i just felt horrible b/c there was nothing i could do to ease djembe’s pain. i did give him tylenol as often as i thought i could, it didn’t do much to touch it.
now, when he was called. . .
they call his name and i motion that we were there. they had been doing checks like that all evening. after a moment i went to the desk to see if they were just checking or if they needed something. she said they were going to take him back. great! so i go gather the few things we had and notice that she is just standing across the way, apparently waiting. i ask if we are supposed to follow now…she had not indicated anything. now i don’t mind pushing him or doing whatever is needed but would like to be instructed as to what someone wants. she said something like ‘well yeah’. o-k. i followed. we get to the room area and she mumbles something, parks another patient, and goes into a room. again, i didn’t know if this was ours or another. i peek my head in and ask if this was his room…*not so kind voice* ‘bring him on in’. o-k. did. he lays down and it apparently felt much better. so we rest there for a while.
skip ahead to the splinting of main arm…two nurses come. one was the same that had shown us back and is enjoying the music in her head, the other is in a great mood as well. wonderful, but kill the perkiness when you can see someone needs calm. a little confused as to what the plan was at that point i was unable to get any info from either of them. they are less than gentle with djembe’s fragile arm. the water bowl that was used for the splint clanged to the floor b/c it was resting on a slanted surface. that made a bad jittery sitch even worse. water is all over the floor. after they finished wrapping him up they start to wipe up the water. head-music nurse slips a little, catching her fall with a hand on djembe’s abdomen…this happens twice. there was just absolutely NO bedside manner or seemingly no care that he was hurting. i know they see hurt/sick people everyday but come on!
that was our third visit to the ER this year. the first two times were with our youngest. oddly enough it was for a broken arm the first time. i’m just not impressed with the organization and service there. there were good techs but overwhelmingly i am disenchanted with much of the ’service’.
January 03 2006 09:55 pm | Ramblings
