ER and Emergency Services

Kimberly Wright, if you happen to know, could you let me know which injection he got and what kind of prescription pills I should pick up?

Lapu-Lapu said:That’s just how things are at the Emergency Room in Cleveland. You can say whatever you want about it.

By that logic, I could claim I was abducted by aliens🤣

I’m really not convinced that someone who is actually in pain or feeling genuinely terrible is going to take medical advice from every random person they pass on the street—whether that person happens to be a pharmacist or even the hospital director.
When you aren't feeling well, you head to the Emergency Room, go through the check-in process, and explain what's going on. Sure, unless you're literally struggling to breathe or your heart is stopping, they might not see you the exact second you walk through the door, but you'll get seen eventually.

And honestly, if someone just turns around and walks out? Sorry, but that’s on them. It’s their own responsibility. Nobody is going to chase them down the street begging them to come back inside.😈

silentmason15 said:Kimberly Wright, if you happen to know, could you tell me which injection he received and what kind of prescription pills he needs?

She mentions somewhere which injection was used, though I don't have the notes right in front of me at this moment... as for the tablets, it's Amoxil.

silentmason15, what else could it be besides Tea??? 😉

It’s just standard protocol (and no, don't bother hoping it's an antihistamine 🙄 ) — either one dose if they haven't been vaccinated yet, or a booster shot

Look, I know you've been through this a million times and definitely know your stuff😁 ,but I just wanted to double-check what you said because something about it was really bugging me.

silentmason15, man... you really don't trust me, do you? That's just wild. 🙄

Dexamethasone

Kimberly Wright said:Dexamethasone

upppppppppps...

I guess it wasn't Tea after all...

Now I'm wondering what Susan Martin24 is gonna say—how is she even going to explain giving steroids instead of a tetanus shot?

Honestly, now I'm feeling a little 😈
...

Honestly, using Dexamethasone for a puncture wound on the hand—whether it’s an insect bite or getting poked by a piece of wire—especially when there's already inflammation around it, is just totally wrong. It’s completely outdated. Even if you're dealing with an allergic reaction, a corticosteroid like this one, which is basically an older-generation fluorinated mineralocorticoid, shouldn't be the first thing you reach for!
Do yourself a favor and look it up online; even a tiny 4 mg dose of Dexamethasone is enough to cause absolute chaos, messing with your glucose levels and mineral balance. Plus, when you've got a bacterial infection, it actually weakens your body's defense by suppressing leukocyte proliferation...
Wait, so Tea didn't get it???
Man, that's just wild 👎

But seriously, if anything, you might actually have grounds for a lawsuit here 🙄
Because of medical malpractice.

Susan Martin24 explained 😈

Honestly, even if someone messes up with corticosteroids, that's a much smaller mistake than completely skipping out on a tetanus shot....

That’s exactly what I deserve, honestly. Here I am thinking all my coworkers are total workaholics who follow every single rule to the letter just like I do, 😛 when really I should just be facepalming at my own stupidity: 😈 🙂

Honestly, they actually took us in. They didn't just brush us off with some quick excuse, and I have to say, I appreciate that. The treatment itself might have been flawed—but let’s not get bogged down in the tiny details right now—because the pain has subsided, the swelling went down, and everything seems fine for the moment. I think I'll try calling the association tomorrow. It's not that I have any lawsuits on my mind, really; it's more about figuring out how to navigate things for when myself, or someone close to me, finds themselves needing medical help again.

Susan Martin24 said:Vascular, bloodthirsty... whatever, it’s just a tacky phrase at this point 🤣
I think Vegarica cooked it up (not 100% sure), trying to be all "fancy" with her new American vocabulary 😂

And if you're in shock, irreversible, everything just collapses—everything falls apart...

Susan Martin24, huge mistake! 😬 It wasn't Vegarica—it was Kovac and Marusic. 😬

I was a demo student in pathophysiology, so I know... I actually used to write down these gems back in the day.

And no, Dr. Vegar never used some ridiculous phrase like that.

As for this case? Sure, Helou, let's just toss some steroids in first, then maybe hit them with Amoxicillin—just aim and pray we hit something. 🙏 That’s more proof they should probably clear the pharmacy list from the Emergency Room instead of rushing straight from the streets to the ER. I thought it was Tea, but it wasn't clear why they didn't give HTIG either; if they had, he would've gotten two injections...

Well, here we go again. I’m circling back to something I posted ages ago (Rachel Brooks63, you probably remember this one) — patients just don't seem to have any sense of priority or standards (and sorry, Kimberly Wright, I'm not taking a shot at you personally). They don't value expertise, which really should be the only thing that matters, they just care about accessibility.

Look, aside from the fact that everyone, regardless of what they do for a living, should be friendly and polite when dealing with people (I'm not making excuses for rude behavior), there's a difference. If someone gives you a sweet smile and some light conversation, but DOESN'T actually help you—like that grumpy, moody doctor who actually knows how to prescribe the right medication,
then the smile doesn't mean much.

I run into this every single day while talking to my patients...
"Oh, my doctor is just the best! She always asks about my mom, my dad, my neighbors... she's always smiling and so chatty and sweet..."
"Listen, ma'am, you didn't get an X-ray of your hand after that fall two weeks ago. You have a fracture that's healing poorly, and you're going to need surgery."
"But my doctor said I don't need it..."
"Your doctor was wrong."
"No way, she's such a lovely person!"
🙂

(I can already see everyone getting ready to jump down my throat 😈 😂 )

I’m not being paid to smile at people all day (my patients don't smile at me either, and it never crosses my mind to ask them to) or to act like a hostess or flight attendant. I'm here to treat people to the best of my ability. 🙂

Mango, sorry,😲 I actually heard that straight from Vegarić's mouth (and sorry, Vegarić 😘 )

It’s true, though—you get doctors showing up at the ER or urgent care who don't even have a specialty or any specific training... they just jump right in... ugh... I'm especially sensitive to that. (Just between us, I honestly think they aren't always deservedly treated as top-tier physicians, though there are exceptions—that was just my bitter side talking back in the day. When I was a young specialist, I used to put them in their place, but now that I've got a mountain of work, I have way less time and even less patience 😛

Haig usually won't bother with an insect bite if the patient is being a total jerk about it—if there's no proof of vaccination, an Ana-tea booster dose is MANDATORY.
Otherwise, Haig is a must for any contaminated wound—whether it's a human, horse, donkey, cat, dog, or snake bite, because unlike insect saliva, their mouths carry clostridia. It's also required for any wounds that have been heavily exposed to dirt (where the C. tetani spores live)....

Is it really impossible to be both a subject matter expert and actually approachable? Since when did being highly qualified have to mean being completely inaccessible?

Chloe Garcia98 said:Why can't someone be both an expert and actually approachable? Since when does one rule out the other?

Of course they can.

The real issue is dealing with people who aren't either...

Most folks here in the States tend to pick friendliness over actual competence.

Like, they'll say, "Oh, my doctor is such a sweetheart, she always asks how my neighbor's dog is doing!"—but honestly, her being a nice person doesn't mean a thing if she's totally unqualified and misses something huge...🙄

When oversight mechanisms fail to do their jobs, you end up with incompetent people operating with total impunity, completely unbothered by the mess they leave behind.

Heh... just wanted to jump back in here. The doctor who saw us wasn't exactly warm or particularly chatty, was he? Based on what you all are saying, it sounds like his treatment plan was totally off the mark, too. But honestly, I think the real issue with this whole thread is that nobody else seemed willing to take us in. Even after I went around "making things known," I heard whispers that we should have been admitted somewhere regardless of how minor they deemed our "injuries" to be—though some people were quick to dismiss the whole thing as a total joke, can you believe that? They were practically tripping over themselves to get away from us.

In the future, if heaven forbid a similar situation ever pops up, I’d really love to avoid a repeat of this mess because the last thing I want is to even consider the headache of a lawsuit. Since we live in such a ridiculous country, I want to have my rebuttal ready to go immediately—just a quick, "Excuse me, under Section X and Y of the law, you are required to admit me." If nothing else, at least I might save myself a bit of money on legal fees.

Dow Chemical said:Malicious... just so you know, there’s a moderator here watching everything and reading closely. Like, really closely.

Don't even try saying you weren't warned that being a jerk is an automatic ban.

Dow Chemical, please be at least half as decent as the Woman from San Diego so we don't lose her to a ban 🙏.
Honestly, a lot of us actually get value out of what she posts.
Just let the woman defend her profession.
BTW, I have a colleague who sprints to the ER every single time her kid hits a 100-degree fever or gets a stomach bug. Everyone at the office just rolls their eyes when she tells us the doctors gave her the side-eye again because her kid is acting up.
Look, people love to panic when their own family is sick, but it doesn't take a Nobel Prize winner to figure out if someone is actually in critical condition or not. That's why they run tests—to minimize mistakes.
If a doctor is pulling a 24-hour shift and 10% of the patients rolling in shouldn't even be there, they have to make it known, even if they aren't being polite about it. They can deal with a little embarrassment to keep the floor clear for people who are actually dying, rather than letting things stall because some patient is too stubborn to report all their symptoms and just sits there in silence.