ER and Emergency Services

Lapulapu - (Dow Chemical, please read this carefully and try not to get defensive), where on earth did you get the idea that you know how my mind works or what kind of doctor I actually am?

And honestly, all those sensationalist headlines about "medical malpractice" in the news? That’s not a fair representation of reality. Look, I’m not sitting here claiming that doctors are infallible—we aren't robots. But we all know what sells papers and what triggers an emotional reaction from the general public.
Medicine is just one of those fields where the margin for error is naturally higher than, say, when you're laying down plumbing in a house (and before anyone jumps to conclusions, I’m not trying to insult plumbers!).
Take appendicitis, for example—I've mentioned this before—it can present itself in such weird ways that even a veteran professor of abdominal surgery might struggle to recognize it. It’s not always that "textbook" clinical picture you see in movies.
That’s just one of the more common "mistakes" that can end up costing a patient their life, and just as easily strip a doctor of their confidence and professional credibility.

What do you guys think? Do you honestly believe I skip into work every morning whistling and skipping along?
Or that while I'm at the hospital, I'm just preoccupied with painting my nails between patients?
Do you really think that my colleagues and I don't lose sleep over a patient we sent home the day before, or someone whose diagnosis we weren't entirely certain about?

And do you think that I—and plenty of my peers—haven't gone out of our way to check in on someone during our off-hours, or swung by the ward just to see how they were doing... or checked the ER logs first thing in the morning to see if a patient was admitted overnight?

But hey, I guess the most important thing is that you've all formed your own little opinion of my character and my work based on... what, exactly? Just the way I write posts online? 😈
It would be hilarious if it wasn't so incredibly sad. 🙄

Look, I don't care how much you think your little persona and whatever you've done are 'fascinating' or whatever... they just aren't what this thread is about! 👋

I'm doing just fine, thanks for asking, miss doctor! 😍

So, the main topic here is how emergency services are organized, and I actually used to be the chief of an EMS crew back in a small town out in the Midwest... which naturally leads into that second point that popped up: the whole "medical error" phenomenon. There’s definitely some overlap between those two things, especially when you look at 😈 the part that touches on my own work. 😬

You’re starting to act more and more like Los Angeles 😁

It’s an interesting thought... since I can’t seem to find anyone in my circle who actually knows how to advocate for patient rights, I’ll just share this bit of information that hasn't been officially verified yet. Apparently, regardless of how severe an injury or illness might be, every single medical facility is legally obligated to provide initial or emergency care.

The real issue, though, is that Americans are just so poorly informed—or perhaps not informed at all—about what they are actually entitled to. If I may draw a parallel that has absolutely nothing to do with healthcare, you know how people think you have to wait 24 hours after someone goes missing before you can report it according to standard police procedure? Nowhere in the actual law does it state that such a delay is required.

In much the same way, doctors could have easily just dreamt up their own version of practice. You know what I mean.

Kimberly Wright, why don't you just tell us what actually happened?

I mean, this whole theoretical breakdown doesn't really help the conversation at all—it's just fueling more speculation and petty arguments, kind of like the one happening right now between that blowhard and Susan Martin24...

Rachel Brooks63 said:Kimberly Wright, why don't you just write down what actually happened?

Since this kind of theoretical breakdown doesn't really help the discussion at all, it just seems to fuel speculation and these little squabbles, like the one going on between that blowhard and Susan Martin24.

Well... here goes the famous story. My husband and I were out in the woods on Saturday when he apparently got stung or scratched by something—maybe a hand? It’s hard to say. It stung a little bit at first, nothing major. But then by Sunday, the spot turned red and started swelling slightly. Not a big deal, right? So, I popped into a local CVS to grab some anti-itch cream. We kept applying the ointment and doing compresses, but the swelling just wouldn't budge. By Monday, his hand was swollen like a club, and the inflammation started spreading toward his fingers and his wrist. I didn't want to take any chances, so I threw him in the car and drove straight to the nearest hospital. They took one look at his arm, suggested he might need a tetanus shot, and then basically told us we should have gone to Mercy Hospital instead since that's where his case falls under. Honestly, they were incredibly rude about it, almost acting like we were being foolish for following the advice from the first hospital. Eventually, they pointed us toward the clinic in the suburbs. Once we got there, the doctor told us we'd actually need to head over to George's because he wasn't able to write the specific prescription we needed. So, we went to George's, where the doctor on duty treated him perfectly normally. Everything was sorted out within half an hour; he got his injection, his prescription, and we finally headed home feeling like actual human beings.

The way the whole system is set up is just fundamentally broken. Under George's WHO guidelines, primary care is supposed to be our front line—the first point of contact for anyone needing help. Hospitals are meant to handle secondary and tertiary care, which means they aren't even equipped to write prescriptions, as you clearly pointed out.

There's also a massive issue here, and Kimberly Wright hit the nail on the head when she mentioned how patients around here don't really grasp their rights, but more importantly, they don't understand their responsibilities either.
I actually read an article in The Istra Voice recently about the insane wait times at the emergency room over at the Pula Memorial Hospital. It turns out there's this huge surge of people bypassing their local doctors and heading straight to the ER for things that aren't emergencies...
It’s basically the same story at every hospital across America. Honestly, I don't see any real fix unless we start focusing heavily on public health education and teaching people how the system actually works.

As for that specific case you brought up... I'm going to sit this one out. If I gave my take—which is purely professional and totally unbiased—I have a feeling nobody here would want to hear it. 😬
Let's just say, if it wasn't a surgical emergency...

Kimberly Wright said:we ended up at George's clinic where the doctor on call was actually super chill about everything. the whole thing was wrapped up in like half an hour—he just got a shot, a prescription, and we headed home feeling like normal people...

so what did they actually end up diagnosing him with?

and honestly, what would've happened if your boyfriend had just waited another 20 hours or so and gone to his regular family doctor instead?...

Our local EMS is basically just a glorified shuttle service to the morgue—honestly, they’re more like a direct ride to the afterlife than actual emergency help!!!!!!!!

Rachel Brooks63 said:so what was the final diagnosis?

And honestly, what would’ve happened if your boyfriend had just waited another 20 hours or so and gone to his regular family doctor instead?

Based on how you described everything, they probably would've ended up amputating all his fingers 🙄
and who knows, maybe they wouldn't have stopped at just that one hand either... 🙄
it really feels like this was something he could've totally held off on until Tuesday (you know, the first actual business day) to see his primary care physician.

I'm kind of with Taylor Swift on this one—people seriously rush to the ER for every little thing.

(ps. I'm not a doctor or anything)

Look, let's stop with all the "what ifs." Honestly, what you and I are speculating about right now doesn't really matter... Let's just wait until Kimberly Wright can tell us what the actual diagnosis was. All we know for sure is that there was a two-day gap between the sting and the injection...

Rachel Brooks63 said:So, what did the doctor actually end up diagnosing him with?

And honestly, what would have even happened if your boyfriend had just waited another twenty hours or so and gone to see his regular GP instead?

Most likely nothing at all. 👍

Rachel Brooks63 said:so, what was the final diagnosis?

And honestly, what would have actually happened if your boyfriend had just waited another twenty hours or so before finally heading over to his primary care physician?

The doctor basically told us to just keep an eye on how the swelling behaved, and it turned out to be fine—it actually started shrinking by the very next day, so it wasn't some kind of poisoning or anything like that.

As for what might have happened if he’d sat around for another twenty hours... I couldn't tell you. All I know is that his older relative nearly lost their leg because of all that stalling and waiting to see a doctor, especially since they had been bitten by something too.

Rachel Brooks63 said:Look, let's not get ahead of ourselves with all the guessing. What you and I are thinking right now doesn't really matter much at this stage. I guess we should just wait until Kimberly Wright tells us what the actual diagnosis was. As far as I can tell, the only thing we know for sure is that there was a two-day gap between the sting and the injection...

And honestly, everyone jumping down Susan Martin24's throat before even knowing what the actual issue was? Yeah, that was totally fine, I guess. 🙄

Talk about a double standard...

At the start, none of us actually knew what we were dealing with—and honestly, people just went after Rachel Brooks63 because she’s got a sharp tongue, not even because of this specific mess.

If Kimberly Wright had just laid out the facts from the get-go instead of getting all caught up in theorizing about "rights" and fighting for them... well, half of this whole debate wouldn't even be happening...

Small puncture wound on the back of the hand (specify left or right side).

Variations:

Old puncture wound on the back of the hand.

or

Inflamed puncture wound on the back of the hand.

😍

If I can just step in here—Rachel Brooks63 was getting dogpiled by default, mostly because jumping on the bandwagon is just what people do on this forum lately 🙄

Jane Doe said:If I can jump in here—people were totally dogpiling on Jane Doe just because it’s basically the trend on this forum to jump on someone by default... 🙄

And she’s honestly just a little angel—she didn't do a single thing to deserve any of this... 😁

😍

Don't you ever forget who your biggest fan was here—the one who actually started your thread and kept pushing you to write more... right up until you went just a little bit overboard...