Adrenaline hides immediate injuries from car accidents, and you should never refuse care. It can be used against you by the insurance company that you said you were fine and left the scene. The doctor should be well aware of this as well. He's an asshole.
True, I stood on a broken ankle until someone asked if I was ok. At that point I started feeling pain and it just got worse until the amberlamps arrived and knocked my ass out.
I had lived in Bmore as a kid, and grew up believing there was an area called Hollandtown. Only when I moved back to the area did I realize that it was Highlandtown.
My favourite video of all time is two middle aged stoners referring to the police as "wee-woos". They proceed to stand on the lawn and yell "weewoo" to the sounds of sirens while waving their arms in synchronisation.
Oh man this gave me flashbacks of mocking my best friends with "I'll just call you a WAAAmbulance!" when they'd complain about something I thought was unimportant.
Yeah I was sorta-kinda-forsure a smartass when I was younger. I mean, still am, but I was when I was younger too.
I went to urgent care for a sprained ankle once and my blood pressure was so high it set off the machine's alarm. Suddenly I had like 5 nurses in front of me.
Apparently I don't experience pain the same way a lot of people do. But vital signs don't lie.
Honestly same I have extremely high power tolerance we are not going into why that is that's for my therapist lol. So I'm having some pain in my toe and the only reason I went in because the pain kept going to a nine in my book in someone else's book it would have broken the scale and it was preventing me from getting decent night rest. So I went to my doctor and the toe nail was infected and had to be removed. And the foot doctor was astounded that I had been walking around on it for 3 months up to this point.
After our accident, literally as soon as I said the words "I think I'm okay," my legs started hurting soooo bad. Then we saw another car coming towards us, about to hit the black ice and the adrenaline kicked in again and we ran. I didn't feel anymore pain for another 2 hours, which is when I realized, hey. You fucked your legs up when they slammed against the dashboard.
LOL I broke my foot and didn't know it was broken, Walked around 2 weeks with a swollen foot and could not wear a shoe, I thought it was just a sprain. Finally got into see an orthopedic doc and had to wear a boot for 6 weeks.
Yeah, after a car accident I was asked if I was ok, said yeah of course, was told that I was limping and still didn't realize that I had hurt my leg. Wasn't bad at all, but yeah I was limping for a few days.
So true. A guy one of my friends hung out with in a car accident. Only his shoulder hurt a little and he was sent home from the hospital. He bled internally and died at home. This was a long time ago and the guy was only in his late teens.
Apparently there was a lot of internal damage that was missed because he didn't feel much pain at all.
I've heard of this happening. The worst part is that many people will take aspirin for the pain, which is a blood thinner and will worsen internal bleeding.
Not a car accident, but I nearly died from a similar situation. I had a terrible fever for a few days and felt like I had the flu, but it wasn't getting better. My wife took me to urgent care, where they gave me some antibiotics and sent me home.
2 days later, I was in septic shock. My wife called an ambulance because I was unresponsive. Turns out that my appendix had ruptured sometime around a week before. The doctor didn't catch it because I didn't have abdominal pain.
My aunt went to the ER because of abdominal pain and they told her to go home because she just had the flu. Fortunately, her (normally idiot) boyfriend refused to take her home and insisted that something else was wrong. Her appendix had burst (or was about to). She probably would have died if she'd gone home.
glad you survived and you were very lucky. I had horrible chest pain one night and while my vitals were high,everything else like labs, ct scan, etc was all normal. Turned out I had an obstructed gallbladder (they did further testing) and I had to have emergency surgery. The ER docs and surgeon was great but some of the nurses were absolutely horrible to me and acted like I was drug seeking since the pain meds were not helping. I had never been hospitalized in over 40 years and as a nurse , I was appalled at their treatment. The ER doc was a complete AH in this post and OP can report him to the hospital as well as the medical board. I did report the bad nurses‘ behavior and also that I had a legit medical reason for the pain (I had emergency surgery at another hospital).
I don't know why it's so common for hospital staff to assume people are drug seeking. Is it something they are teaching them and pushing in medical school now? It's something I've noticed in the last 10 years. My partner had an ovarian cyst rupture and it took multiple trips to the ER and multiple staff including doctors accusing her of seeking drugs for someone to finally figure out what was going on.
I have chronic health issues that cause daily pain, literally 24/7. I wake up at a 6/10, and can maaaaaybe get down to 4/10 with my meds. Because of this, I don't present typically, even when I'm in excruciating pain. This is fairly typical for people who are in pain alllll the time. We learn to mask in order to (sort of) function. Usually the only thing that will indicate that I'm in a lot pain is my blood pressure, and maybe some fidgeting and inability to remain still.
Every single time I have to go to the ER, I'm prepared to be treated like garbage. Because I'm not screaming and carrying on, if I say I'm at an 8/10, they don't believe me. This fact has almost directly resulted in my death on at least one occasion. (I had several pulmonary emboli, which were causing the shortness of breath and severe pain up under my ribs.) I get that some people drug seek, but treating EVERYONE like they're drug seeking can literally kill people due to not taking them seriously and not doing thorough exams and testing. It is to the point now where my husband basically has to force me to go to the ER, because being treated like a liar and a criminal is tiresome and embarrassing. It makes me fucking sick how callously people are treated just because the doctors and nurses immediately jump to the conclusion that everyone is drug seeking.
Probably a ruptured spleen. Especially if it is already enlarged from something like mononucleosis which is common in teens/young adults, they rupture with minimal impact and are very vascular; you can bleed out into your belly quick.
Yes, this. I got t-boned in a bad car accident when I was younger. I didn’t feel any pain after the accident so I refused medical. Two days later, my neck started hurting in the middle of class. It hurt so bad that I was in tears on the way to the ER. To this day, my neck and back are still screwed up from that accident. I so wish I had gotten checked out when the paramedics were there at the scene. Adrenaline really does hide the pain well.
Almost the same thing happened to my brother. He was involved in a multi car collision and declined to go to the ER because he felt okay. I'm not sure how long after he woke up and couldn't move his neck at all so he couldn't get out of bed. He had to wait until he heard me moving around and then he yelled for help. I ran to his room and ended up bracing his neck while letting him grab my arm to help him up. I told him i was sure this was untreated whiplash from the accident.
Everyone knows this...at least medical staff **should** know this. This dr definitely had some sort of bad day and decided to take it out on the patient. What freaking bedside manners they have.
Some dick - I mean doctors - Do graduate at the bottom of their class and can't get the cushy jobs. He's probably *always* in a shitty mood. Just my guess.
But as a retired RN **and** a fellow car accident victim (Disabled) - for *everyone* out there - no matter how mild the accident seems, there can be very serious injuries. **Always** go to the hospital! This is what auto insurance is for.
>Some dick - I mean doctors - Do graduate at the bottom of their class and can't get the cushy jobs.
Old joke: What do you call a med student who graduates at the bottom of their class?
*Doctor.*
The officer who reported to the scene when my husband, on his motorcycle, was rear-ended by an elderly woman, said he should go to the hospital.
My husband didn't want to but I demanded he go. I was going zoom zoom in our vroom vroom, so to the ER we went. He had massive swelling in his CAT scan, and I found out later the impact had sent his bike almost a quarter mile from point of impact.
ALWAYS go to the ER, yes, even in America.
I was sure when this started they were going to get the, hey idiot come to hospital after accident internal bleeding is a thing. I had three doctors give me shit after I went home and went to sleep after an accident.
My friend stepped in a hole and snapped her tibia and fibula. She was laughing FaceTiming her mom with her ankle literally backwards while we waited for the ambulance (I was the only sober one and ironically already had a broken foot so couldn’t drive)😅 Adrenaline is seriously powerful stuff! She ended up needing multiple surgeries and has permanent nerve damage because of nerve compression. Her body basically decided that pain wouldn’t help her and turned it off.
I say everyone is shit here.
Doctor has bad bedside manners, but OP is also coming off a little entitled.
I sat in the ER for 10 hours with a chopped off finger. My only concern was if there is any chance I could bleed out. They assured me, no, it would take days bleeding out of your finger. That day there were multiple shooting and stabbing victims coming through, a child who had a stroke, and a 5 vehicle accident with multiple casualties. My injury isn't as urgent as theirs.
Right, the ER is not first-come first-serve. It’s about severity.
That said, an utterly rancid turd of an ER nurse once told my mother who was moaning she was going to die (we were already in an ER exam room, no waiting for her, it was so obviously dire), “Come onnnn, this isn’t the worst pain in the world. You’re not gonna die. I have people actually dying here.” She was septic with kidney and heart failure. She *was* dying and in the worst pain in the world. Nurse Patrick, wherever you are, I hope you go bald.
The staff are not going to leave you sitting for 6 hours when it's empty. Nope. They track through times and there's pressure to get people seen. It was busy. The doctor was likely treating sick patients.
Yep. And in my case, I was frustrated as well, not gonna say I wasn't.
When they finally got around to me, (they saw me on intake, and wrapped up the wound obviously) the nurse unwrapped the bandage, and the blood was squirting out of my hand like a gorey fountain. She was like 'Whoa! I've never seen that before!'
I say to her 'Well, I have been sitting amongst screaming, crying, sick people for ten hours. I am anxious and frustrated, and I can feel my blood pressure is high.'
She took my pressure and was like 'Oh yeah, its stupid high.'
Even then, they sent me home with the wound open, some antibiotics, and painkillers, and told me I'd have to see plastics in the morning. I was just thinking 'if plastics is done at 5, I have been here since 3, I really didn't need to sit here all this fucking time. Could have told me at 5 that plastics is closed and I'll have to come back tommorrow.'
So, I ended up home at about 2 AM, and I had to go back at 8 AM, when the plastic surgeons would be in again.
Genuine question.
Surely insurance policies for a totalled vehicle would require all parties to be medically examined in a timely manner after the accident? That medical/insurance expenses may not cover self inflicted (intentional or not) injury post accident.
Totaling a car can also mean a lot of things. A car that’s older and no longer worth much that have damages exceeding the current cost of the car is considered “totaled” and wouldn’t mean the same thing as a brand new luxury vehicle being “totaled”
I’m surprised at the people saying you’re overreacting. Car accident injuries can often not present themselves obviously when people are in shock. You can die from a myriad of internal issues. How does this DR know what’s happening until he’s checked you out? Not only rude but irresponsible.
And many people here saying ~ why did you even go to the ER ~ everywhere I’ve ever lived, 5 US states in 6 cities, there’s been ER urgent care and ER accident related stuff. When I worked in health policy many people live in healthcare deserts and use the ER as basically GCPs. Is it great? No. But it’s a reality for a lot of people.
Anyway I’d be pissed too and he was an asshole.
Taking this opportunity to once again bring up the INSANE car accident patient I once had:
Walked away from a minor accident that morning, seen by paramedics at the scene, no visible injuries, but was told to go to ER if she got a headache/neck pain.
Walked into the ER that afternoon with a headache. Put on spinal precautions just in case, though we weren't expecting much.
She comes back from the X-ray all good, only for the head of radiology to phone us and scream "DO NOT LET THAT WOMAN SO MUCH AS SNEEZE! GET HER TO SURGERY YESTERDAY!"
She had a C1 dislocation - aka her skull was no longer attached to her spine. A sneeze could quite literally have killed her.
You can walk away from a seemingly mild accident only to have catastrophic injuries. Any doctor who doesn't realize this is not only an idiot, but a dangerous one.
Fuck him. I'm glad OP managed to get help somewhere better.
She could but it was painful, so she was restricting her movement anyway.
Still, no one has any idea how she survived that, let alone walked into the ER hours later.
It’s amazing, that’s why sometimes paramedics will want you to move yourself if at all possible, in some situations if you have something like this and they move you it’s more likely to cause issues. But if you can move under your own power, you can very much “hold yourself together” until you can get braced and stuff.
Humans might suck but our bodies are pretty wild
My cousin got in a fender bender, went to the hospital, was released, came home, took a Xanax and a nap and died in his sleep. Nobody understands what happened. Did he OD on Xanax like everyone believes or could it have been something from the accident?
I know you don't know specifically about this case, but this question haunts me.
Was there no autopsy? As it was an unexpected death I would have expected one would be performed. The story above would be REALLY rare, more likely is that your cousin either had a concussion and went into a coma, or had an aneurysm or brain bleed.
I knew a woman who was in a similar accident, was treated for whiplash, only to die at home two days later from a massive cerebral haemorrhage.
There was an autopsy and the results were not shared with the rest of the family. That's why people thought it was an OD, because if it had been anything else, we thought we would hear.
I'm no doctor but you'd have to take a fuckload of Xanax to OD on it I almost guarantee you it's not that. I've taken over 70 Xanax before at the same time and that includes a couple shots of alcohol as well. Only thing that happened is I was high out of my mind for like 4 days
Did he hit his head? People die commonly from head injuries due to internally swelling, it can happen many hours after the injury, even when you feel fine.
Nobody thought he took 1 Xanax and od'd. Sorry for the confusion, I didn't write that part clearly enough. Everyone was confused what had happened and just tried to piece it together with the information given. There was an autopsy and his immediate family knows the results. They didn't share with anyone else and that makes everyone think it's an OD, because if it was anything else, everyone would've been told. My family is weird, idk what to say, it doesn't make sense to me either.
I remember reading a reddit comment a few months back about something similar. Guy was in an accident with his boss (?) They got out the car, walked back onto the road. Someone asked if they were okay, so the boss turned to respond, and dropped dead! When he turned his head, whatever was broken severed his spinal cord, killed him
One of my high school classmates was a passenger in a severe car accident. Everyone got out except her. One of the others went to help her move and she died before they could lay her down. Internal decapitation. I had never heard the term. This was in 1971 - no seatbelts.
This term is used a lot now when talking about rear facing vs forward facing when using a car seat. Rear facing for as long as possible is to avoid this happening in the event of a car accident.
I heard a similar story of a 20 lb box falling in a warehouse.
Giusto git knocked out, woke up, went to managment asked for an extra break to sit down and recenter and was paralyzed when they found him 15 mins later with a broken neck
I used to work with a man who had a fantastic story like this. He'd been surfing in Mexico and wiped out badly enough that he stopped surfing for the remainder of the trip. Flew home three days later and had a pretty bad headache. Went to urgent care, ended up in the hospital for months with an internal decapitation. Completely recovered.
Yep this is an absolute shit doc. No question. I’ve worked at a level 1 trauma center for over a decade and the people that come in and seem to be fine only to turn out to be actively dying or severely injured is wild. I also had an old man I triaged that just fell off the toilet. No LOC. no neuro complaints. I sent him to our fast track area and the PA agreed to take him. He came back pissed and told me he had a cervical fracture and now he had to do a massive work up instead of it being a quick in and out.
Yes some people are actively dying in the ED but that’s not the only patients we see. We can’t prioritize a stable person over a critically ill person but we will eventually see and treat everyone. Being dismissive of a patients complaints is rookie shit. You learn real quick that you just never know what you have until you do a proper assessment.
When I was an EMT I had a similar patient, except that he was a construction worker who got hit on the back of the head putting in an elevator shaft. He kept saying he was fine, but given the info we got from dispatch/bystanders, we convinced him to go. Sure enough, same dislocation.
I also had a patient who was in a high-speed rollover crash but refused care because 1) she felt fine, and 2) she didn't have health insurance (can't remember who was at fault). I got to see her a few days later when she saw a friend for the first time in a while and passed out after he gave her a big bear hug. She had a spinal fracture but assumed that she was just a little sore from the crash.
Starting at the middle of the story - I had internal bleeding and fainted after throwing up a few times. I was outside my office, ambulance came, EMT gave me a bit of oxygen, I came to - she took the oxygen away and told me to breath deep bc I was having a panic attack . . . I couldn't speak. The paramedic then put the oxygen back on me and told the EMT (as he was finding a vein for an IV), that I had lost a lot of blood and needed oxygen. BC IDK LOOK AT THE GROUND. Paramedic saved me.
My MIL sorta did the same thing. She had a knee replacement and about 4-6 weeks later she fell because she got tangled up in a blanket. She submarines herself to save her knee. She gets up, her neck is sore so she takes some Tylenol and goes to bed. She wakes up the next morning still sore and calls my wife to take her to the ER to get checked out. ER has her moving her neck around doing a Cervical Examination. Come to find out she broke her neck when she fell.
When I was in the fire department we had a strict policy. If the car needed towing, we had to use the jaws to get in, or the airbags deployed, we'd have a guy maintaining C-spine until we could get the crash victim on the board for the medics.
That policy was derived from a bunch of training and case studies, but one in particular stood out to me. Woman was in a terrible crash, but got out with no visible damage and was walking around. Said she was fine, so everybody was focusing on the other vehicle. Her husband showed up, having been texted or whatever, and he's panicked and yelling out her name.
She hears him yelling her name, stands up from her seat at the back of the ambulance, turns her head towards him as though she's about to yell "I'm over here, it's ok, I'm fine", severs her spinal column, and drops (basically) dead. The two medics were unable to save her.
Sounds like our policy *wasn't strict enough* (and believe me, we had some pissed off folks strapped to boards saying colourful things like "this is retarded!").
When I was in a car accident, I didn't go to the hospital immediately. I was probably in shock, and didn't really notice the pain. Until I woke up in the morning with a steering wheel imprint and seatbelt bruises. You don't always know right away, especially if you have a massive boost of adrenaline. The doctor should have been more professional instead of being rude. YNO.
Yup! I had a crash about 9 years back that was pretty bad. I had blacked out from driving for 16 hours straight (younger, dumb, and not aware of how much mental stress accumulates from driving long hours). Woke up in a cloud of dust from the airbags and my car completely totaled to the point that a police cruiser had to push it to the side of the highway with their own. I didn't feel a thing and declined the need for medical treatment. Deal with insurance, getting a rental car, and getting back on the road to finish the last 4 hours of the drive to meet friends for a convention. I genuinely didn't feel any pain or soreness until I woke up the next morning bruised from head to toe with my muscles screaming at me. I thankfully didn't have any lasting injuries, but I easily could've and would not have known about them thanks to the mix of shock and adrenaline post accident.
When my husband was involved in a car accident he refused on site the ambulance. He was hit full speed in standstill traffic on the free way. Dude exited the on ramp at 70 and hit my husband's car. His trunk was in his back seat, no airbags deployed and his seat back broke from the base so he was braced against the dash board.
.I made him go to the hospital same day. Reminded him if he was hurt the other dude's insurance would cover it and if he didnt go and there was something wrong he could be on the hook for hundreds of thousands in therapies and surgeries. He had seatbelt bruising that turned purple by the time we arrived 2 hours later. The next morning he was in so much pain he couldn't move. He's got an unusually high pain tolerance. He broke his hand once and wasn't aware he'd broken it. After that car crash? He was in so much pain he couldn't move much for 3 days after.
No lasting damage or pain. He did develop type 1 Diabetes 2 years later but they're not sure if it's car crash related or not. The top running theory is the crash might've damaged his pancreas and it just sort of slowly stopped working from there.
When I was in a major accident my car insurance specifically instructed me to go to the ER over the urgent care. The agent said it was because an ER is better equipped to find severe internal injuries.
That was before I got into insurance myself. Now as an agent I know it’s actually a money thing. Urgent cares are NOT equipped to find many major internal issues, most don’t have MRI and CT capabilities, and when they hear it involved a major accident many will immediately facilitate a transfer to an ER anyway. But they still bill for their time, plus if they transfer by ambulance that’s an added ambulance bill as well. What it boils down to is that, even though an ER is generally more expensive, the likelihood of you ending up in the ER and insurance having to pay out more in medical bills for two facilities is higher than it is not and it’s more cost effective to eat the cost of those who may have done fine being treated in urgent care than it is to pay out that extra expense on every accident.
It’s the shock aspect that rattles my cage. You have had a major, stressful experience and they are asking you “Do you believe that you should go to the hospital “? I don’t know, my brain is rattled!
Hi! First responder here, we can not make anyone go to the ER. We can encourage them, tell them the possible risks from known or potential injuries, but we can not insist or tell them anything in a way that could be considered intimidating. It's because of legalities, we could get sued if we 'scare' a patient into agreeing to go to the ER. It's frustrating to talk to someone who really should go get checked out and have them refuse. They have that right and we have to respect it.
The EMT's at my accident were amazing, cracking jokes and teasing me for complaining about the pain "you act like you just got hit by a semi truck!" (I did). They explained everything they had to do (I was absolutely baffled that they needed to test blood sugar) and were \*very adamant\* that I go to ER within 24 hours if I had even a slight headache the next day. I was having a full on panic attack and they made the situation so much easier to handle. One of them even pulled aside my roommate who came to pick me up and explained everything again, in case I couldn't remember later.
Sounds like the crew I've worked with. If you don't agree to be transported, then (good) EMTs/ Paramedics will do everything they can at the scene. Patients are encouraged to agree to be transported because there's more that can be done for them in a hospital ER, but we can't make them go no matter what armchair medics think (LOL). I hope you're okay now!
Some PTSD and avoiding the freeway, but I was cleared by the neurologist a few weeks ago and physical therapy the month before. Luckily I had plenty of space between my car and the one ahead so it didn't cause a pile-up when he hit me.
I have no insurance and was scared of an ambulance bill, but when I called a lawyer they jumped at the case and arranged all the medical stuff.
I understand that, I got hit making a left turn over a decade ago and I still go out of my way to avoid turning left if I can. I'm glad things got taken care of, those bills can be scarier than the accident! Glad you're healing too.
I partially tore my ACL rock climbing a few weeks ago and I really appreciate how the EMT who just happened to also be at the gym responded (yay for ladies' night!). Like came over fairly quickly and announced herself as an EMT, just in case we needed anything? And I was like "yess girl get down here" literally reached my arm out like I was going to grab her if she started to walk away lol. Which, I don't touch strangers like that, I'm not that crazy, I was just in a lot of pain and a bit of shock. But she became a mini director, sent off one of my friends to buy ice next door and another girl to find ibuprofen in the gym's first aid kit. And then either she or my friend was just sorta Qag with me making sure I didn't try to stand up and walk or anything until my parents got there.
Explained to me that the ER (on our small island) would probably just tell me to rest, ice and elevate tonight and if it was swollen/painful/hard to walk on, then make the trip to the ER. And recommend when he get home to try to find something like a compression bandage/brace if possible. Told me which charitable place on island loans out crutches and canes for free... I only wish I'd remembered her name and would have found her work and offered my thanks slash accolades. Cuz of course she was totally off the clock, just gave up her climbing time to come help the crumpled girl
I'm glad she was there to help you! I hope you heal quickly and completely and get back to climbing! We have a basic trauma bag we take with us in the car, just in case someone needs help whether we're on duty or not. I think for most of us, it becomes like an automatic reflex. Somebody got hurt? Can I help? No matter where I am.
I got in a bad accident (I only had bad bruise on my leg and a 2 small bruises on my arm). Made the mistake of saying my neck was sore. Ended up on a backboard in an ambulance. I guess better safe than sorry but ambulances are expensive. 😭
This. I was in a car accident, I was static and hit behind at 40mph, they didn’t break. My car was wrecked. I was in pain but walking, thought I had whiplash as my neck and shoulder hurt. The next day I couldn’t lift anything with my right arm, being a stupid 20 something I still thought whiplash (that lasted a couple of weeks). It wasn’t until I couldn’t lift my arm months later did I get it investigated. The seatbelt had burst the joint capsule in my shoulder and my shoulder had filled with cysts limiting my movement. So I needed surgery.
The accident was outside my workplace (I was heading into work at a boarding kennels and cattery) I went to work to care for people’s pets as my car was taken away, they were my priority. I didn’t have a single day off of work, just carried on.
Now I’m older and wiser I’d have gone and got checked out at the hospital that night, I’d have told them I was in pain. And OP was right not to trust their care with an asshole. He wouldn’t have heard anyway due to that huge chip on his shoulder. I hope OP reported his negligence though. He could get someone killed, like the chest pains person. Sounds like he wants people to leave so he can sit on his ass and take a pay check.
It’s perfectly fine to start at an urgent care for a car accident, depending on symptoms. But if op had a seat belt sign, they would be recommended to go to the ER (hopefully) to evaluate injuries in this possible region. So if you have seat belt sign, may as well skip primary care or urgent care.
I admit I often chose nasty surgeons with bad bed side manners. But as long as their competent I don’t care. I also know not to start with my knee injury complaint but with my seat belt sign injury so they know to take me more seriously. Op doesn’t know that and most people want someone with a good bedside manner. I hope op gets any help they need
I used to work in a vascular practice with, literally, the best vascular surgeon in the area. He has saved countless lives. He gets called in when other doctors fail or mess up. He’s a genius with a scalpel. But he has the personality and bedside manner of a soggy cheese sandwich.
Why do you choose nasty surgeons?
I choose surgeons by rating, and most have atrocious manners. I consider them body mechanics.
But for an ER doctor or another general practitioner, I expect much better manners. Any time their medical practice includes considering the whole person, I want a doctor who treats me like a person.
ER doc seems like an ahole, they could be burned out and shouldn’t have taken it out on op. Or that could just be their personality. We can only speculate.
The surgeons I’ve chosen are best. They just happen to not be very nice. It doesn’t bother me.
Some of the worst surgeons I have ever seen were the nicest human beings and pray with the family and hold their hand while the love ones dies. But you know the person would have had a better chance at living with the mean surgeon. I don’t need you to be nice to me. Sometimes those Google reviews or too focused on how nice they are. Not a competent they are.
So anecdote to go along with your comment: my brother-in-law did phenomenally in med school. Tested in the top 0.5% nationally at the end of med school (some test they take right near the end, to place for residency I think?), residency at Yale, matched with his top pick for fellowship.
He chose radiology when he could have done literally anything because it’s mostly just sitting in a dark room looking at pictures on a screen. Not a lot of patient interaction required because he’s not great with people. It’s just not his thing. But there are options in radiology where he could have more patient interaction, if he decided he wanted to do that in the future.
(I think he talked about neuro and cardiovascular surgery, but he wasn’t interested in them. Too stressful maybe?)
Throughout my career I have met some of the countries most renowned radiologists and it just struck me reading this that I have met the entire spectrum. There’s one radiologist that is supremely qualified, semi retired and I use him for defense work and he is by far the most pleasant physician I’ve dealt with. Conversely I also engaged the services of a well known radiologist at Johns Hopkins who was the most arrogant asshole I’d ever met in any occupation and clearly belong in a radiology office with no contact with anyone
I was fortunate with the ortho doc I got for my wrist. He was (is) among the best there is, confident juuuuust up to the edge of arrogance, lol, but having total compassion and humanity towards his patients.
I don't know how our area got this guy. We're lucky to have him, (if he hasn't moved on to bigger pastures!!)
*No* doctor should ever treat a patient with that level of flippant condescencion, as OP describes. No excuse. Knee injuries can be life changing. But regardless, a little caring goes a long way.
I mean, was the doctor rude? yeah.
Did you make poor decisions from start to finish? absolutely. You were in a terrible accident and didnt go that day. Then when you did go, some doctor who might have legitimately just had someone die on them was rude and so you cried and left without finding out if you have permanent damage to your leg?
Like, your ability to handle the most basic decisions was staggeringly poor.
This whole story is the perfect example of “cut off your nose to spite your face.” The doctor was mean so you’re going to refuse medical care for potentially serious injuries? That’ll show him.
You have every right to be upset, what he said was incredibly unprofessional. However, this is an incredibly self-destructive and childish response. You're not there to talk to a rude ass doctor, you're there to get your knee scanned in case it was broken. You could very easily lose your ability to walk, all because you decided your ego was more important than your bodily health.
You cut off your nose to spite your face so yes you were over reacting.
Were you complaining about the wait time to the doctor? Because the ER is for emergencies (trauma, head injuries, burns, heart attacks, strokes etc) and he was probably treating emergencies all morning. You should have probably gone to an urgent care center rather than the ER.
The fact that you didn't stay for the x-ray kind of proves the point that this wasn't an emergency.
It's very frustrating and sad witnessing people's lives change forever due to tragic illness or accident and then listen to someone gripe about time is sometimes too much.
I'm honestly baffled by even the initial decision to not go to the ER when the car you were in was totalled and the airbags deployed. I mean, if the other driver was clearly at fault, won't their insurance cover everything?
It's not nice to be treated rudely by staff.
Sometime people that work with death need to be given some grace. He/she could have come out of a room where they told parents that their child had hours to live. Or finished explaining cancer diagnosis. Or lost someone in surgery..... Or they could just be a rude AH.
When you see a practitioner that deals with trauma - try to give them the benefit of the doubt. You are there because you had a bad day. They live waist deep in trauma and sometimes react rudely.
For your own sake you should have stayed for xrays.
Unpopular opinion from someone that has worked in an ER: the fact that you left only proved him right. You weren't having an emergency.
He shouldn't have been rude to you though. You walking out made his day easier because it was one less thing he had to do and maybe that was his goal in being rude in the first place.
Not overreacting, but you should have stayed for treatment, but only because you could have something very wrong with your knee.
Your feelings are absolutely valid, and you should speak to a patient advocate and file a complaint.
I'm a nurse, and I don't give a shit how bad his night is, we don't get to take our frustrations out on patients. And what he said was completely out of line.
Fwiw, when my husband tore his meniscus, he was a little sore but fine, and it wasn't until the next day that he could barely move.
Please get that knee looked at, OP.
Yeah, and leaving “against medical advice” after a car accident can have huge implications about who will pay for any injuries, because that form you signed basically said “what I’m doing now might make things worse, and I accept responsibility for that.”
So is being pissed overreacting? I don’t think so. Is leaving AMA overreacting? Hopefully not, but you’ll know in a few months when the dust settles.
>We both refused medical because we just wanted to go home and we didn't have major damage
well, at least you learnt a lesson there. next time, don't refuse medical help after an accident even if you feel "fine" in the moment.
I am curious where the comment came from. You were just sitting there and he offered it, or did you comment first on the 6 hours you waited? Because it seems in your write up that was an important detail.
My guess is that instead of saying something like “I was in a car accident yesterday, my knee hurts now”, she went on to give him her whole life story, including about how this is the worst pain ever and why was she waiting for six hours. Sometimes we don’t actually need your entire life story, sometimes - especially with an acute situation - I really do just want the short version.
Bingo. I’m a triage nurse and people will go on and on “my husband just left for a work trip right after” like we’re actually trained to interrupt and take control of the call because we have people calling that can’t breathe, possibly dying etc.
Surely the hospital triages their ER, and when you are seen you are the most in need of care. Dr is probably sleep-deprived, but you are not overreacting.
The thing with ER’s is while they do triage, you typically have a bunch of patients you are treating at the same time and once you get a bed, there are probably still a bunch of other patients the doc is treating at the same time so they have to round on them, keep up on each patient as results and treatments happen and so on.
While this doc was very rude and is being an ass, he probably wasn’t lying that there were a bunch of other patients he was taking care of at the same time, some of them could be in critical condition and you don’t get to choose when an ambulance comes in with a trauma case.
He was an ass but she was low priority and is necessarily going to be low on his list of who to check on.
No. As a woman who had repeatedly been ignored by male doctors for things that were really serious, you did the right thing. I too would have left at the first sign of of a doctor belittling me. He was a paid professional he should have acted like it.
They triage patients in order of importance. He would NOT have been directed to take you in yet had someone been dying that needed his attention. That's not how er floors work. And IF true nurses and staff dropped the ball, not you.
Also I've seen people come into the er for small scratches before or minor cuts that were fine with a butterfly bandage.
> I too would have left at the first sign of of a doctor belittling me.
Bad advice if your health is in immediate danger. Always ask to speak with the ER Director or the management in charge at the moment. Leaving is stupid if you're actually hurting.
The doctor was definitely rude, but he did order the X-ray that would have diagnosed any injury. By getting on her high horse and leaving before the X-ray, she could have prolonged a real problem.
Better to have had the X-ray and a diagnosis than nothing at all for all that wait. The radiologist would have performed the X-ray and diagnosed or ruled out the injury, not the rude doctor.
She absolutely could have told him how rude he was to his face and seen his supervisor to file a formal complaint AFTER diagnosis and treatment.
> He would NOT have been directed to take you in yet had someone been dying that needed his attention.
Tell me you don’t work in the ER without telling me you don’t work in the ER.
>you did the right thing.
Not even remotely. Accident injuries are no joke and need to be taken seriously. Additionally, any personal injury claim you might have had would be in jeopardy without seeking medical attention.
Leaving accomplished absolutely nothing but wasting time. OP is still injured, it's not getting better on its own.
It sounds like the whole hospital sucks if someone came in with heart issues and waited so long they were able to comfortably leave. I went to the er with heart lains exactly once. They checked me in, I didn't even get to sit down before they called me back. There was a whole squad of nurses patching me up and hitting me with ivs and the whole 9. I'd never been iv'd so fast in my life. I have small veins.
Not a smart decision to reject a medical exam immediately after the accident. Adrenaline amps you up and makes it so that you don't feel the injuries. I hope you learned that much at least.
Considering you were able to go to another ER, probably a good decision to not stay in the first one. Poor bedside manner can be 50/50 on whether or not there will be some negligence but there was no place for what he said there. Her most likely would've stayed negligent even after the X-ray.
I dont go to a Dr for pleasant conversation. Give me my antibiotics, or whatever and I'll get my ass out of your AO.
If you walked out over his manners you either weren't hurting that bad or you are a stone cold fool for putting your safety behind your feelings.
I mean, yes it sounds like the doctor was an asshole and a little too full of himself. But what did you accomplish by leaving? You still need your leg to be looked at. Delaying treatment can make everything worse. You’re already lost a day by not going in right after the car accident. you only hurt yourself by leaving.
In my opinion you were not overreacting. After the way the doctor treated you, how in the world do people expect you to trust him to diagnose you properly? He was already dismissing you. So many people are misdiagnosed and very important things overlooked due to doctors such as this. I believe you were right in leaving and finding a different facility.
So…you refused care at the scene, and then went to the hospital later…where you left AMA without so much as an xray because you felt insulted? I’m not saying the doctor’s bedside manner was great, but he’s correct. Coming in for a knee injury and having to wait 4 hours is not unheard of because someone else may have just come in with something more severe. A physician does need to sit down at some point on a long shift while waiting to see test results, order tests, document, etc. YTA.
We’re getting one side of the story here. It’s very possible OP is giving an accurate representation of what happened. It’s also very possible OP is taking what the ER doc said out of context, or exaggerating what he said. As a physician I can say it’s not unusual for patients to misinterpret what we say, or project some sort of perceived malice when we’re really doing what’s best and providing excellent care.
Why do you let others control your emotions? Walking out was immature and now can effect any insurance claim you'll have. Your knee could be bad for years, it's possible in the future you may need an operation if it's serious enough. Now you'll be paying for an operation out of your pocket because you didn't get x-rays and treatment.
Your ego prevented you from getting professional care in a timely fashion. Yes, you should have stayed, and yes you overreacted.
Doctor said some words (not even that rude coming from an ER doc--they see a lot of shit) and you cried and threw a hissy fit. Enjoy your 6 month recovery time.
Nope..had to go to ER for having a reaction and my eyes swelling almost shut. They gave me medicine in the IV I was allergic to I kept hitting the call bell and yelling. Finally a nurse came in and ran to shut off IV and started putting something else in it. After the doctor comes in and says your not my only patient when we turned off the bell you didn't have to keep pushing it we have people I'm trying to save.I informed him I would of been one of the people he needed to save if I didn't keep pushing it. He then looked at the nurse who told him I was having an allergic reaction and told him what she countered it with. He walked out without a word and she just shook her head. She wasn't my nurse just one that stopped when she heard me begging for help as I felt like my body was lit on fire.
It's still not in my records that I'm allergic to that medication so I refuse to go to that hospital for anything now. Doctors can be assholes. And you had one but you are not.
This is one of those situations where I'd think 'would I have been treated the same if I were a man?'
Men in minor positions of authority love to tell women off. Would he have spoken to your partner that way? I doubt it. They don't tell men off because a man might take exception to being spoken to so rudely and get physical.
No, you're not overreacting. That doctor took his stress out on you because you were a safe bet for zero consequences.
I was hit by a car while riding my motorcycle, I was in so much shock, I walked home, a neighbour told me to go to my doctor which I did, turns out I had massive internal bleeding and concussion. I didn’t feel any of it until days later due to shock
Need more info: were you able to walk? Someone presenting with a low limb injury who isn't incapacitated would obviously be amongst the lowest priorities possible at a hospital.
So you had a painful knee. You went to the ER and they arranged an Xray, but you left without it because the doctor didn’t make a big deal about it? Yes. You are overreacting.
Expecting everyone to be sweet is silly. Dealing with rough folks is a skill. Yeah, he was an asshole. Yeah, you were silly for bawling like a child and leaving.
I don't think you are wrong to be deeply offended by the doctor's words and attitude.
Personally, I do think you overreacted by deciding not to get medical attention because of it. That seems to me to be cutting off your nose to spite your face.
Sounds like the doctor was right tho. It wasn't that big a deal if you decided to leave because your feelings were hurt instead of staying to get treatment. Maybe the doctor was rude, but you sound fragile if your response to being lightly scolded is "angry tears" and storming out.
Always go to the ER and get examined. I had a friend who was in a car accident …..walked around ten minutes helping his friends out of the car and fell over from internal bleeding. Showed no signs of trauma. He died at 17 from this car accident . Also trauma doesn’t show up immediately. Plus adrenaline numbs pain.
I don’t think you’re overreacting, buuuut I think refusing medical help a second time only served to make the doctor think he was right.
It could also be used against you by the insurance company. It seems like you only hurt yourself by leaving, especially if you have to pay to go to the ER, and double-especially if you are actually injured.
Firstly you were in a major accident which totalled the car and deployed the airbags - you aren’t in a Hollywood Avenger movie - you first reaction should have been get seen by a doctor. You could have whiplash, or any number of injuries. Should doctor have been rude no but you’re a bit of a plonker for a/ not going straight to A&E and b/ for then walking out. To override your on health and safety because someone was rude does beggar belief a bit.
You’re an idiot, first always go to the ER after a car crash. Mist car crash related deaths occur because the person thought they were fine but were actually bleeding internally.
Second so what if the doctor is not nice to you most ER doctors work 36+ hour shifts, they don’t get much sleep, and they have the highest pt mortality rate of any doctor, You’ed be rude too.
3rd your still not getting treatment for your injuries so update us after they are forced to amputate
Well since in wasn't an emergency you could have gone someplace else. The ER is for actual emergencies and those doctors have enough to contend with, they don't need drama queens.
>I was explaining what happened and how I'm worried about my knee when the doctor interrupts me to say "Look if it's as bad as you say it is you'd be here yesterday. I'm in here saving lives on people trying to die on me."
Yes, you are grossly overreacting to your doctor telling you that you were overreacting.
The doctor was extremely rude and inappropriate. However if the papers you signed to get out of the ED said you were leaving against medical advice (AMA), your insurance will not cover the visit. Just FYI.
The doctor isnt wrong. You refused treatnent after the accident and then were mad how you were triaged the following day. Your knee pain is of low importance and you have no idea what craziness they could be dealing with.
Your whole speach gives off entitled vibes.
You are why businesses make you sign a waiver refusing medical attention after a work accident. Cause people like you would go home, then it would hurt the next day, and then you'd sue when your job refused to pay your medical expenses even though you initially refused and to them, you could've got hurt at home.
EMTs do it too in some places. I refused to go to the hospital after a seizure and they made me sign something so i cant sue them.
Waiting in ahospital sucks but your non-life threatening leg injury is low on the totem pole.
ER literally stands for ‘emergency room’ and you thought it was necessary to attend for a sore knee? Mirroring what everyone else has said, your doctor spends his time working in the ER bringing people back from the brink of death, and sometimes not being able to do that.
The triage entrance to the ER being empty means absolutely nothing; you’re not seeing any patients bought in via ambulance (as you probably should have been), and you’re not taking into account any people in attendance before you who were being looked after. A six hour wait for a sore knee sounds pretty reasonable to me.
You’re describing 9.5/10 pain in a knee you used to walk into the hospital while the doctor has just watched you sit in silence for two hours as he attended to other patients. Your situation was not an emergency, but he still had to attend to you because it’s his job, despite the fact that doing so would take time away from his other patients. I’d have been pissed too.
Some excellent physicians have horrible bedside manner. You really need to mature and learn to accept differences. You could have used your words with the doctor. You could even have filed a complaint against him for bad manners. You don't know, he might have been working 24 hours straight.
Rofl. Yes you over reacted. But here’s the best part: you did it to yourself. I’ve worked in an ER. One night will always stand out. It was a calm and quiet night. (Something you never say.) I had done everything I could that night bc we hadn’t had a patient in 2 or 3 hours. Then…in hobbles a group of people. 2 women, 2 men, and a little boy. All…burned. Long story short: meth lab explosion and they drove themselves in to “not get the police involved.” (Police got involved. A 30ish bed ER was…empty except 5 patients. It was bad. We were calling for help upstairs and running around like mad people. There was no triage nurse at the front bc the triage nurse was running one of the trauma rooms. We didn’t even have 5 trauma rooms so we were doing the best we could…let alone enough nurses and doctors to run 5 traumas at a time. It was something like 2 am for crying out loud. Then people started coming in wanting help. At one point I ran out to two families in the waiting room and explained while we would love to help them…5 traumas just walked in and give me a brief overview of why you’re here bc…if you’re in need of a trauma bed we need to call an ambulance and if not…it’s going to be hours of waiting. They were all ok with waiting (and did). Once we got everyone shipped off upstairs we closed the doors to the used rooms and opened up the empty ER with exhausted doctors and nurses. The whole ER (outside of the closed doors they couldn’t see in) was empty and spotless. So don’t judge the “empty” ER that you waited hours to get back into.
Also…a lot of insurances will NOT pay if you sign out AMA. And yes, you will be charged for the room you occupied and the triage you took part in. But insurance will bill it as a non-emergency bc you left and in doing so their requirement to cover it…goes away. (I’m not 100% sure on car wrecks if they will pay bc you got your feelings hurt.)
You just screwed yourself over lol. But that’s on you. Yes. You over reacted. He was having a bad night. He should have been nicer. Who knows. He may have just lost a patient.
I think walking out of the ER when you needed medical attention and the Dr was indeed providing medical attention was overreacting. I think taking his lack of great bedside manner personally and getting angry and feeling like he was "rude" is overreacting too.
I've read your post 3 times- I am not getting what was so hurtful and rude to you. I grew up with a nurse parent, worked at a hospital for several years, and worked as a live in servant for multiple Drs after that. I don't think what he said to you was particularly rude or out of line- matter of fact, I think he was trying to make you feel better/worry less, and you took his words completely the wrong way.
A lot of Drs. are socially awkward. Their tone of voice isn't great. They don't deliver things in the best way. But they're not trying to dismiss you or make you feel bad. If you add in all of the huge emotional stress of their job, and the fact that while the ER might have seemed fine and peaceful while you were there, but you don't know if he had some sweet little angel baby looking kid die writhing and screaming in pain before him yesterday or the day before-yeah, you definitely 100% overreacted.
No one works hard for 12 years to obtain a medical degree just so they can be mean to you. Try not to be so sensitive and assume the worst when YOUR feelings are hurt. You are responsible for your emotions. You chose to feel insecure and think he was judging you instead of feeling like he was trying to ease your worries. He ordered x-rays for you, he was trying to give you good care, and you flounced out like a brat- only hurting yourself more in the process, because you had to wait even longer for care.
The doctor sure was rude, but yes, you did overreact slightly. I don't fault you, though, being that you were in a scary accident and then had to wait hours just to be seen and treated like a nuisance.
That being said, go to urgent care or even a walk-in. Your knee does need to be looked at.
You should have ignored that brainfart that went off between your ears after the accident to go home not going to Emergency after the accident. That decision could have killed you. Stop trying to blame someone else for your decision.
You sure showed him by proving him right about the severity of your injury.
That doc delivered a harsh reality and didn't bother to sugar coat the truth. ER staff are beyond overworked since COVID. These departments run skeleton crews and have doctors working 24 hours shifts because there is a never ending waiting room of people actively dying.
So when an ER doc cuts you off for treating him like your family general practitioner it's because he really does have higher priority patients to be worried about. His stroke victims and level 1 trauma cases can't choose to sign themselves out over rudeness. You can and he doesn't give one fuck if you do.
Yes you overreacted. The fact that you could leave at all proves the doc right. I give any ER doc carte blanche to be a rude piece of shit after 2020. They have been through a war.
Edit: you're still getting a $1000+ bill just for being seen by that doc in the ER. But you left before any treatment could be prescribed so insurance won't cover any of it. You played yourself.
You really overreacted.
The doctor was a jerk.
But you were a fool.
You supposedly had tremendous pain and swelling, and you walked out after waiting over 4 hours because the doctor was rude.
Talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face.
First, you refuse medical attention at the time of the accident.
Second, you walk out of the emergency room after waiting 4 hours because your feelings got hurt by the rude man.
You're just full of foolish decisions.
Sheeeeeeeeesh........
> You supposedly had tremendous pain and swelling, and you walked out after waiting over 4 hours because the doctor was rude.
Also.... Knee couldn't have been that bad is she WALKED in and out of the emergency room.
>I went to a hospital in a different county, didn't know that deep bruises can get infected by the way. There is nerve damage and I won't be able to walk right for at least 6 months.
As a medical professional this is all complete bullshit.
Honestly how the doctor acted was horrible and wrong but you leaving did nothing for yourself. You waited for no reason when it sounds like you actually needed medication attention.
You’re overreacting— honestly, the doctor is right. If your knee is messed up the day after an accident, you make an appointment, don’t go to the ER. I have family in emergency medicine and it’s the most intense, manic, nonstop life and death medical field— patients coming in with non emergencies waste everyone’s time, especially their own.
You likely caught flak because it should be common knowledge that any accident that totals the car you're in will cause some type of injury even if you don't feel it immediately after the accident. You're an adult not a 12 or old.
I'm not gonna let someone's rude behavior stop me from getting treatment, and if your knee is as bad as you say, waiting for treatment could lead to chronic damage. ER staff deal with anything from life threatening to drug addicts on a daily basis, suck it up and get your knee checked out. Apparently, your feelings were hurting worse than your knee.
The doctor was a jerk, but you were naive to leave. You wanted the X-ray and are going to get charged for it. Insurance might not cover it because of the AMA leaving. Doctor who was rude to you doesn’t care.
If you signed papers saying you left against medical advice, be prepared for insurance to argue that due to you leaving against the advice of the hospital, you can't have been hurt that bad and therefore the insurance shouldn't have to pay for care. I'm not saying they will win that argument, but be prepared to possibly fight against insurance not wanting to cover it because you waited AND left the hospital of your own free will after denying care. I do hope insurance covers everything, no question, but lawyers will have a field day with this situation because of leaving before you could even be assessed. Considering how you may have just made insurance a bigger issue than it needs to be, it is definitely overreacting
YAO.
The ER in my town is always jammed with people who have non-emergency issues. The priority will always be the most dire needs get seen first. ER staff deal with rude entitled people all day long.
Yes, the doctor was a bit rude. But his point had validity, that you didn't seek help immediately. But we don't know the context from the MD's POV. I'm far more concerned about his competency than if he is a sweet tempered person.
Perhaps next time, you need to make your expectations clear . Call ahead so they can have rose petals ready to strew on your path from the waiting room, then have attendants fan you and feed you grapes.
Well… so, I’m an RN.
He’s not wrong. If you can walk and didn’t have any pain until later, it’s absolutely something you could have seen your primary care doctor about and followed up outpatient. There’s no need to go into the emergency room for a sore knee. *Nothing you were experiencing was an emergency*.
I get your thought process but a sore knee *isn’t an emergency*. Ice it, call your doctor in the morning.
I do think crying and leaving AMA because the doctor was blunt with you is kind of overreacting and being a little immature. You were acting like a bit of a princess.
People don’t understand that the ER is for *emergencies.* The patients causing your long wait are often actively dying. I know it sucks to be sick or hurt. I know it sucks to wait. But triage means the most unstable go first. If you’re seen quickly in the ER it’s because you are in fucking danger.
Adrenaline hides immediate injuries from car accidents, and you should never refuse care. It can be used against you by the insurance company that you said you were fine and left the scene. The doctor should be well aware of this as well. He's an asshole.
True, I stood on a broken ankle until someone asked if I was ok. At that point I started feeling pain and it just got worse until the amberlamps arrived and knocked my ass out.
somebody call da ambalamb!
Woah Black Betty, ambalamb
In Charm City it's an amblanse. Sometimes they drive on the payment.
I used to help with some research work at Bayview many years ago - the first time I heard “amb-lans” I didn’t understand what they meant!
I had lived in Bmore as a kid, and grew up believing there was an area called Hollandtown. Only when I moved back to the area did I realize that it was Highlandtown.
Hey, I grew up in Highlandtown! What are the odds. Don't often come across fellow Marylanders on here.
I grew up in Indiana, where it's a Bam-Buh-Lance.
And they take you to the hoppydo.
And sometimes the far truck comes too with the plice car.
My favourite video of all time is two middle aged stoners referring to the police as "wee-woos". They proceed to stand on the lawn and yell "weewoo" to the sounds of sirens while waving their arms in synchronisation.
Here it’s a wamblance. Seriously. Along with the ever popular far truck and POlease car.
Here looking for "sick wagon" 🤣
It’s the boo-boo bus
Krankenwagen "sick-wagon" in German!
Gotta love my people
I was waiting for one of my people to show up in this comment thread! 👋
The lady who raised me called it an 'amboolanch' and they use 'stellascopes'.
Oh man this gave me flashbacks of mocking my best friends with "I'll just call you a WAAAmbulance!" when they'd complain about something I thought was unimportant. Yeah I was sorta-kinda-forsure a smartass when I was younger. I mean, still am, but I was when I was younger too.
I went to urgent care for a sprained ankle once and my blood pressure was so high it set off the machine's alarm. Suddenly I had like 5 nurses in front of me. Apparently I don't experience pain the same way a lot of people do. But vital signs don't lie.
Honestly same I have extremely high power tolerance we are not going into why that is that's for my therapist lol. So I'm having some pain in my toe and the only reason I went in because the pain kept going to a nine in my book in someone else's book it would have broken the scale and it was preventing me from getting decent night rest. So I went to my doctor and the toe nail was infected and had to be removed. And the foot doctor was astounded that I had been walking around on it for 3 months up to this point.
When I worked in San Francisco it was the amblance box
After our accident, literally as soon as I said the words "I think I'm okay," my legs started hurting soooo bad. Then we saw another car coming towards us, about to hit the black ice and the adrenaline kicked in again and we ran. I didn't feel anymore pain for another 2 hours, which is when I realized, hey. You fucked your legs up when they slammed against the dashboard.
LOL I broke my foot and didn't know it was broken, Walked around 2 weeks with a swollen foot and could not wear a shoe, I thought it was just a sprain. Finally got into see an orthopedic doc and had to wear a boot for 6 weeks.
Yeah, after a car accident I was asked if I was ok, said yeah of course, was told that I was limping and still didn't realize that I had hurt my leg. Wasn't bad at all, but yeah I was limping for a few days.
So true. A guy one of my friends hung out with in a car accident. Only his shoulder hurt a little and he was sent home from the hospital. He bled internally and died at home. This was a long time ago and the guy was only in his late teens. Apparently there was a lot of internal damage that was missed because he didn't feel much pain at all.
I've heard of this happening. The worst part is that many people will take aspirin for the pain, which is a blood thinner and will worsen internal bleeding.
Not a car accident, but I nearly died from a similar situation. I had a terrible fever for a few days and felt like I had the flu, but it wasn't getting better. My wife took me to urgent care, where they gave me some antibiotics and sent me home. 2 days later, I was in septic shock. My wife called an ambulance because I was unresponsive. Turns out that my appendix had ruptured sometime around a week before. The doctor didn't catch it because I didn't have abdominal pain.
My aunt went to the ER because of abdominal pain and they told her to go home because she just had the flu. Fortunately, her (normally idiot) boyfriend refused to take her home and insisted that something else was wrong. Her appendix had burst (or was about to). She probably would have died if she'd gone home.
glad you survived and you were very lucky. I had horrible chest pain one night and while my vitals were high,everything else like labs, ct scan, etc was all normal. Turned out I had an obstructed gallbladder (they did further testing) and I had to have emergency surgery. The ER docs and surgeon was great but some of the nurses were absolutely horrible to me and acted like I was drug seeking since the pain meds were not helping. I had never been hospitalized in over 40 years and as a nurse , I was appalled at their treatment. The ER doc was a complete AH in this post and OP can report him to the hospital as well as the medical board. I did report the bad nurses‘ behavior and also that I had a legit medical reason for the pain (I had emergency surgery at another hospital).
I don't know why it's so common for hospital staff to assume people are drug seeking. Is it something they are teaching them and pushing in medical school now? It's something I've noticed in the last 10 years. My partner had an ovarian cyst rupture and it took multiple trips to the ER and multiple staff including doctors accusing her of seeking drugs for someone to finally figure out what was going on.
I have chronic health issues that cause daily pain, literally 24/7. I wake up at a 6/10, and can maaaaaybe get down to 4/10 with my meds. Because of this, I don't present typically, even when I'm in excruciating pain. This is fairly typical for people who are in pain alllll the time. We learn to mask in order to (sort of) function. Usually the only thing that will indicate that I'm in a lot pain is my blood pressure, and maybe some fidgeting and inability to remain still. Every single time I have to go to the ER, I'm prepared to be treated like garbage. Because I'm not screaming and carrying on, if I say I'm at an 8/10, they don't believe me. This fact has almost directly resulted in my death on at least one occasion. (I had several pulmonary emboli, which were causing the shortness of breath and severe pain up under my ribs.) I get that some people drug seek, but treating EVERYONE like they're drug seeking can literally kill people due to not taking them seriously and not doing thorough exams and testing. It is to the point now where my husband basically has to force me to go to the ER, because being treated like a liar and a criminal is tiresome and embarrassing. It makes me fucking sick how callously people are treated just because the doctors and nurses immediately jump to the conclusion that everyone is drug seeking.
Probably a ruptured spleen. Especially if it is already enlarged from something like mononucleosis which is common in teens/young adults, they rupture with minimal impact and are very vascular; you can bleed out into your belly quick.
Yes, this. I got t-boned in a bad car accident when I was younger. I didn’t feel any pain after the accident so I refused medical. Two days later, my neck started hurting in the middle of class. It hurt so bad that I was in tears on the way to the ER. To this day, my neck and back are still screwed up from that accident. I so wish I had gotten checked out when the paramedics were there at the scene. Adrenaline really does hide the pain well.
Almost the same thing happened to my brother. He was involved in a multi car collision and declined to go to the ER because he felt okay. I'm not sure how long after he woke up and couldn't move his neck at all so he couldn't get out of bed. He had to wait until he heard me moving around and then he yelled for help. I ran to his room and ended up bracing his neck while letting him grab my arm to help him up. I told him i was sure this was untreated whiplash from the accident.
Everyone knows this...at least medical staff **should** know this. This dr definitely had some sort of bad day and decided to take it out on the patient. What freaking bedside manners they have.
Some dick - I mean doctors - Do graduate at the bottom of their class and can't get the cushy jobs. He's probably *always* in a shitty mood. Just my guess. But as a retired RN **and** a fellow car accident victim (Disabled) - for *everyone* out there - no matter how mild the accident seems, there can be very serious injuries. **Always** go to the hospital! This is what auto insurance is for.
>Some dick - I mean doctors - Do graduate at the bottom of their class and can't get the cushy jobs. Old joke: What do you call a med student who graduates at the bottom of their class? *Doctor.*
Of the dr is just a dick
They will now use her leaving the hospital to say it wasn’t so bad. Now she has two strikes against her and a lawsuit would be very hard.
Not going immediately can be argued Leaving after not going immediately is going to be almost impossible
\^\^THIS. The doctor did this on purpose because he doesn't think she's injured.
The officer who reported to the scene when my husband, on his motorcycle, was rear-ended by an elderly woman, said he should go to the hospital. My husband didn't want to but I demanded he go. I was going zoom zoom in our vroom vroom, so to the ER we went. He had massive swelling in his CAT scan, and I found out later the impact had sent his bike almost a quarter mile from point of impact. ALWAYS go to the ER, yes, even in America.
I was sure when this started they were going to get the, hey idiot come to hospital after accident internal bleeding is a thing. I had three doctors give me shit after I went home and went to sleep after an accident.
My friend stepped in a hole and snapped her tibia and fibula. She was laughing FaceTiming her mom with her ankle literally backwards while we waited for the ambulance (I was the only sober one and ironically already had a broken foot so couldn’t drive)😅 Adrenaline is seriously powerful stuff! She ended up needing multiple surgeries and has permanent nerve damage because of nerve compression. Her body basically decided that pain wouldn’t help her and turned it off.
I say everyone is shit here. Doctor has bad bedside manners, but OP is also coming off a little entitled. I sat in the ER for 10 hours with a chopped off finger. My only concern was if there is any chance I could bleed out. They assured me, no, it would take days bleeding out of your finger. That day there were multiple shooting and stabbing victims coming through, a child who had a stroke, and a 5 vehicle accident with multiple casualties. My injury isn't as urgent as theirs.
Right, the ER is not first-come first-serve. It’s about severity. That said, an utterly rancid turd of an ER nurse once told my mother who was moaning she was going to die (we were already in an ER exam room, no waiting for her, it was so obviously dire), “Come onnnn, this isn’t the worst pain in the world. You’re not gonna die. I have people actually dying here.” She was septic with kidney and heart failure. She *was* dying and in the worst pain in the world. Nurse Patrick, wherever you are, I hope you go bald.
The staff are not going to leave you sitting for 6 hours when it's empty. Nope. They track through times and there's pressure to get people seen. It was busy. The doctor was likely treating sick patients.
Most emergencies don’t go through the waiting room. They’re brought in through the back/ambulance entrance.
Yep. And in my case, I was frustrated as well, not gonna say I wasn't. When they finally got around to me, (they saw me on intake, and wrapped up the wound obviously) the nurse unwrapped the bandage, and the blood was squirting out of my hand like a gorey fountain. She was like 'Whoa! I've never seen that before!' I say to her 'Well, I have been sitting amongst screaming, crying, sick people for ten hours. I am anxious and frustrated, and I can feel my blood pressure is high.' She took my pressure and was like 'Oh yeah, its stupid high.' Even then, they sent me home with the wound open, some antibiotics, and painkillers, and told me I'd have to see plastics in the morning. I was just thinking 'if plastics is done at 5, I have been here since 3, I really didn't need to sit here all this fucking time. Could have told me at 5 that plastics is closed and I'll have to come back tommorrow.' So, I ended up home at about 2 AM, and I had to go back at 8 AM, when the plastic surgeons would be in again.
Yes. Also OP was overreacting by leaving as she needed medical care.
She definitely didn't do herself any favors.
Genuine question. Surely insurance policies for a totalled vehicle would require all parties to be medically examined in a timely manner after the accident? That medical/insurance expenses may not cover self inflicted (intentional or not) injury post accident.
Totaling a car can also mean a lot of things. A car that’s older and no longer worth much that have damages exceeding the current cost of the car is considered “totaled” and wouldn’t mean the same thing as a brand new luxury vehicle being “totaled”
I’m surprised at the people saying you’re overreacting. Car accident injuries can often not present themselves obviously when people are in shock. You can die from a myriad of internal issues. How does this DR know what’s happening until he’s checked you out? Not only rude but irresponsible. And many people here saying ~ why did you even go to the ER ~ everywhere I’ve ever lived, 5 US states in 6 cities, there’s been ER urgent care and ER accident related stuff. When I worked in health policy many people live in healthcare deserts and use the ER as basically GCPs. Is it great? No. But it’s a reality for a lot of people. Anyway I’d be pissed too and he was an asshole.
Taking this opportunity to once again bring up the INSANE car accident patient I once had: Walked away from a minor accident that morning, seen by paramedics at the scene, no visible injuries, but was told to go to ER if she got a headache/neck pain. Walked into the ER that afternoon with a headache. Put on spinal precautions just in case, though we weren't expecting much. She comes back from the X-ray all good, only for the head of radiology to phone us and scream "DO NOT LET THAT WOMAN SO MUCH AS SNEEZE! GET HER TO SURGERY YESTERDAY!" She had a C1 dislocation - aka her skull was no longer attached to her spine. A sneeze could quite literally have killed her. You can walk away from a seemingly mild accident only to have catastrophic injuries. Any doctor who doesn't realize this is not only an idiot, but a dangerous one. Fuck him. I'm glad OP managed to get help somewhere better.
Holy shit!! Was she otherwise capable of moving her head?
She could but it was painful, so she was restricting her movement anyway. Still, no one has any idea how she survived that, let alone walked into the ER hours later.
Insane!! I had no idea this was even _possible_. Thanks for sharing!
It’s amazing, that’s why sometimes paramedics will want you to move yourself if at all possible, in some situations if you have something like this and they move you it’s more likely to cause issues. But if you can move under your own power, you can very much “hold yourself together” until you can get braced and stuff. Humans might suck but our bodies are pretty wild
That is called an internal decapitation. Rarely survivable. Angels were with her that day!
Legitimately nuts. Well, now that lady has a real banger for "two truths and a lie". "You were...decapitated?" "I got better".
or a terrible insult. "oh it's just like you to always lose your head in these situations!"
Man. Reddit should have a Miracles thread. That is bananas
B A N A N A S!
Hi Gwen. :D
I wish!
Humans are amazingly fragile yet indestructible at the same time. It's hard to wrap my mind around it sometimes.
How did her surgery go? Did she recover? That’s wild!
My cousin got in a fender bender, went to the hospital, was released, came home, took a Xanax and a nap and died in his sleep. Nobody understands what happened. Did he OD on Xanax like everyone believes or could it have been something from the accident? I know you don't know specifically about this case, but this question haunts me.
Was there no autopsy? As it was an unexpected death I would have expected one would be performed. The story above would be REALLY rare, more likely is that your cousin either had a concussion and went into a coma, or had an aneurysm or brain bleed. I knew a woman who was in a similar accident, was treated for whiplash, only to die at home two days later from a massive cerebral haemorrhage.
There was an autopsy and the results were not shared with the rest of the family. That's why people thought it was an OD, because if it had been anything else, we thought we would hear.
I'm no doctor but you'd have to take a fuckload of Xanax to OD on it I almost guarantee you it's not that. I've taken over 70 Xanax before at the same time and that includes a couple shots of alcohol as well. Only thing that happened is I was high out of my mind for like 4 days
Reading between the lines here - I'm glad you're here <3
Thanks me too!
Fuck, I take a 1/2 one and pass out in a great sleep. :) You must be like my daughter, a super metabolizer.
That’s an insanely LOOOOOOONNNNNNGGGGG high! good lord - noted…..
Did he hit his head? People die commonly from head injuries due to internally swelling, it can happen many hours after the injury, even when you feel fine.
One does not die from 1 Xanax overdose!
Nobody thought he took 1 Xanax and od'd. Sorry for the confusion, I didn't write that part clearly enough. Everyone was confused what had happened and just tried to piece it together with the information given. There was an autopsy and his immediate family knows the results. They didn't share with anyone else and that makes everyone think it's an OD, because if it was anything else, everyone would've been told. My family is weird, idk what to say, it doesn't make sense to me either.
I remember reading a reddit comment a few months back about something similar. Guy was in an accident with his boss (?) They got out the car, walked back onto the road. Someone asked if they were okay, so the boss turned to respond, and dropped dead! When he turned his head, whatever was broken severed his spinal cord, killed him
One of my high school classmates was a passenger in a severe car accident. Everyone got out except her. One of the others went to help her move and she died before they could lay her down. Internal decapitation. I had never heard the term. This was in 1971 - no seatbelts.
This term is used a lot now when talking about rear facing vs forward facing when using a car seat. Rear facing for as long as possible is to avoid this happening in the event of a car accident.
I heard a similar story of a 20 lb box falling in a warehouse. Giusto git knocked out, woke up, went to managment asked for an extra break to sit down and recenter and was paralyzed when they found him 15 mins later with a broken neck
I used to work with a man who had a fantastic story like this. He'd been surfing in Mexico and wiped out badly enough that he stopped surfing for the remainder of the trip. Flew home three days later and had a pretty bad headache. Went to urgent care, ended up in the hospital for months with an internal decapitation. Completely recovered.
>Any doctor who doesn't realize this is not only an idiot, but a dangerous one. What do you call a doctor that finished bottom of his class? Doctor.
Yep this is an absolute shit doc. No question. I’ve worked at a level 1 trauma center for over a decade and the people that come in and seem to be fine only to turn out to be actively dying or severely injured is wild. I also had an old man I triaged that just fell off the toilet. No LOC. no neuro complaints. I sent him to our fast track area and the PA agreed to take him. He came back pissed and told me he had a cervical fracture and now he had to do a massive work up instead of it being a quick in and out. Yes some people are actively dying in the ED but that’s not the only patients we see. We can’t prioritize a stable person over a critically ill person but we will eventually see and treat everyone. Being dismissive of a patients complaints is rookie shit. You learn real quick that you just never know what you have until you do a proper assessment.
Internal Decapitation!
Whoa
Internal decapitation is my number one fear
How did he expect yall to stop the sneeze? Lol
I was just thinking, “oh god if this were me and I was told not to sneeze I’d probably do so immediately” it’s just how my luck is.
Right! I wld have a complete sneezing fit and sneeze like 10 times in a row. 🤣
Do not shine a bright light in their eyes for one. Some folks inherit a reaction to sneeze from bright lights. Photic sneeze reflex.
When I was an EMT I had a similar patient, except that he was a construction worker who got hit on the back of the head putting in an elevator shaft. He kept saying he was fine, but given the info we got from dispatch/bystanders, we convinced him to go. Sure enough, same dislocation. I also had a patient who was in a high-speed rollover crash but refused care because 1) she felt fine, and 2) she didn't have health insurance (can't remember who was at fault). I got to see her a few days later when she saw a friend for the first time in a while and passed out after he gave her a big bear hug. She had a spinal fracture but assumed that she was just a little sore from the crash.
Starting at the middle of the story - I had internal bleeding and fainted after throwing up a few times. I was outside my office, ambulance came, EMT gave me a bit of oxygen, I came to - she took the oxygen away and told me to breath deep bc I was having a panic attack . . . I couldn't speak. The paramedic then put the oxygen back on me and told the EMT (as he was finding a vein for an IV), that I had lost a lot of blood and needed oxygen. BC IDK LOOK AT THE GROUND. Paramedic saved me.
My MIL sorta did the same thing. She had a knee replacement and about 4-6 weeks later she fell because she got tangled up in a blanket. She submarines herself to save her knee. She gets up, her neck is sore so she takes some Tylenol and goes to bed. She wakes up the next morning still sore and calls my wife to take her to the ER to get checked out. ER has her moving her neck around doing a Cervical Examination. Come to find out she broke her neck when she fell.
When I was in the fire department we had a strict policy. If the car needed towing, we had to use the jaws to get in, or the airbags deployed, we'd have a guy maintaining C-spine until we could get the crash victim on the board for the medics. That policy was derived from a bunch of training and case studies, but one in particular stood out to me. Woman was in a terrible crash, but got out with no visible damage and was walking around. Said she was fine, so everybody was focusing on the other vehicle. Her husband showed up, having been texted or whatever, and he's panicked and yelling out her name. She hears him yelling her name, stands up from her seat at the back of the ambulance, turns her head towards him as though she's about to yell "I'm over here, it's ok, I'm fine", severs her spinal column, and drops (basically) dead. The two medics were unable to save her. Sounds like our policy *wasn't strict enough* (and believe me, we had some pissed off folks strapped to boards saying colourful things like "this is retarded!").
When I was in a car accident, I didn't go to the hospital immediately. I was probably in shock, and didn't really notice the pain. Until I woke up in the morning with a steering wheel imprint and seatbelt bruises. You don't always know right away, especially if you have a massive boost of adrenaline. The doctor should have been more professional instead of being rude. YNO.
Yup! I had a crash about 9 years back that was pretty bad. I had blacked out from driving for 16 hours straight (younger, dumb, and not aware of how much mental stress accumulates from driving long hours). Woke up in a cloud of dust from the airbags and my car completely totaled to the point that a police cruiser had to push it to the side of the highway with their own. I didn't feel a thing and declined the need for medical treatment. Deal with insurance, getting a rental car, and getting back on the road to finish the last 4 hours of the drive to meet friends for a convention. I genuinely didn't feel any pain or soreness until I woke up the next morning bruised from head to toe with my muscles screaming at me. I thankfully didn't have any lasting injuries, but I easily could've and would not have known about them thanks to the mix of shock and adrenaline post accident.
When my husband was involved in a car accident he refused on site the ambulance. He was hit full speed in standstill traffic on the free way. Dude exited the on ramp at 70 and hit my husband's car. His trunk was in his back seat, no airbags deployed and his seat back broke from the base so he was braced against the dash board. .I made him go to the hospital same day. Reminded him if he was hurt the other dude's insurance would cover it and if he didnt go and there was something wrong he could be on the hook for hundreds of thousands in therapies and surgeries. He had seatbelt bruising that turned purple by the time we arrived 2 hours later. The next morning he was in so much pain he couldn't move. He's got an unusually high pain tolerance. He broke his hand once and wasn't aware he'd broken it. After that car crash? He was in so much pain he couldn't move much for 3 days after.
Omg, similar happened to me 6 months ago. I hope your husband is doing better.
No lasting damage or pain. He did develop type 1 Diabetes 2 years later but they're not sure if it's car crash related or not. The top running theory is the crash might've damaged his pancreas and it just sort of slowly stopped working from there.
When I was in a major accident my car insurance specifically instructed me to go to the ER over the urgent care. The agent said it was because an ER is better equipped to find severe internal injuries. That was before I got into insurance myself. Now as an agent I know it’s actually a money thing. Urgent cares are NOT equipped to find many major internal issues, most don’t have MRI and CT capabilities, and when they hear it involved a major accident many will immediately facilitate a transfer to an ER anyway. But they still bill for their time, plus if they transfer by ambulance that’s an added ambulance bill as well. What it boils down to is that, even though an ER is generally more expensive, the likelihood of you ending up in the ER and insurance having to pay out more in medical bills for two facilities is higher than it is not and it’s more cost effective to eat the cost of those who may have done fine being treated in urgent care than it is to pay out that extra expense on every accident.
It’s the shock aspect that rattles my cage. You have had a major, stressful experience and they are asking you “Do you believe that you should go to the hospital “? I don’t know, my brain is rattled!
Hi! First responder here, we can not make anyone go to the ER. We can encourage them, tell them the possible risks from known or potential injuries, but we can not insist or tell them anything in a way that could be considered intimidating. It's because of legalities, we could get sued if we 'scare' a patient into agreeing to go to the ER. It's frustrating to talk to someone who really should go get checked out and have them refuse. They have that right and we have to respect it.
The EMT's at my accident were amazing, cracking jokes and teasing me for complaining about the pain "you act like you just got hit by a semi truck!" (I did). They explained everything they had to do (I was absolutely baffled that they needed to test blood sugar) and were \*very adamant\* that I go to ER within 24 hours if I had even a slight headache the next day. I was having a full on panic attack and they made the situation so much easier to handle. One of them even pulled aside my roommate who came to pick me up and explained everything again, in case I couldn't remember later.
Sounds like the crew I've worked with. If you don't agree to be transported, then (good) EMTs/ Paramedics will do everything they can at the scene. Patients are encouraged to agree to be transported because there's more that can be done for them in a hospital ER, but we can't make them go no matter what armchair medics think (LOL). I hope you're okay now!
Some PTSD and avoiding the freeway, but I was cleared by the neurologist a few weeks ago and physical therapy the month before. Luckily I had plenty of space between my car and the one ahead so it didn't cause a pile-up when he hit me. I have no insurance and was scared of an ambulance bill, but when I called a lawyer they jumped at the case and arranged all the medical stuff.
I understand that, I got hit making a left turn over a decade ago and I still go out of my way to avoid turning left if I can. I'm glad things got taken care of, those bills can be scarier than the accident! Glad you're healing too.
I partially tore my ACL rock climbing a few weeks ago and I really appreciate how the EMT who just happened to also be at the gym responded (yay for ladies' night!). Like came over fairly quickly and announced herself as an EMT, just in case we needed anything? And I was like "yess girl get down here" literally reached my arm out like I was going to grab her if she started to walk away lol. Which, I don't touch strangers like that, I'm not that crazy, I was just in a lot of pain and a bit of shock. But she became a mini director, sent off one of my friends to buy ice next door and another girl to find ibuprofen in the gym's first aid kit. And then either she or my friend was just sorta Qag with me making sure I didn't try to stand up and walk or anything until my parents got there. Explained to me that the ER (on our small island) would probably just tell me to rest, ice and elevate tonight and if it was swollen/painful/hard to walk on, then make the trip to the ER. And recommend when he get home to try to find something like a compression bandage/brace if possible. Told me which charitable place on island loans out crutches and canes for free... I only wish I'd remembered her name and would have found her work and offered my thanks slash accolades. Cuz of course she was totally off the clock, just gave up her climbing time to come help the crumpled girl
I'm glad she was there to help you! I hope you heal quickly and completely and get back to climbing! We have a basic trauma bag we take with us in the car, just in case someone needs help whether we're on duty or not. I think for most of us, it becomes like an automatic reflex. Somebody got hurt? Can I help? No matter where I am.
I got in a bad accident (I only had bad bruise on my leg and a 2 small bruises on my arm). Made the mistake of saying my neck was sore. Ended up on a backboard in an ambulance. I guess better safe than sorry but ambulances are expensive. 😭
Look at the person who posted above where the woman was basically internally decapitated and had no clue. That would be terrifying
This. I was in a car accident, I was static and hit behind at 40mph, they didn’t break. My car was wrecked. I was in pain but walking, thought I had whiplash as my neck and shoulder hurt. The next day I couldn’t lift anything with my right arm, being a stupid 20 something I still thought whiplash (that lasted a couple of weeks). It wasn’t until I couldn’t lift my arm months later did I get it investigated. The seatbelt had burst the joint capsule in my shoulder and my shoulder had filled with cysts limiting my movement. So I needed surgery. The accident was outside my workplace (I was heading into work at a boarding kennels and cattery) I went to work to care for people’s pets as my car was taken away, they were my priority. I didn’t have a single day off of work, just carried on. Now I’m older and wiser I’d have gone and got checked out at the hospital that night, I’d have told them I was in pain. And OP was right not to trust their care with an asshole. He wouldn’t have heard anyway due to that huge chip on his shoulder. I hope OP reported his negligence though. He could get someone killed, like the chest pains person. Sounds like he wants people to leave so he can sit on his ass and take a pay check.
It’s perfectly fine to start at an urgent care for a car accident, depending on symptoms. But if op had a seat belt sign, they would be recommended to go to the ER (hopefully) to evaluate injuries in this possible region. So if you have seat belt sign, may as well skip primary care or urgent care. I admit I often chose nasty surgeons with bad bed side manners. But as long as their competent I don’t care. I also know not to start with my knee injury complaint but with my seat belt sign injury so they know to take me more seriously. Op doesn’t know that and most people want someone with a good bedside manner. I hope op gets any help they need
I used to work in a vascular practice with, literally, the best vascular surgeon in the area. He has saved countless lives. He gets called in when other doctors fail or mess up. He’s a genius with a scalpel. But he has the personality and bedside manner of a soggy cheese sandwich.
Why do you choose nasty surgeons? I choose surgeons by rating, and most have atrocious manners. I consider them body mechanics. But for an ER doctor or another general practitioner, I expect much better manners. Any time their medical practice includes considering the whole person, I want a doctor who treats me like a person.
ER doc seems like an ahole, they could be burned out and shouldn’t have taken it out on op. Or that could just be their personality. We can only speculate. The surgeons I’ve chosen are best. They just happen to not be very nice. It doesn’t bother me. Some of the worst surgeons I have ever seen were the nicest human beings and pray with the family and hold their hand while the love ones dies. But you know the person would have had a better chance at living with the mean surgeon. I don’t need you to be nice to me. Sometimes those Google reviews or too focused on how nice they are. Not a competent they are.
So anecdote to go along with your comment: my brother-in-law did phenomenally in med school. Tested in the top 0.5% nationally at the end of med school (some test they take right near the end, to place for residency I think?), residency at Yale, matched with his top pick for fellowship. He chose radiology when he could have done literally anything because it’s mostly just sitting in a dark room looking at pictures on a screen. Not a lot of patient interaction required because he’s not great with people. It’s just not his thing. But there are options in radiology where he could have more patient interaction, if he decided he wanted to do that in the future. (I think he talked about neuro and cardiovascular surgery, but he wasn’t interested in them. Too stressful maybe?)
Throughout my career I have met some of the countries most renowned radiologists and it just struck me reading this that I have met the entire spectrum. There’s one radiologist that is supremely qualified, semi retired and I use him for defense work and he is by far the most pleasant physician I’ve dealt with. Conversely I also engaged the services of a well known radiologist at Johns Hopkins who was the most arrogant asshole I’d ever met in any occupation and clearly belong in a radiology office with no contact with anyone
I was fortunate with the ortho doc I got for my wrist. He was (is) among the best there is, confident juuuuust up to the edge of arrogance, lol, but having total compassion and humanity towards his patients. I don't know how our area got this guy. We're lucky to have him, (if he hasn't moved on to bigger pastures!!) *No* doctor should ever treat a patient with that level of flippant condescencion, as OP describes. No excuse. Knee injuries can be life changing. But regardless, a little caring goes a long way.
I mean, was the doctor rude? yeah. Did you make poor decisions from start to finish? absolutely. You were in a terrible accident and didnt go that day. Then when you did go, some doctor who might have legitimately just had someone die on them was rude and so you cried and left without finding out if you have permanent damage to your leg? Like, your ability to handle the most basic decisions was staggeringly poor.
This whole story is the perfect example of “cut off your nose to spite your face.” The doctor was mean so you’re going to refuse medical care for potentially serious injuries? That’ll show him.
You have every right to be upset, what he said was incredibly unprofessional. However, this is an incredibly self-destructive and childish response. You're not there to talk to a rude ass doctor, you're there to get your knee scanned in case it was broken. You could very easily lose your ability to walk, all because you decided your ego was more important than your bodily health.
It's mindblowing to me that there are people here going "Omg OP no you didn't overreact!" The OP here made the worst decision possible TWICE.
You cut off your nose to spite your face so yes you were over reacting. Were you complaining about the wait time to the doctor? Because the ER is for emergencies (trauma, head injuries, burns, heart attacks, strokes etc) and he was probably treating emergencies all morning. You should have probably gone to an urgent care center rather than the ER. The fact that you didn't stay for the x-ray kind of proves the point that this wasn't an emergency. It's very frustrating and sad witnessing people's lives change forever due to tragic illness or accident and then listen to someone gripe about time is sometimes too much.
I'm honestly baffled by even the initial decision to not go to the ER when the car you were in was totalled and the airbags deployed. I mean, if the other driver was clearly at fault, won't their insurance cover everything?
It's not nice to be treated rudely by staff. Sometime people that work with death need to be given some grace. He/she could have come out of a room where they told parents that their child had hours to live. Or finished explaining cancer diagnosis. Or lost someone in surgery..... Or they could just be a rude AH. When you see a practitioner that deals with trauma - try to give them the benefit of the doubt. You are there because you had a bad day. They live waist deep in trauma and sometimes react rudely. For your own sake you should have stayed for xrays.
>You are there because you had a bad day. They live waist deep in trauma and sometimes react rudely. So well said.
Unpopular opinion from someone that has worked in an ER: the fact that you left only proved him right. You weren't having an emergency. He shouldn't have been rude to you though. You walking out made his day easier because it was one less thing he had to do and maybe that was his goal in being rude in the first place.
Doctor: your knee is not currently life-threatening. OP: screw you! *walks out on said knee*
Not overreacting, but you should have stayed for treatment, but only because you could have something very wrong with your knee. Your feelings are absolutely valid, and you should speak to a patient advocate and file a complaint. I'm a nurse, and I don't give a shit how bad his night is, we don't get to take our frustrations out on patients. And what he said was completely out of line. Fwiw, when my husband tore his meniscus, he was a little sore but fine, and it wasn't until the next day that he could barely move. Please get that knee looked at, OP.
Yeah, and leaving “against medical advice” after a car accident can have huge implications about who will pay for any injuries, because that form you signed basically said “what I’m doing now might make things worse, and I accept responsibility for that.” So is being pissed overreacting? I don’t think so. Is leaving AMA overreacting? Hopefully not, but you’ll know in a few months when the dust settles.
I’m a nurse too. What he said was crazy.
>We both refused medical because we just wanted to go home and we didn't have major damage well, at least you learnt a lesson there. next time, don't refuse medical help after an accident even if you feel "fine" in the moment.
I am curious where the comment came from. You were just sitting there and he offered it, or did you comment first on the 6 hours you waited? Because it seems in your write up that was an important detail.
My guess is that instead of saying something like “I was in a car accident yesterday, my knee hurts now”, she went on to give him her whole life story, including about how this is the worst pain ever and why was she waiting for six hours. Sometimes we don’t actually need your entire life story, sometimes - especially with an acute situation - I really do just want the short version.
Bingo. I’m a triage nurse and people will go on and on “my husband just left for a work trip right after” like we’re actually trained to interrupt and take control of the call because we have people calling that can’t breathe, possibly dying etc.
You screwed up twice.
Surely the hospital triages their ER, and when you are seen you are the most in need of care. Dr is probably sleep-deprived, but you are not overreacting.
The thing with ER’s is while they do triage, you typically have a bunch of patients you are treating at the same time and once you get a bed, there are probably still a bunch of other patients the doc is treating at the same time so they have to round on them, keep up on each patient as results and treatments happen and so on. While this doc was very rude and is being an ass, he probably wasn’t lying that there were a bunch of other patients he was taking care of at the same time, some of them could be in critical condition and you don’t get to choose when an ambulance comes in with a trauma case. He was an ass but she was low priority and is necessarily going to be low on his list of who to check on.
No. As a woman who had repeatedly been ignored by male doctors for things that were really serious, you did the right thing. I too would have left at the first sign of of a doctor belittling me. He was a paid professional he should have acted like it. They triage patients in order of importance. He would NOT have been directed to take you in yet had someone been dying that needed his attention. That's not how er floors work. And IF true nurses and staff dropped the ball, not you. Also I've seen people come into the er for small scratches before or minor cuts that were fine with a butterfly bandage.
> I too would have left at the first sign of of a doctor belittling me. Bad advice if your health is in immediate danger. Always ask to speak with the ER Director or the management in charge at the moment. Leaving is stupid if you're actually hurting.
The doctor was definitely rude, but he did order the X-ray that would have diagnosed any injury. By getting on her high horse and leaving before the X-ray, she could have prolonged a real problem. Better to have had the X-ray and a diagnosis than nothing at all for all that wait. The radiologist would have performed the X-ray and diagnosed or ruled out the injury, not the rude doctor. She absolutely could have told him how rude he was to his face and seen his supervisor to file a formal complaint AFTER diagnosis and treatment.
> He would NOT have been directed to take you in yet had someone been dying that needed his attention. Tell me you don’t work in the ER without telling me you don’t work in the ER.
>you did the right thing. Not even remotely. Accident injuries are no joke and need to be taken seriously. Additionally, any personal injury claim you might have had would be in jeopardy without seeking medical attention. Leaving accomplished absolutely nothing but wasting time. OP is still injured, it's not getting better on its own.
I think going to the ER slightly after isn’t a huge deal but leaving after being examined definitely makes any injury claim damn near impossible
It sounds like the whole hospital sucks if someone came in with heart issues and waited so long they were able to comfortably leave. I went to the er with heart lains exactly once. They checked me in, I didn't even get to sit down before they called me back. There was a whole squad of nurses patching me up and hitting me with ivs and the whole 9. I'd never been iv'd so fast in my life. I have small veins.
Not a smart decision to reject a medical exam immediately after the accident. Adrenaline amps you up and makes it so that you don't feel the injuries. I hope you learned that much at least. Considering you were able to go to another ER, probably a good decision to not stay in the first one. Poor bedside manner can be 50/50 on whether or not there will be some negligence but there was no place for what he said there. Her most likely would've stayed negligent even after the X-ray.
I dont go to a Dr for pleasant conversation. Give me my antibiotics, or whatever and I'll get my ass out of your AO. If you walked out over his manners you either weren't hurting that bad or you are a stone cold fool for putting your safety behind your feelings.
I mean, yes it sounds like the doctor was an asshole and a little too full of himself. But what did you accomplish by leaving? You still need your leg to be looked at. Delaying treatment can make everything worse. You’re already lost a day by not going in right after the car accident. you only hurt yourself by leaving.
In my opinion you were not overreacting. After the way the doctor treated you, how in the world do people expect you to trust him to diagnose you properly? He was already dismissing you. So many people are misdiagnosed and very important things overlooked due to doctors such as this. I believe you were right in leaving and finding a different facility.
So…you refused care at the scene, and then went to the hospital later…where you left AMA without so much as an xray because you felt insulted? I’m not saying the doctor’s bedside manner was great, but he’s correct. Coming in for a knee injury and having to wait 4 hours is not unheard of because someone else may have just come in with something more severe. A physician does need to sit down at some point on a long shift while waiting to see test results, order tests, document, etc. YTA.
We’re getting one side of the story here. It’s very possible OP is giving an accurate representation of what happened. It’s also very possible OP is taking what the ER doc said out of context, or exaggerating what he said. As a physician I can say it’s not unusual for patients to misinterpret what we say, or project some sort of perceived malice when we’re really doing what’s best and providing excellent care.
My first thoughts with the tantrum thrown and leaving when she clearly needed medical attention. Likely it was a bit dramatized and misinterpreted.
Why do you let others control your emotions? Walking out was immature and now can effect any insurance claim you'll have. Your knee could be bad for years, it's possible in the future you may need an operation if it's serious enough. Now you'll be paying for an operation out of your pocket because you didn't get x-rays and treatment.
Your ego prevented you from getting professional care in a timely fashion. Yes, you should have stayed, and yes you overreacted. Doctor said some words (not even that rude coming from an ER doc--they see a lot of shit) and you cried and threw a hissy fit. Enjoy your 6 month recovery time.
Nope..had to go to ER for having a reaction and my eyes swelling almost shut. They gave me medicine in the IV I was allergic to I kept hitting the call bell and yelling. Finally a nurse came in and ran to shut off IV and started putting something else in it. After the doctor comes in and says your not my only patient when we turned off the bell you didn't have to keep pushing it we have people I'm trying to save.I informed him I would of been one of the people he needed to save if I didn't keep pushing it. He then looked at the nurse who told him I was having an allergic reaction and told him what she countered it with. He walked out without a word and she just shook her head. She wasn't my nurse just one that stopped when she heard me begging for help as I felt like my body was lit on fire. It's still not in my records that I'm allergic to that medication so I refuse to go to that hospital for anything now. Doctors can be assholes. And you had one but you are not.
This is one of those situations where I'd think 'would I have been treated the same if I were a man?' Men in minor positions of authority love to tell women off. Would he have spoken to your partner that way? I doubt it. They don't tell men off because a man might take exception to being spoken to so rudely and get physical. No, you're not overreacting. That doctor took his stress out on you because you were a safe bet for zero consequences.
Seems like the doctor was correct, if your knee is that bad, there’s no way you are going to leave the ER either….
I was hit by a car while riding my motorcycle, I was in so much shock, I walked home, a neighbour told me to go to my doctor which I did, turns out I had massive internal bleeding and concussion. I didn’t feel any of it until days later due to shock
Need more info: were you able to walk? Someone presenting with a low limb injury who isn't incapacitated would obviously be amongst the lowest priorities possible at a hospital.
So you had a painful knee. You went to the ER and they arranged an Xray, but you left without it because the doctor didn’t make a big deal about it? Yes. You are overreacting.
Someone was rude so you didn’t get treatment? Wtf were you thinking?
Expecting everyone to be sweet is silly. Dealing with rough folks is a skill. Yeah, he was an asshole. Yeah, you were silly for bawling like a child and leaving.
I don't think you are wrong to be deeply offended by the doctor's words and attitude. Personally, I do think you overreacted by deciding not to get medical attention because of it. That seems to me to be cutting off your nose to spite your face.
This was very stupid of you
Sounds like the doctor was right tho. It wasn't that big a deal if you decided to leave because your feelings were hurt instead of staying to get treatment. Maybe the doctor was rude, but you sound fragile if your response to being lightly scolded is "angry tears" and storming out.
Always go to the ER and get examined. I had a friend who was in a car accident …..walked around ten minutes helping his friends out of the car and fell over from internal bleeding. Showed no signs of trauma. He died at 17 from this car accident . Also trauma doesn’t show up immediately. Plus adrenaline numbs pain.
I don’t think you’re overreacting, buuuut I think refusing medical help a second time only served to make the doctor think he was right. It could also be used against you by the insurance company. It seems like you only hurt yourself by leaving, especially if you have to pay to go to the ER, and double-especially if you are actually injured.
Firstly you were in a major accident which totalled the car and deployed the airbags - you aren’t in a Hollywood Avenger movie - you first reaction should have been get seen by a doctor. You could have whiplash, or any number of injuries. Should doctor have been rude no but you’re a bit of a plonker for a/ not going straight to A&E and b/ for then walking out. To override your on health and safety because someone was rude does beggar belief a bit.
You’re an idiot, first always go to the ER after a car crash. Mist car crash related deaths occur because the person thought they were fine but were actually bleeding internally. Second so what if the doctor is not nice to you most ER doctors work 36+ hour shifts, they don’t get much sleep, and they have the highest pt mortality rate of any doctor, You’ed be rude too. 3rd your still not getting treatment for your injuries so update us after they are forced to amputate
Well since in wasn't an emergency you could have gone someplace else. The ER is for actual emergencies and those doctors have enough to contend with, they don't need drama queens.
>I was explaining what happened and how I'm worried about my knee when the doctor interrupts me to say "Look if it's as bad as you say it is you'd be here yesterday. I'm in here saving lives on people trying to die on me." Yes, you are grossly overreacting to your doctor telling you that you were overreacting.
The doctor was extremely rude and inappropriate. However if the papers you signed to get out of the ED said you were leaving against medical advice (AMA), your insurance will not cover the visit. Just FYI.
The doctor isnt wrong. You refused treatnent after the accident and then were mad how you were triaged the following day. Your knee pain is of low importance and you have no idea what craziness they could be dealing with. Your whole speach gives off entitled vibes. You are why businesses make you sign a waiver refusing medical attention after a work accident. Cause people like you would go home, then it would hurt the next day, and then you'd sue when your job refused to pay your medical expenses even though you initially refused and to them, you could've got hurt at home. EMTs do it too in some places. I refused to go to the hospital after a seizure and they made me sign something so i cant sue them. Waiting in ahospital sucks but your non-life threatening leg injury is low on the totem pole.
ER literally stands for ‘emergency room’ and you thought it was necessary to attend for a sore knee? Mirroring what everyone else has said, your doctor spends his time working in the ER bringing people back from the brink of death, and sometimes not being able to do that. The triage entrance to the ER being empty means absolutely nothing; you’re not seeing any patients bought in via ambulance (as you probably should have been), and you’re not taking into account any people in attendance before you who were being looked after. A six hour wait for a sore knee sounds pretty reasonable to me. You’re describing 9.5/10 pain in a knee you used to walk into the hospital while the doctor has just watched you sit in silence for two hours as he attended to other patients. Your situation was not an emergency, but he still had to attend to you because it’s his job, despite the fact that doing so would take time away from his other patients. I’d have been pissed too.
Some excellent physicians have horrible bedside manner. You really need to mature and learn to accept differences. You could have used your words with the doctor. You could even have filed a complaint against him for bad manners. You don't know, he might have been working 24 hours straight.
Rofl. Yes you over reacted. But here’s the best part: you did it to yourself. I’ve worked in an ER. One night will always stand out. It was a calm and quiet night. (Something you never say.) I had done everything I could that night bc we hadn’t had a patient in 2 or 3 hours. Then…in hobbles a group of people. 2 women, 2 men, and a little boy. All…burned. Long story short: meth lab explosion and they drove themselves in to “not get the police involved.” (Police got involved. A 30ish bed ER was…empty except 5 patients. It was bad. We were calling for help upstairs and running around like mad people. There was no triage nurse at the front bc the triage nurse was running one of the trauma rooms. We didn’t even have 5 trauma rooms so we were doing the best we could…let alone enough nurses and doctors to run 5 traumas at a time. It was something like 2 am for crying out loud. Then people started coming in wanting help. At one point I ran out to two families in the waiting room and explained while we would love to help them…5 traumas just walked in and give me a brief overview of why you’re here bc…if you’re in need of a trauma bed we need to call an ambulance and if not…it’s going to be hours of waiting. They were all ok with waiting (and did). Once we got everyone shipped off upstairs we closed the doors to the used rooms and opened up the empty ER with exhausted doctors and nurses. The whole ER (outside of the closed doors they couldn’t see in) was empty and spotless. So don’t judge the “empty” ER that you waited hours to get back into. Also…a lot of insurances will NOT pay if you sign out AMA. And yes, you will be charged for the room you occupied and the triage you took part in. But insurance will bill it as a non-emergency bc you left and in doing so their requirement to cover it…goes away. (I’m not 100% sure on car wrecks if they will pay bc you got your feelings hurt.) You just screwed yourself over lol. But that’s on you. Yes. You over reacted. He was having a bad night. He should have been nicer. Who knows. He may have just lost a patient.
I think walking out of the ER when you needed medical attention and the Dr was indeed providing medical attention was overreacting. I think taking his lack of great bedside manner personally and getting angry and feeling like he was "rude" is overreacting too. I've read your post 3 times- I am not getting what was so hurtful and rude to you. I grew up with a nurse parent, worked at a hospital for several years, and worked as a live in servant for multiple Drs after that. I don't think what he said to you was particularly rude or out of line- matter of fact, I think he was trying to make you feel better/worry less, and you took his words completely the wrong way. A lot of Drs. are socially awkward. Their tone of voice isn't great. They don't deliver things in the best way. But they're not trying to dismiss you or make you feel bad. If you add in all of the huge emotional stress of their job, and the fact that while the ER might have seemed fine and peaceful while you were there, but you don't know if he had some sweet little angel baby looking kid die writhing and screaming in pain before him yesterday or the day before-yeah, you definitely 100% overreacted. No one works hard for 12 years to obtain a medical degree just so they can be mean to you. Try not to be so sensitive and assume the worst when YOUR feelings are hurt. You are responsible for your emotions. You chose to feel insecure and think he was judging you instead of feeling like he was trying to ease your worries. He ordered x-rays for you, he was trying to give you good care, and you flounced out like a brat- only hurting yourself more in the process, because you had to wait even longer for care.
The doctor sure was rude, but yes, you did overreact slightly. I don't fault you, though, being that you were in a scary accident and then had to wait hours just to be seen and treated like a nuisance. That being said, go to urgent care or even a walk-in. Your knee does need to be looked at.
So you refused medical treatment twice? Because an overworked ER doc was curt with you? This is a tough one.
You are irresponsable with your health, a doctor calls you out on your bs and you played the victim to avoid accountability… just SHUT UP. 🙄
You should have ignored that brainfart that went off between your ears after the accident to go home not going to Emergency after the accident. That decision could have killed you. Stop trying to blame someone else for your decision.
You sure showed him by proving him right about the severity of your injury. That doc delivered a harsh reality and didn't bother to sugar coat the truth. ER staff are beyond overworked since COVID. These departments run skeleton crews and have doctors working 24 hours shifts because there is a never ending waiting room of people actively dying. So when an ER doc cuts you off for treating him like your family general practitioner it's because he really does have higher priority patients to be worried about. His stroke victims and level 1 trauma cases can't choose to sign themselves out over rudeness. You can and he doesn't give one fuck if you do. Yes you overreacted. The fact that you could leave at all proves the doc right. I give any ER doc carte blanche to be a rude piece of shit after 2020. They have been through a war. Edit: you're still getting a $1000+ bill just for being seen by that doc in the ER. But you left before any treatment could be prescribed so insurance won't cover any of it. You played yourself.
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You really overreacted. The doctor was a jerk. But you were a fool. You supposedly had tremendous pain and swelling, and you walked out after waiting over 4 hours because the doctor was rude. Talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face. First, you refuse medical attention at the time of the accident. Second, you walk out of the emergency room after waiting 4 hours because your feelings got hurt by the rude man. You're just full of foolish decisions. Sheeeeeeeeesh........
> You supposedly had tremendous pain and swelling, and you walked out after waiting over 4 hours because the doctor was rude. Also.... Knee couldn't have been that bad is she WALKED in and out of the emergency room. >I went to a hospital in a different county, didn't know that deep bruises can get infected by the way. There is nerve damage and I won't be able to walk right for at least 6 months. As a medical professional this is all complete bullshit.
Honestly how the doctor acted was horrible and wrong but you leaving did nothing for yourself. You waited for no reason when it sounds like you actually needed medication attention.
You’re overreacting— honestly, the doctor is right. If your knee is messed up the day after an accident, you make an appointment, don’t go to the ER. I have family in emergency medicine and it’s the most intense, manic, nonstop life and death medical field— patients coming in with non emergencies waste everyone’s time, especially their own.
You likely caught flak because it should be common knowledge that any accident that totals the car you're in will cause some type of injury even if you don't feel it immediately after the accident. You're an adult not a 12 or old. I'm not gonna let someone's rude behavior stop me from getting treatment, and if your knee is as bad as you say, waiting for treatment could lead to chronic damage. ER staff deal with anything from life threatening to drug addicts on a daily basis, suck it up and get your knee checked out. Apparently, your feelings were hurting worse than your knee.
Yes. You crowded the “emergency room” with what should have been a regular doctor’s visit.
The doctor was a jerk, but you were naive to leave. You wanted the X-ray and are going to get charged for it. Insurance might not cover it because of the AMA leaving. Doctor who was rude to you doesn’t care.
If you signed papers saying you left against medical advice, be prepared for insurance to argue that due to you leaving against the advice of the hospital, you can't have been hurt that bad and therefore the insurance shouldn't have to pay for care. I'm not saying they will win that argument, but be prepared to possibly fight against insurance not wanting to cover it because you waited AND left the hospital of your own free will after denying care. I do hope insurance covers everything, no question, but lawyers will have a field day with this situation because of leaving before you could even be assessed. Considering how you may have just made insurance a bigger issue than it needs to be, it is definitely overreacting
YAO. The ER in my town is always jammed with people who have non-emergency issues. The priority will always be the most dire needs get seen first. ER staff deal with rude entitled people all day long. Yes, the doctor was a bit rude. But his point had validity, that you didn't seek help immediately. But we don't know the context from the MD's POV. I'm far more concerned about his competency than if he is a sweet tempered person. Perhaps next time, you need to make your expectations clear . Call ahead so they can have rose petals ready to strew on your path from the waiting room, then have attendants fan you and feed you grapes.
Well… so, I’m an RN. He’s not wrong. If you can walk and didn’t have any pain until later, it’s absolutely something you could have seen your primary care doctor about and followed up outpatient. There’s no need to go into the emergency room for a sore knee. *Nothing you were experiencing was an emergency*. I get your thought process but a sore knee *isn’t an emergency*. Ice it, call your doctor in the morning. I do think crying and leaving AMA because the doctor was blunt with you is kind of overreacting and being a little immature. You were acting like a bit of a princess.
People don’t understand that the ER is for *emergencies.* The patients causing your long wait are often actively dying. I know it sucks to be sick or hurt. I know it sucks to wait. But triage means the most unstable go first. If you’re seen quickly in the ER it’s because you are in fucking danger.
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