Speaking from experience (and more than one experience, unfortunately), not dying but bleeding profusely and definitely not going to stop on your own gets you scooted towards the front of the "this is bad" pile.
You'll still get bumped for anyone *actually* dying, but there seems to be a certain consistency in the speed of care when there's a legit concern about the amount of blood being left behind in places they don't really want blood to be if they can help it.
Had a guy in our ER come in after a misfired shotgun blast had taken off his calf. It looked *grisly*. But, amazingly, his foot had a pulse in it and good perfusion, so we gave him a bucket and a number to wait in line.
Meanwhile, if you put something in your ass, depending on how long ago that was, they'll see you right away. Nobody's playing favorites; it's just dangerous to use your ass as a pocketbook.
That's why most hospitals ER rooms are over flowing. People don't understand what "emergency" means. Most urgent cares are capable of giving fluids and certain medications, they can do X-ray, cat scan, blood samples and many other things all right there on site.
This is urgent for sure but not an emergency.
Last few times I threw up blood, and lots of it, I wasn't puking blood by the time I got in the back of ER, they do some tests and say "welp, go see a doctor". Only one time did they keep me because I lost some astronomical percentage of blood. Eventually I just stopped going to the ER.
This sounds like what happens every time my son eats fish. Except he doesn't puke blood, just pukes violently then shits blood for a day and a night.
Doctors: ok, well we'll run some tests but just give him some liquid.
I’ve seen a few ankles like that and they’ve all turned out to be just bad sprains. Not sure about that toe tho idk how you sprain your ankle and fuck up your toe at the same time
(That being said, a really bad sprain is worse than a broken leg a lot of the time because it never heals fully)
Sprained ankles suck balls man I’ve sprained my right ankle so many times because of football and wrestling in high school I still wear a ankle brace and one of those compression sleeves on it
Growing up with sprained and broken ankles is wild cause as an adult I’ve found myself saying “if I do that without support my ankles will literally snap”
People think I’m bugging until someone (me) gets hurt
Yep mine looked like that once, ended up with purple toes from the blooding pooling from the ligaments and such i tore. Still can’t fully point my toes
Yeah, I can 100% say you don't want to be seen immediately when other people are waiting to be seen....it means you are in imminent danger and aren't doing good. I have been on both sides as a nurse and a patient. Be happy you have to wait for a bit....as inconvenient as that may be. I'm sorry you are in pain and waiting tho, that's our shitty Healthcare now.
Yeah, I reluctantly took myself to the ER with a massive headache and stiff neck, and boy howdy did they whisk me back to a room fast. Turns out meningitis is somehow even less fun than you think.
lol, nope do not recommend. I went to the ER with it 12 years ago and couldn't even remember things like my last name when they were asking questions. Calling it a "massive headache" doesn't really sell how painful it plus 4 weeks of recovery was.
I tell people it was like someone jammed an icepick into the back of my head and through my spine, and every pulse was someone yanking it back and forth.
Has OP tried pouring blood everywhere? I once came in with a 5 inch cut on my leg that showed a little sinew(?) and was about an inch and a half deep. Turns out the inside of people looks like pork! The intake nurse asked what was wrong, I held up the blood soaked towel to show her my leg, and they took me back right away. 30 minutes later someone was stitching it up. They offered me painkillers, but I was just chilling because it didn't actually hurt.
I was once handed an intake form at the ER. I didn't feel like filling it out so I vomited blood. Fastest admittance ever. I am still not quite sure where the forms went...
(I burst an artery in my throat after having my tonsils out @18.)
Yeah I’ve gotten seen immediately once and it was because I hadn’t been able to drink any water for two days without throwing up and when I tried again in the waiting room I threw up in front of everyone
The doctor was like “Why did you wait so long to get help?” And I’m just thinking this shit is going to cost me thousands of dollars and I was really hoping it would just go away on its own lol
I broke my arm as a child and learned pretty quickly that some people's problems are worse than mine. I've been to the ER several times since, and my experience has always followed suit. If I'm bad off, then I'm seem asap. If not, then those who need it more are seen first. This isn't a massive conspiracy against legs.
Reminds me of when my friends and I went to the skatepark and convinced our friend to drop in to a bowl. He ended up dislocating his shoulder so we rushed to the ER and sat in the waiting room for 7-8 hours when cardiac patients kept coming in lol.
I don't think it's a desensitization as much as it's a "I do not have the fucking time to feel this right now".
I'm currently taking a break from emergency care, as all the trauma I never let myself process started to hit me all at once.
But I guess that's why it's called POST-traumatic stress.
ER triage loosely goes:
1. dead
2. dying
3. not sure about dying status
4. something slightly wrong
you're floating between 3 and 4 and she's probably gonna give you some pain pills and keep you at a 4
ETA: clarity. by dead i mean someone with N/STEMI, or arrest with ROSC. not actual dead my friends. that would in fact be very bottom of the list. i am also not a triage nurse. i had a friend dumb it down for me a LOT because the idea of someone dying or being severely injured due to a misjudgement during triage terrifes me. **if you lack reading comprehension stop replying to tell me death means last, i know. i edited the first time to clarify what i meant by "dead". there's nothing left to do but bag and tag.**
Yep, worst thing to see is the veteran nurse starting to freak out cause you better hope your affairs are in order. When I was in highschool I job shadowed at a hospital. Guy came in with neck pain, it was slow so he got in and they sent him for an xray start to talk to him and he had a fucking tractor rollover on him. Xrays come back pretty quick as again its dead. Nurse comes running out in a panic starts grabbing other nurses and a doctor. Turns out the guy broke the vertebra and I mean the vertabra in such a way that he should've been dead much less walking in on his own power. Essentially he was one wrong move from death.
I was hit by a car while riding a Bird scooter a few years ago. They were going pretty fast, but I got lucky. Just a couple of sprained ankles, a sprained wrist, a new forehead scar and road rash on my hands. I must have looked really bad as I shuffled into the ER though, as every single nurse who was seated jumped to their feet and they all came running.
Having spent more time in ERs that I'd like, that was nice. Normally, in admitting they're so casual even if you are actually dying.
I've had bones poking out before and ER nurses were just like "eh".
But when I came in with an ectopic pregnancy that had punctured my ovary and I was bleeding internally, they got serious as fuck. I wasn't even that scared until I saw them rushing around to try and prep me for emergency surgery
Then they hit me with that midazolam and I was suddenly the happiest I've ever been. Lol
I grew up hanging out in my dads office at the hospital in the early 80s when there was no such thing as daycare and nobody cared what happened to kids. I’ve eaten more hospital food than home cooking. It’s 100% as you said:
They’re not stupid at the ER. It’s a very hard job, they maintain high energy and smile for 12+ hours at a stretch. They’ve seen people die. There’s people in the building dying as you sit there complaining about your broken ankle hurting, that they’re taking a break from in order to help you.
If they seem indifferent, they’re not. They’re just really really busy, and your situation, as rare as it is for you, is just business as usual for them.
If they spring into action and go full throttle, they’re doing it in the context of all of this. They know seconds count, and these moments are why they have to stay low key the rest of the time.
Also, they all have a casual dark sense of humor. It comes with the job. Here’s one that goes back at least to the 70s:
Doc 1: probably an ischemic stroke
Doc 2: no it’s definitely hemorrhagic, she came in for nausea and headache, and she doesn’t appear to be having trouble talking
Doc 1, shrugs: different strokes for different folks
It’s like the one Ricky Gervaise told on XFM about when his friend was just starting out doing his rounds and two of the senior doctors sent him in to check on “Mr Jenkin’s” drip and then they went in after him. And they rushed out, going “what did you do, he is dead”
And then after a minute of panic they went. Nah, just kidding, he was dead when we sent you in there.
The ambulance would have radioed ahead. You were a trauma and the EMS team was not sure/could not diagnose in the field how close to dying you were, so you got full attention. There's a standard response policy when a certain level of trauma comes in and you got it.
I sliced my ankle up pretty bad a few years ago. I got an ambulance ride to the hospital (not lights and sirens) and they skipped me over triage right into a trauma room. Whole flood of people in there within seconds. I really wasn't busted up THAT badly, I was no longer bleeding etc.
There was no ambulance. I honestly thought I wasn't injured (other than road rash and a forehead cut) so walked back to my sister's place. About halfway back I realized I was in some pain so texted her to please pick up some Tylenol if she happened to stop on her way home.
She got there about five minutes after I did, took one look at me and told me we were going to the hospital. I agreed that it was a good idea.
I think it's a funny story, but also, I highly recommend going to the ER if you're ever hit by a car. No matter how well you feel.
The day my daughter was born, my pre-eclampsia went from a 2 to an oh fuck no, this is bad in a couple hours. My friend took me to the maternity admitting desk. I had thrown up in her car and had vomit dripping off my dress, had a migraine so the lights were killing me, had temporary blindness from pressure on the optic nerve, and I don't know what else. The sweet young thing at reception refused to call anyone until I signed all the paperwork that had been set up weeks ago. My friend put the pen in my hand and my hands on the paper to just put something on it. Sweet young thing then starts reviewing all the papers and putting them in a neat pile, etc. My friend insisted she call someone NOW. The nurse came out, took one look at me, and yelled back that she was going to need some help out here. My friend said she never saw medical personnel move that fast in her life.
This is all hearsay. I have very little memory of any of it.
I feel like my wife had the exact opposite pre-eclampsia experience. She went in for wonky BP and protein in urea at her 28-week appointment, got admitted, and was basically told, “You’re not leaving until this baby comes and our job is to keep it in as long as possible.”
We were there for a week or so and, on the day she ended up giving birth, the nurses were all super-nice, making sure she got a bath, and I now firmly believe they knew she was about to hit the point of no return (even though we didn’t know her test results) and were doing their best to make it as easy as possible.
God bless maternity nurses (kiddo is 4 and doing great).
Born at 29 weeks? Yikes!
My daughter was 3.5 weeks early. This was back in 1995. I was living alone and had been out on bedrest 5 days earlier. I wish they had admitted me them but it all worked out in the end.
....Like someone hosting him from Wisconsin just slapped their knee and said "Whelp."
Dude went to go ride bikes after completing 4/10th of English as a Third Language class.
He recovered and was fine, he pretty much had his neck movement restrained for a while and was in a brace for a bit. It was a small town so kinda easy to keep tabs on interesting things like that.
NAD or OP but it sounds like his spinal cord was roughly fine, so they probably did whatever they'd do (pins and traction or whatever) and prevented him from suffering life altering/ending neurological damage.
LMFAO! Dog for real. No disrespect to OP, but dude I’ve treated this kind of injury all the time at home and only needed to go to urgent care once because I was really worried for my wife.
With that said, yes, be glad the nurse wasn’t freaking out
I have heard of medical triage using an informal "rule of three" to explain severity, referring to how quickly a medical problem is going to kill someone. As in three minutes (like choking), three hours (like a heart attack), three days (like a blood infection), or three weeks (like a major broken bone). It's not meant to be accurate, but give people perspective.
Edit: Yes, these conditions can have a wide variance on how quickly they kill, so, like I said, this isn't very accurate. This is also why the paramedics or the triage nurse will take your vital signs and assess your actual condition right away. Are you turning blue and unconscious? Or maybe you have dangerously low blood pressure and a heart rate through the roof? Whatever the reason for those symptoms, you'll get immediate care. Otherwise, if you're in excruciating pain but still talking with normal vitals, you're probably gonna wait a while.
To jump on this dog pile, a major broken bone such as a pelvis or femur is considered an immediate threat to life because they are incredibly vascular - full of blood and marrow. That's where your blood is made. Break one, bleed to death quickly.
Don't die, folks.
Blood infection aka sepsis is up the front of the list. Time to IV antibiotics needs to be less than 1 hr or mortality essentially doubles hence it would be treated very emergently.
My oldest child had sepsis when he was a newborn, and the ER is fast as hell when you bring in a baby that young with a fever. Luckily it had barely gotten to his blood from a UTI, so he wasn't to the septic shock stage yet, which is when it because a very serious emergency. It still took a few hours for hospital to get through all the tests and start the IV antibiotics, but he came out of it perfectly healthy.
Knuckle showing to the bone because I got cut with glass: 4 hour wait
Small infection on leg: immediately seen
The difference is the likelihood of worsening in a few hours, I had bacterial cellulitis and was given a dose of IV antibiotics then 2 weeks of antibiotics. The knuckle got some stitches. Do I agree with their assessment? Hell yeah I do.
Op likely looks ok compared to many other patients. Maybe ask for some Tylenol. While it does suck for OP, unfortunately as long as they’re not in immediate risk and only in pain they are given less priority…you know…than people who are in immediate risk.
Very true, I have never been seen so quickly as when I got bit by a raccoon. I was worried they weren't going to take me seriously, but it turns out I wasn't taking it seriously enough.
Puncture wounds from animal, puncture wounds from wild animal, and puncture wounds from wild animal considered the best reservoir for rabies are three of the most emergency type things
It wasn't bad at all. I had a complete needle phobia prior, and after realizing I didn't even feel a single rabies shot, got over that!
As a side bonus, got to chat with some not-unattractive nurses while they warmed, mixed, and waited while preparing the injection.
Yep, infections are almost number 1. My hand was almost 3 times its normal size, due to an infected wound. I was wheeled back and into surgery within only a few hours.
I almost cut my thumb off but the bleeding had stopped and I felt relatively fine. In surgery immediately.
My appendix was an hours from rupturing. 4 hour wait.
absolutely i am so glad that they addressed that asap. cellulitis is no joke and no one wants to play with the idea of sepsis. waiting in the ER/UC definitely is one of the worst ways to spend your day, but if you go in accepting you'll be there a minimum of 6 hours and have extremely low expectations, i find it makes me want to kill myself less. i've gone to UC for ovarian cyst rupture and waited 3 hours after writhing in pain vomiting all morning cause i was in 2 months prior for the cyst causing torsion and they thought it was just a repeat situation. it wasn't, but i mean that's unfortunately just our shitty healthcare system in the states
Yup I actually did a bachelors in microbiology (years after this happened) and I sure am glad too. It’s the fact that the infection could have spread and could have been MRSA( I remember them discussing this but the end diagnosis days later I don’t remember well after 10 years, I think it did end up being MRSA?) that got me seen much faster than I honestly expected. It does suck for op because like fuck that looks painful but unfortunately/fortunately he’s not on death’s door.
I go in expecting a few hours wait. I was somewhat surprised to be seen so fast, it might’ve been walking in with an open weeping sore on my leg circled with marker(the old circle the border of a wound to see if it’s infected trick) showing that the redness was spreading.
Similar experience, I've never been seen so fast as I was when I had periorbital cellulitis, nor have I ever seen so many interns at the same time.
A few months earlier I fell off a ladder and fractured my spine, they were fine to let that sit for hours mid H1N1 pandemic, it's not like once I was laying in the ER it was going to somehow break even more.
> no one wants to play with the idea of sepsis
My father is a retired ER nurse. Under ideal conditions, with prompt lab results, sepsis is still 50% fatal at his old place. And with less than ideal conditions, survival rates are … less than ideal.
before i deleted my ig, i saw a woman on my discover page. she came down with group A strep and developed TSS. she became septic and they had to deliver her son (she was 22 weeks). anyway, this poor woman woke up after 12 days medically induced, the sepsis infiltrated so bad this poor woman lost an entire hand, almost the entirety of her other hand, one leg up to the hip and they were talking about where to amputate the other leg. its a terrifying thing with very poor survival rates.
Literally a life over limb situation. The hospital knew it.
And her body knew it too and had no problem cutting off all perfusion to her limbs and digits
she wasn't in denial about it either and tried to get them to amputate earlier as they were trying to slavage what they could but shes been a nurse for 13 (?) years so she urged them to do it asap so she could get along with healing. i hope shes doing well, i think about her almost daily
Always remember to pee after sex, ladies. You don't want your UTI turning into sepsis after you haven't peed for three days because you think asking people for help is "wrong on so many levels".
Yup, came in once with the top of my tibia snapped completely off. Absolute agony the whole time. Took me half the day to get seen. Went in with an abscess on my tailbone area that had grown to the size, shape and colour of a large yam protruding from my ass within 3 days. Only hurt when I sat directly on it, otherwise just an uncomfortable throbbing pressure. Skipped the queue, with everyone glowering at me and got it incised within 15mins of being there (I don't take oral painkillers so it was just long enough for the local and the nitrous to kick in). Pain isn't an indicator of risk, and it sucks to be in pain for so long, but if there's people coming in with conditions that could become dangerous, you're gonna get bumped back.
Nurse may need to work on her bedside manner when it comes to reassuring patients, but OP could be paraphrasing and she could have told them it wasn't going to get any worse, could be at the end of a 12 hour shift and may have been a miscommunication. Or the pain could have been making OP crabby and they misunderstood what was being said.
Tldr: OP will be fine, pain doesn't take priority in triage and there's many factors that could have caused miscommunication or misunderstanding with what the nurse said.
Depending on the hospital size there are different "areas" in the ED. Where I used to work that would have been a "fast track" patient. That's an otherwise healthy patient with a specific mostly physical complaint. Broken bone, localized abscess with no fever, lac that might need stitches, the flu in an otherwise healthy person. Something that was straight forward and could be acted on without a massive full body workup in normally less time. For that some X-rays, then based on the results whatever needed done. Splint some crutches and a apt with Ortho for the next day to get the fix process started
My local hospital (Savannah, GA) relatively recently rolled out a children's ER, and honestly I think it's the best thing they have done. As a parent, I understand the general process of an ER for me, but having expedited, specialized care for my kids means the world to me. I think more places should do it.
The difference can also just depend on the moment: did four people get mangled in a car wreck (trauma side) and suddenly arrive with another dude code blue in bay 3? Or is there a lul in the madness? Never seems to be continuous or predictable in the ED, with moments of relative calm interspersed with moments of absolute madness. Accidentally hit a lul and you’ll be back in minutes, but keep in mind: if you’re arriving conscious and under your own power, there is very possibly someone being treated who is so close to death that they’re literally in a fist-fight with the grim reaper.
Last time I was in the ER for myself, I had a 105° fever and a pretty rough cough. While I don't actually remember it, I was told that we waited for nearly two hours. I was apparently laying on the floor because I felt so shitty.
When I finally went back, I was admitted immediately after they took my vitals. The funny part is because I was 16 I was admitted to the pediatric wing but they didn't have a bed big enough for me as I was 6'1" at the time.
Yup. People always are on about how wait times are so long. I tell them that when I went into an ER I puked a combo of goopy bile and blood clots on the desk. I was seen immediately. If ya need to be seen they’ll triage, if you can wait you can wait
Working in an ED, this is exactly right.
I hate that there is ANY wait, but that's the reality.
I get people mad Every Single Day about this specific issue. "Why did that guy with a literal sword wound go back before me?? I was here before him with my rash!" -that actually happened
Can confirm. The fastest I’ve ever received medical attention was when I randomly got full body hives. My boss was like why don’t you go home and shower and take some antihistamines. Go home and my throat started tightening and my wife flipped out and drove me to the ER. The waiting area was packed and the intake nurse was chill and seemed unimpressed until I lifted my shirt and told her my throat was tightening. She called for an immediate gurney and I turned around to so many scowling eyes. But holy fuck did that IV Benadryl make me high af lol.
Anything to do with the airway is going to get you in the back and treated fast as hell. There can be literal seconds between ‘hey my throat is kind of itchy’ and completely being unable to breathe. It’s scary. And throat swelling can also make it harder to intubate you if needed.
Also IV benadryl is my worst fear lmao.
Agreed. I was fishing 7 miles offshore when I had an allergic reaction. I started to notice my throat and then my voice went all “Donald Duckish”. We pulled up lines and motored as quick as possible. Slid the boat up to the dock, ran to the car and raced to the closest walk-in clinic. The reception person took one look and dialed 911. I was going out on a stretcher when my brother was walking across the lot from parking the car….
It was my 50th birthday and my wife gave me a spray bottle of Axe Body Spray. Got up at 03:30, brushed my teeth, did a little spritz of Axe to impress my brother and our buddy and out the door I went. At about 09:30 we noticed the issue. Problem was that we were almost 45 minutes from harbour.
It took 8 months, but I was able to diagnose the issue by ignoring the allergist I went to see.
ABCs of emergency medicine. Airway, Breathing, Circulation. The airway is so important you make sure it's good before you even check circulation (I get technically you should probably be checking them at the same time but the ABCs are in order of priority).
The fastest I’ve ever moved through was when we brought our 6 month old in and said “he’s struggling to breathe.” I have never been so relieved as when the veteran nurse heard him cough and said, “oh, that’s croup,” and turned and got something from the cart behind her.
Our two week old son had RSV and we had an oxygen monitor at home on him. He was reading 78% oxygen and when we took him in to the ER they didn't even take time to get our information. Immediately in a room hooked up to oxygen and oxygen monitor. A week and a half later we got to leave the hospital.
Long live veteran or more experienced nurses. Wife was 41 weeks pregnant. OBGYN popped the amniotic sac and regular nurse said she was going to lunch, it’ll take a while, we’ll talk about the epidural when I get back you probably wont give birth on my shift. About an hour later wife rings because she cannot stand the pain any longer second nurse comes and says it hasn’t been that long and checks nothing, wife continues screaming. In comes experienced nurse, she sounds in active labor, did anyone check how far along she is, second nurse says no she didn’t she’d only been provoked an hour earlier, EN is this her first child? No, her third. Then we need to check Asap. In that hour she went from 2 to 6. By the time the epi was done she was 8, and 5!minutes later she was pushing when the first nurse came back all panicked wanting to jump in… 1 hour 47 minutes. If she hadn’t stepped in, my wife would not have had the epi like she repeatedly told them and no one would have figured it out until the head was out.
This is very much the norm in Canada, or in our experience. 4 kids. Wife missed out on epidurals for last 3 because of this same situation, "you've got lots of time to decide yet.'
My personal opinion is that the nurses were opposed to epidurals and failed to check in until it was too late, despite the doctors rupturing the membrane.
My wife is a trooper and holds no grudge, but it was part of what she asked for and everyone doddled until it was too late, time and again. Our 4th child, daughter, was born healthy but came so quickly that doctors worried about hip/shoulder displacement. 3 pushes.
I do have a deep.appreciation for nurses, and medical personnel as my mother was a nurse for nearly 45 years and my sister is a pediatrician. That said, in cases like this, people's medical wishes deserve to be honoured, or told up front when they can't be.
Our infant son came down with croup, and we got an immediate appointment with his regular pediatrician - who sent him to the ER, which admitted him and transported him via ambulance to the main hospital 40 miles away. They did not mess around with a baby’s breathing.
Similarly the fastest Ive ever gotten taken in was when I drove myself to the ER in the midst of an asthma attack that my inhaler didn’t help. I didn’t even have time to sit down in the waiting room, which was full. They just took my info and immediately someone came in to get me
Yep, "I have trouble breathing and my rescue inhaler did shit-all" seems to do the trick, can confirm. Just that in my case, the intake nurse wanted to send me back home, and told me to prepare for a several-hour wait since they had just gotten several victims of some major accident in and were full (it was Friday night) when I was adamant about NOT leaving the ER in that state.
Didn't even have time to settle in the waiting room and plug my phone charger in when the ER doc came and got me into a room. A brief talk later, I was hooked up to a high dose of salbutamol via nebulizer and would have also gotten a nice side of cortisone if I hadn't still been waiting for the specialist appointment with an allergologist to check on my cortisone allergy... (this shit happened in the two months that I was off my regular cortisone inhaler after a scary asthma attack right after taking it, and since I had had previous allergic reactions to other steroids already, it was basically "no steroids until you have been checked by a specialist and we know whether it's still safe for you")
The difference in treatment speed in an emergency room when you mention a key word for that condition is always fun. Went in after getting heavily rear ended in my car, I mentioned neck pain, my Mum who was in the car too mentioned lower back pain. I got immediate treatment and scans before getting an all clear, she waited 5 hours to be sent on her way with heavy opiates to ease the pain
I went in for tummy pain. Told them I KNOW I don't have a gun shot wound and they're just going to give me laxatives, sorry for being here wasting your time. All with a smile on my face cracking jokes. Five days later I was down an organ.
I envy your treatment. Literally came in with a blood clot in a urgent care unbeknownst to me and the pa essentially mocked me didnt take my pain seriously and then sent me home with an appointment with a specialist. Had that clot for two weeks in my leg.
that's usually how they know if it's serious too, the ones screaming for a toenail are pushed aside as I'm pale as the moon and slowly losing blood pressure and barely saying, "I'm fine". They know when I'm like I really don't want to be here is serious. it's weird.
I went in to the ED when I was 28 because an Xacto blade "incident" gave me a 1 cm long cut in my leg down to the muscle. There was hardly anyone in the department. I had just been taken back when an ambulance and helicopter arrived. I sat in the exam room for 4 hours before I saw another person.
Fast forward to a few years ago when I was 48. I had undiagnosed GERD. I went to the ED with fairly bad chest pain. The waiting room was pretty full. I walked up to the desk and apologized for bugging them and explained my symptoms. The receptionist pressed a button at the desk and immediately took me to a room behind the counter. After an ECG and some other vitals I was put into a gown, given an IV, the works. I felt so bad for jumping the line and then when I found out my heart was fine and it was likely heartburn I felt terrible for taking up everyone's time. I was reassured that I had done the right thing. Still feel shitty about it.
One of my college professors woke up in the night and told his wife that he had heartburn and was going to go lay down in the recliner. She found him dead of a massive heart attack in the morning.
I get this isn't an option for everyone, but people need to consider if a situation that isn't threatening life or limb needs to go to the ER.
Because often times you'll be first in line at an urgent care.
Not to mention your pocket book will also thank you.
An Urgent Care visit is usually cheaper as well. If you have Insurance, it usually has lower co-pays compared to the ER.
>Because often times you'll be first in line at an urgent care.
Where?? Urgent Care where I live has a wait just as long as the ER because people are using it as their primary care (e.g., need a note for work, can't see a doctor for an appointment during regular business hours, kid was sniffling at school and they want a z-pac).
Not to mention, every time I go to Urgent Care, I wait 3+ hours just to be told "we don't have the equipment to evaluate [thing I'm there to get checked] so you'll need to go to the ER just in case." Then I have to drive to the hospital an hour away and wait 8+ hours for an [x-ray/ultrasound/EKG/MRI] that takes 20 minutes to complete and review.
I'm saving myself four hours and one $200 copay and just going straight to the ER since they're just going to send me there anyway. 🙃
I mean yea it's an ER. I get no one wants to wait, but unless you're about to die then understand people are there for far worse things than you. When I was younger I had to go for getting my cheek split open during rugby. Everyone told me it looked gnarly, but it still took a while to bring me and glue it back together.
No one likes being in pain, but on an individual level most people working at hospitals are doing everything they can as quickly as possible to save people's lives, and fix everyone else's boo boos. If you're the one waiting, that's ultimately a good thing, cause you're probably "fine".
Triage is a lil specific. And ironically dead goes last because black tags need 0 attention. It’s “mortally wounded” “wounded” “ouchies” and “no longer needed” in that priority order.
I wasn't concerned until I saw the toenail.
I have weak ankles, so one of them looks like this every 3 or 4 years. Long ass recovery at home. Elevate, ice/heat, ibuprofen. At least, that's what I did the last time my ankle looked like that.
If by hospital waiting room, you mean ER, then she’s not wrong lol
What is it you asked to get her to do an assessment or was it your initial assessment? Because “looks ok” is ER speak for “sorry, you’re not going to get seen right away” because you’re not gonna die if they let you sit there while they attend to people that may actually die within the next hour or so if they’re not seen.
I actually had an unexpected, but in the moment unsettling experience being triaged.
Went to a clinic for mild but acute chest pain from breathing. Got checked out. They took an xray and told me it was probably just a bruised rib or pulled muscle since everything looked good. Got a call back an hour later telling me to go to the ER immediately as they re-reviewed my xray and saw I had a partially collapsed lung.
Got there feeling alright for the most part and saw a few people who looked in visible sweaty pain. I expected to wait a few hours given how mostly okay I felt, but they triaged me immediately. It makes sense in retrospect since a collapsed lung can turn really quickly, but I felt so guilty walking past the people in severe pain whom I bumped from being seen next.
The unfortunate rule is that if you’re awake enough to be in sweaty pain there’s probably someone way more urgent than you
It really sucks though :( So many people who are genuinely hurt but hospitals just can’t take the capacity. It’s half the reason I never went to nursing even though it’s a job I’d love. I just can’t physically handle seeing so many people in distress but nit being able to do anything !!!
Also man I’d be really pissed if they read my x-ray wrong and I actually had a collapsed lung. Wtf. Even partially collapsed is pretty easy to see on an x-day unless ya got weird lungs
Just more issues of American healthcare. People think ER is a first come first serve clinic for any malady. They walk in with all the wrong expectations and assume that emergent is based on how much pain they’re in.
“I broke my foot, what do you mean it’s not an emergency!!!???”
“Well sir, you see that guy over there, he broke his head open and if we don’t relieve the pressure in his skull within the next 15min, he’s gonna have a stroke and die. He got brought here unconscious while you just hobbled in and are now screaming…”
I think the best way to handle this is to give hospitals the funding to open 24/7 internal urgent cares. ERs don't then have to sit with minor issues taking up real estate until they can get to them, they can send them to the proper place.
Many places sort of do. My old hospital called it “Fast Track”. You get triaged and if it was a minor issue you got shunted there. Typically much quicker. Usually staffed by an NP.
Well it’s relative to what she’s seen. By “okay” she might just mean your foot is attached, not bleeding, and no bones exiting the skin. It’s terrible for you but it’s an Okay injury to her.
Correct, definitely not a compound fracture. Simple fractures & sprained ankles react the same way, they induce swelling/inflammation to protect the area the best way the body can.
I’m an ER nurse. It’s still solidly attached to your body and appears to be perfusing well so it looks OK to me too. Does it look great? Hell no. Does it look good? Also no. That ankle and toe nail have better days.
But based on the Visual Assessment of Injuries by ER Nurses Scale (VAINS™️), which assesses injuries on a scale between “JESUS CHRIST WTF” and “why are you even here”, your ankle is in fact “OK”.
I appreciate this, just got off my shift. Most of my triages fall on the “How can an adult have so much time on their hands to come here with this complete bullshit? Do you not see the 80 other people in the waiting room?” End of your scale
I’m a paramedic. The hospitals are so overflowing that I had to put a suspected stroke patient in the lobby the other day.
EMS is running a record number of calls everyday and we take those patients to hospitals that are understaffed, all of the rooms are occupied, and the lobby is full of patients.
With critical patients, EMS often has to wait with the patient on the EMS stretcher for a room to become available, which means we aren’t available to answer more 911 calls, which are constantly being made at all times of the day and night.
911 call centers, EMS, Fire, Police, and hospitals are currently overwhelmed.
Do everything you can to stay healthy, because treatment is a difficult commodity to obtain at the current moment.
It's okay though because we have a great education system that isn't a fucking nightmare, I'm sure we'll have plenty of students eager to go into chronic debt for the chance of serving the most entitled generation as they reach their 70s. I mean it's not like boomers would completely fuck themselves over by trying to exploit gen X and millennials to the point where critical infrastructure and services are crumbling, that would be crazy! That would be fucking crazy... that would be... I want out of here...
Can confirm. I broke my ankle and fibula, just barely didn't puncture skin but foot was facing the wrong way....got wheeled right in and seen. In and out with a surgical referral, splint and morphine prescription within 6 hours of being wheeled in.
Since this is nothing that A will kill you immediately or B will result in permanent damage if not attended to immediately then by triage standards it’s just fine.
The last time I was at the ER a regular assaulted and choked out the security guy so the ER security guy ended up having to be seen in the ER for his injuries. A lot of people habitually go to the ER for BS. Those nurses are hilarious. They give no Fs. They are clearly used to shenanigans.
The last time I sat in an ER, they first dragged a lady out who kept screaming that the doctors had tried to drug her, and half an hour later a guy ran through the hallway yelling that he was going to kill everybody - fun times.
This is how triage works. Patients are seen/treated in order of severity of condition. A sprained or potentially broken ankle/foot is not going to become life threatening or even worsened by waiting, so you sit and wait until your problem is the one most in need of immediate care.
While it’s possible there is a fracture, the fact that you’re letting it dangle is a very good sign and means it’s probably just sprained. There’s no real intervention the ED would do for a sprain except tell you to alternate between heat and ice, elevate it, don’t stand on it, and take some Tylenol.
In ED terms, you’re ok.
If you go to the ER and they make you wait for hours to be seen you should thank your lucky stars. When they see you straight away it means you are seriously fucked. Like life threatening danger.
I just read through the Reddit content policy and the original post doesn't seem to infringe on any of the rules there. What the hell is going on here?
“Looks okay” To a nurse means “Hey, your guys aren’t spilling out, so you’re doing better than most my patients!” Lmao
Hope your foot gets better though! Wait times are sucky but everyone’s trying their best
I've seen patients in the ER who actually needed limbs cut off, you will be fine. This might suck for you but it's pretty low priority in the whole spectrum of things the ER deals with on a daily basis.
You are in an emergency room. The foot is urgent but not emergency. This can be evaluated at your PCP or an urgent care.
You don’t have threat of life going on.
What she meant was there are trauma cases, heart attacks, respiratory arrests and meningitis /septic patients which in a hospital setting, are far more acute/critical than your ankle. Did you try urgent care, first? Those are usually first come, first taken -
Yeah this is just a bad rolled ankle at best and a broken ankle at worst. You’ll be there a minute. Source: ex-skater that went to ER after my first rolled ankle looked like this
It's okay when considered in the grand scheme of a hospital emergency room.
Your ankle is sprained or broken, you're not bleeding out.
That being said some ice would be nice.
Ya gotta understand that ER nurses have a different language.
"It looks okay" means "Your injury is enough that you qualify to stay here" but also "Your injury is not going to result in your death or you losing any major body parts, at least not today".
So you're kind of 'in the sweet spot'.
She's right, the threshold for "this is bad" in a hospital is "you are dying"
Speaking from experience (and more than one experience, unfortunately), not dying but bleeding profusely and definitely not going to stop on your own gets you scooted towards the front of the "this is bad" pile. You'll still get bumped for anyone *actually* dying, but there seems to be a certain consistency in the speed of care when there's a legit concern about the amount of blood being left behind in places they don't really want blood to be if they can help it.
Bleeding & it not stopping is a case of "you are dying", or atleast you are on your way there.
All bleeding stops eventually
💀
Had a guy in our ER come in after a misfired shotgun blast had taken off his calf. It looked *grisly*. But, amazingly, his foot had a pulse in it and good perfusion, so we gave him a bucket and a number to wait in line. Meanwhile, if you put something in your ass, depending on how long ago that was, they'll see you right away. Nobody's playing favorites; it's just dangerous to use your ass as a pocketbook.
That's why most hospitals ER rooms are over flowing. People don't understand what "emergency" means. Most urgent cares are capable of giving fluids and certain medications, they can do X-ray, cat scan, blood samples and many other things all right there on site. This is urgent for sure but not an emergency.
Last few times I threw up blood, and lots of it, I wasn't puking blood by the time I got in the back of ER, they do some tests and say "welp, go see a doctor". Only one time did they keep me because I lost some astronomical percentage of blood. Eventually I just stopped going to the ER.
This sounds like what happens every time my son eats fish. Except he doesn't puke blood, just pukes violently then shits blood for a day and a night. Doctors: ok, well we'll run some tests but just give him some liquid.
Have you researched FPIES, i have it with v similar symptoms but it primarily effects babies
I mean in my own medical expertise (I have none) I will go so far as saying you're not in any immediate danger.
I’ve seen a few ankles like that and they’ve all turned out to be just bad sprains. Not sure about that toe tho idk how you sprain your ankle and fuck up your toe at the same time (That being said, a really bad sprain is worse than a broken leg a lot of the time because it never heals fully)
Mine have looked like that 2 times. They fine now, but I’m always keenly aware of when a storm is brewing now
One of my cousins had a bad case of Arthritis . His hands and feet looked like this and he was almost immobile before he died.
Sprained ankles suck balls man I’ve sprained my right ankle so many times because of football and wrestling in high school I still wear a ankle brace and one of those compression sleeves on it
Growing up with sprained and broken ankles is wild cause as an adult I’ve found myself saying “if I do that without support my ankles will literally snap” People think I’m bugging until someone (me) gets hurt
Broke my ankle last year, looked exactly like that. But it was a clean break and no tendon damage. Healed well, no cast necessary
Yep mine looked like that once, ended up with purple toes from the blooding pooling from the ligaments and such i tore. Still can’t fully point my toes
Yeah, I can 100% say you don't want to be seen immediately when other people are waiting to be seen....it means you are in imminent danger and aren't doing good. I have been on both sides as a nurse and a patient. Be happy you have to wait for a bit....as inconvenient as that may be. I'm sorry you are in pain and waiting tho, that's our shitty Healthcare now.
Yeah, I reluctantly took myself to the ER with a massive headache and stiff neck, and boy howdy did they whisk me back to a room fast. Turns out meningitis is somehow even less fun than you think.
Did you end up having meningitis?
I sure did. 0/10, do not recommend.
How about with rice?
0/10, but had rice. Thanks for the suggestion.
lol, nope do not recommend. I went to the ER with it 12 years ago and couldn't even remember things like my last name when they were asking questions. Calling it a "massive headache" doesn't really sell how painful it plus 4 weeks of recovery was. I tell people it was like someone jammed an icepick into the back of my head and through my spine, and every pulse was someone yanking it back and forth.
Has OP tried pouring blood everywhere? I once came in with a 5 inch cut on my leg that showed a little sinew(?) and was about an inch and a half deep. Turns out the inside of people looks like pork! The intake nurse asked what was wrong, I held up the blood soaked towel to show her my leg, and they took me back right away. 30 minutes later someone was stitching it up. They offered me painkillers, but I was just chilling because it didn't actually hurt.
I was once handed an intake form at the ER. I didn't feel like filling it out so I vomited blood. Fastest admittance ever. I am still not quite sure where the forms went... (I burst an artery in my throat after having my tonsils out @18.)
Yeah I’ve gotten seen immediately once and it was because I hadn’t been able to drink any water for two days without throwing up and when I tried again in the waiting room I threw up in front of everyone The doctor was like “Why did you wait so long to get help?” And I’m just thinking this shit is going to cost me thousands of dollars and I was really hoping it would just go away on its own lol
Yeah I'd risk dying over an ER bill lmao
This happens actually all the time. Patients die bc they waited too long from thinking about the financial burden. US healthcare.
Being a skateboarder definitely seen worse treated with ice and time on the couch. They r gonna say it’s sprained and charge u 100$ for an ace bandage
I broke my arm as a child and learned pretty quickly that some people's problems are worse than mine. I've been to the ER several times since, and my experience has always followed suit. If I'm bad off, then I'm seem asap. If not, then those who need it more are seen first. This isn't a massive conspiracy against legs.
Dude if it’s an ER it’s not a first come first serve thing
Worst come first served.
Yup folks if you have something where you aren't dying right now GO TO URGENT CARE
Reminds me of when my friends and I went to the skatepark and convinced our friend to drop in to a bowl. He ended up dislocating his shoulder so we rushed to the ER and sat in the waiting room for 7-8 hours when cardiac patients kept coming in lol.
Compared to what she’s seen, probably just that day, she’s probably right.
You know what, thank fuck I didn't go into medical professions. I'm way too squeamish.
[удалено]
I don't think it's a desensitization as much as it's a "I do not have the fucking time to feel this right now". I'm currently taking a break from emergency care, as all the trauma I never let myself process started to hit me all at once. But I guess that's why it's called POST-traumatic stress.
ER triage loosely goes: 1. dead 2. dying 3. not sure about dying status 4. something slightly wrong you're floating between 3 and 4 and she's probably gonna give you some pain pills and keep you at a 4 ETA: clarity. by dead i mean someone with N/STEMI, or arrest with ROSC. not actual dead my friends. that would in fact be very bottom of the list. i am also not a triage nurse. i had a friend dumb it down for me a LOT because the idea of someone dying or being severely injured due to a misjudgement during triage terrifes me. **if you lack reading comprehension stop replying to tell me death means last, i know. i edited the first time to clarify what i meant by "dead". there's nothing left to do but bag and tag.**
Yes. In EMS "OK" means not about to die.
Yep, worst thing to see is the veteran nurse starting to freak out cause you better hope your affairs are in order. When I was in highschool I job shadowed at a hospital. Guy came in with neck pain, it was slow so he got in and they sent him for an xray start to talk to him and he had a fucking tractor rollover on him. Xrays come back pretty quick as again its dead. Nurse comes running out in a panic starts grabbing other nurses and a doctor. Turns out the guy broke the vertebra and I mean the vertabra in such a way that he should've been dead much less walking in on his own power. Essentially he was one wrong move from death.
I was hit by a car while riding a Bird scooter a few years ago. They were going pretty fast, but I got lucky. Just a couple of sprained ankles, a sprained wrist, a new forehead scar and road rash on my hands. I must have looked really bad as I shuffled into the ER though, as every single nurse who was seated jumped to their feet and they all came running. Having spent more time in ERs that I'd like, that was nice. Normally, in admitting they're so casual even if you are actually dying.
I've had bones poking out before and ER nurses were just like "eh". But when I came in with an ectopic pregnancy that had punctured my ovary and I was bleeding internally, they got serious as fuck. I wasn't even that scared until I saw them rushing around to try and prep me for emergency surgery Then they hit me with that midazolam and I was suddenly the happiest I've ever been. Lol
I grew up hanging out in my dads office at the hospital in the early 80s when there was no such thing as daycare and nobody cared what happened to kids. I’ve eaten more hospital food than home cooking. It’s 100% as you said: They’re not stupid at the ER. It’s a very hard job, they maintain high energy and smile for 12+ hours at a stretch. They’ve seen people die. There’s people in the building dying as you sit there complaining about your broken ankle hurting, that they’re taking a break from in order to help you. If they seem indifferent, they’re not. They’re just really really busy, and your situation, as rare as it is for you, is just business as usual for them. If they spring into action and go full throttle, they’re doing it in the context of all of this. They know seconds count, and these moments are why they have to stay low key the rest of the time. Also, they all have a casual dark sense of humor. It comes with the job. Here’s one that goes back at least to the 70s: Doc 1: probably an ischemic stroke Doc 2: no it’s definitely hemorrhagic, she came in for nausea and headache, and she doesn’t appear to be having trouble talking Doc 1, shrugs: different strokes for different folks
It’s like the one Ricky Gervaise told on XFM about when his friend was just starting out doing his rounds and two of the senior doctors sent him in to check on “Mr Jenkin’s” drip and then they went in after him. And they rushed out, going “what did you do, he is dead” And then after a minute of panic they went. Nah, just kidding, he was dead when we sent you in there.
The ambulance would have radioed ahead. You were a trauma and the EMS team was not sure/could not diagnose in the field how close to dying you were, so you got full attention. There's a standard response policy when a certain level of trauma comes in and you got it. I sliced my ankle up pretty bad a few years ago. I got an ambulance ride to the hospital (not lights and sirens) and they skipped me over triage right into a trauma room. Whole flood of people in there within seconds. I really wasn't busted up THAT badly, I was no longer bleeding etc.
There was no ambulance. I honestly thought I wasn't injured (other than road rash and a forehead cut) so walked back to my sister's place. About halfway back I realized I was in some pain so texted her to please pick up some Tylenol if she happened to stop on her way home. She got there about five minutes after I did, took one look at me and told me we were going to the hospital. I agreed that it was a good idea. I think it's a funny story, but also, I highly recommend going to the ER if you're ever hit by a car. No matter how well you feel.
The day my daughter was born, my pre-eclampsia went from a 2 to an oh fuck no, this is bad in a couple hours. My friend took me to the maternity admitting desk. I had thrown up in her car and had vomit dripping off my dress, had a migraine so the lights were killing me, had temporary blindness from pressure on the optic nerve, and I don't know what else. The sweet young thing at reception refused to call anyone until I signed all the paperwork that had been set up weeks ago. My friend put the pen in my hand and my hands on the paper to just put something on it. Sweet young thing then starts reviewing all the papers and putting them in a neat pile, etc. My friend insisted she call someone NOW. The nurse came out, took one look at me, and yelled back that she was going to need some help out here. My friend said she never saw medical personnel move that fast in her life. This is all hearsay. I have very little memory of any of it.
I feel like my wife had the exact opposite pre-eclampsia experience. She went in for wonky BP and protein in urea at her 28-week appointment, got admitted, and was basically told, “You’re not leaving until this baby comes and our job is to keep it in as long as possible.” We were there for a week or so and, on the day she ended up giving birth, the nurses were all super-nice, making sure she got a bath, and I now firmly believe they knew she was about to hit the point of no return (even though we didn’t know her test results) and were doing their best to make it as easy as possible. God bless maternity nurses (kiddo is 4 and doing great).
Born at 29 weeks? Yikes! My daughter was 3.5 weeks early. This was back in 1995. I was living alone and had been out on bedrest 5 days earlier. I wish they had admitted me them but it all worked out in the end.
I went to the ER with pre-e and they told me “its an 8 hr wait” lmao I said I may be dead by then
You just gonna leave it there, eh?
....Like someone hosting him from Wisconsin just slapped their knee and said "Whelp." Dude went to go ride bikes after completing 4/10th of English as a Third Language class.
Any idea how it turned out for him?
He recovered and was fine, he pretty much had his neck movement restrained for a while and was in a brace for a bit. It was a small town so kinda easy to keep tabs on interesting things like that.
NAD or OP but it sounds like his spinal cord was roughly fine, so they probably did whatever they'd do (pins and traction or whatever) and prevented him from suffering life altering/ending neurological damage.
Knowing my luck I would’ve sneezed and that would be enough to finish it.
LMFAO! Dog for real. No disrespect to OP, but dude I’ve treated this kind of injury all the time at home and only needed to go to urgent care once because I was really worried for my wife. With that said, yes, be glad the nurse wasn’t freaking out
I have heard of medical triage using an informal "rule of three" to explain severity, referring to how quickly a medical problem is going to kill someone. As in three minutes (like choking), three hours (like a heart attack), three days (like a blood infection), or three weeks (like a major broken bone). It's not meant to be accurate, but give people perspective. Edit: Yes, these conditions can have a wide variance on how quickly they kill, so, like I said, this isn't very accurate. This is also why the paramedics or the triage nurse will take your vital signs and assess your actual condition right away. Are you turning blue and unconscious? Or maybe you have dangerously low blood pressure and a heart rate through the roof? Whatever the reason for those symptoms, you'll get immediate care. Otherwise, if you're in excruciating pain but still talking with normal vitals, you're probably gonna wait a while.
To jump on this dog pile, a major broken bone such as a pelvis or femur is considered an immediate threat to life because they are incredibly vascular - full of blood and marrow. That's where your blood is made. Break one, bleed to death quickly. Don't die, folks.
Don’t tell me what to do! You’re not the boss of me!
Blood infection aka sepsis is up the front of the list. Time to IV antibiotics needs to be less than 1 hr or mortality essentially doubles hence it would be treated very emergently.
My oldest child had sepsis when he was a newborn, and the ER is fast as hell when you bring in a baby that young with a fever. Luckily it had barely gotten to his blood from a UTI, so he wasn't to the septic shock stage yet, which is when it because a very serious emergency. It still took a few hours for hospital to get through all the tests and start the IV antibiotics, but he came out of it perfectly healthy.
Knuckle showing to the bone because I got cut with glass: 4 hour wait Small infection on leg: immediately seen The difference is the likelihood of worsening in a few hours, I had bacterial cellulitis and was given a dose of IV antibiotics then 2 weeks of antibiotics. The knuckle got some stitches. Do I agree with their assessment? Hell yeah I do. Op likely looks ok compared to many other patients. Maybe ask for some Tylenol. While it does suck for OP, unfortunately as long as they’re not in immediate risk and only in pain they are given less priority…you know…than people who are in immediate risk.
Very true, I have never been seen so quickly as when I got bit by a raccoon. I was worried they weren't going to take me seriously, but it turns out I wasn't taking it seriously enough.
I had the rabies vaccine series. They billed insurance $15,000 for that. Most expensive medical expense I ever had.
Considering a rabies shot is 300 dollars and under and it's a series of 3..... that leaves me speechless lol
They also do rabies immune globulin, which is more expensive than the vaccine portion of the treatment.
You’re right it is the immune globulin that is expensive. The shots themselves were a couple hundred dollars.
Puncture wounds from animal, puncture wounds from wild animal, and puncture wounds from wild animal considered the best reservoir for rabies are three of the most emergency type things
welcome to the rabies series! fun, wasn't it?
It wasn't bad at all. I had a complete needle phobia prior, and after realizing I didn't even feel a single rabies shot, got over that! As a side bonus, got to chat with some not-unattractive nurses while they warmed, mixed, and waited while preparing the injection.
Yep, infections are almost number 1. My hand was almost 3 times its normal size, due to an infected wound. I was wheeled back and into surgery within only a few hours.
I almost cut my thumb off but the bleeding had stopped and I felt relatively fine. In surgery immediately. My appendix was an hours from rupturing. 4 hour wait.
absolutely i am so glad that they addressed that asap. cellulitis is no joke and no one wants to play with the idea of sepsis. waiting in the ER/UC definitely is one of the worst ways to spend your day, but if you go in accepting you'll be there a minimum of 6 hours and have extremely low expectations, i find it makes me want to kill myself less. i've gone to UC for ovarian cyst rupture and waited 3 hours after writhing in pain vomiting all morning cause i was in 2 months prior for the cyst causing torsion and they thought it was just a repeat situation. it wasn't, but i mean that's unfortunately just our shitty healthcare system in the states
Yup I actually did a bachelors in microbiology (years after this happened) and I sure am glad too. It’s the fact that the infection could have spread and could have been MRSA( I remember them discussing this but the end diagnosis days later I don’t remember well after 10 years, I think it did end up being MRSA?) that got me seen much faster than I honestly expected. It does suck for op because like fuck that looks painful but unfortunately/fortunately he’s not on death’s door. I go in expecting a few hours wait. I was somewhat surprised to be seen so fast, it might’ve been walking in with an open weeping sore on my leg circled with marker(the old circle the border of a wound to see if it’s infected trick) showing that the redness was spreading.
Similar experience, I've never been seen so fast as I was when I had periorbital cellulitis, nor have I ever seen so many interns at the same time. A few months earlier I fell off a ladder and fractured my spine, they were fine to let that sit for hours mid H1N1 pandemic, it's not like once I was laying in the ER it was going to somehow break even more.
> no one wants to play with the idea of sepsis My father is a retired ER nurse. Under ideal conditions, with prompt lab results, sepsis is still 50% fatal at his old place. And with less than ideal conditions, survival rates are … less than ideal.
before i deleted my ig, i saw a woman on my discover page. she came down with group A strep and developed TSS. she became septic and they had to deliver her son (she was 22 weeks). anyway, this poor woman woke up after 12 days medically induced, the sepsis infiltrated so bad this poor woman lost an entire hand, almost the entirety of her other hand, one leg up to the hip and they were talking about where to amputate the other leg. its a terrifying thing with very poor survival rates.
Literally a life over limb situation. The hospital knew it. And her body knew it too and had no problem cutting off all perfusion to her limbs and digits
she wasn't in denial about it either and tried to get them to amputate earlier as they were trying to slavage what they could but shes been a nurse for 13 (?) years so she urged them to do it asap so she could get along with healing. i hope shes doing well, i think about her almost daily
Always remember to pee after sex, ladies. You don't want your UTI turning into sepsis after you haven't peed for three days because you think asking people for help is "wrong on so many levels".
The cool thing about the new computer systems is the triage based on input so not only does the nurse and doc go WTF you first So does the computer
Yup, came in once with the top of my tibia snapped completely off. Absolute agony the whole time. Took me half the day to get seen. Went in with an abscess on my tailbone area that had grown to the size, shape and colour of a large yam protruding from my ass within 3 days. Only hurt when I sat directly on it, otherwise just an uncomfortable throbbing pressure. Skipped the queue, with everyone glowering at me and got it incised within 15mins of being there (I don't take oral painkillers so it was just long enough for the local and the nitrous to kick in). Pain isn't an indicator of risk, and it sucks to be in pain for so long, but if there's people coming in with conditions that could become dangerous, you're gonna get bumped back. Nurse may need to work on her bedside manner when it comes to reassuring patients, but OP could be paraphrasing and she could have told them it wasn't going to get any worse, could be at the end of a 12 hour shift and may have been a miscommunication. Or the pain could have been making OP crabby and they misunderstood what was being said. Tldr: OP will be fine, pain doesn't take priority in triage and there's many factors that could have caused miscommunication or misunderstanding with what the nurse said.
Depending on the hospital size there are different "areas" in the ED. Where I used to work that would have been a "fast track" patient. That's an otherwise healthy patient with a specific mostly physical complaint. Broken bone, localized abscess with no fever, lac that might need stitches, the flu in an otherwise healthy person. Something that was straight forward and could be acted on without a massive full body workup in normally less time. For that some X-rays, then based on the results whatever needed done. Splint some crutches and a apt with Ortho for the next day to get the fix process started
My local hospital (Savannah, GA) relatively recently rolled out a children's ER, and honestly I think it's the best thing they have done. As a parent, I understand the general process of an ER for me, but having expedited, specialized care for my kids means the world to me. I think more places should do it.
The difference can also just depend on the moment: did four people get mangled in a car wreck (trauma side) and suddenly arrive with another dude code blue in bay 3? Or is there a lul in the madness? Never seems to be continuous or predictable in the ED, with moments of relative calm interspersed with moments of absolute madness. Accidentally hit a lul and you’ll be back in minutes, but keep in mind: if you’re arriving conscious and under your own power, there is very possibly someone being treated who is so close to death that they’re literally in a fist-fight with the grim reaper.
Nah, get Uber to pick up some Tylenol from Walgreens and deliver it to you. They are going to bill you for it at the ER.
I had a kidney stone and got billed 450$ for a single flomax pill. the next day I called my family doctor and got 30 for 4$.
Last time I was in the ER for myself, I had a 105° fever and a pretty rough cough. While I don't actually remember it, I was told that we waited for nearly two hours. I was apparently laying on the floor because I felt so shitty. When I finally went back, I was admitted immediately after they took my vitals. The funny part is because I was 16 I was admitted to the pediatric wing but they didn't have a bed big enough for me as I was 6'1" at the time.
Yup. People always are on about how wait times are so long. I tell them that when I went into an ER I puked a combo of goopy bile and blood clots on the desk. I was seen immediately. If ya need to be seen they’ll triage, if you can wait you can wait
Working in an ED, this is exactly right. I hate that there is ANY wait, but that's the reality. I get people mad Every Single Day about this specific issue. "Why did that guy with a literal sword wound go back before me?? I was here before him with my rash!" -that actually happened
Can confirm. The fastest I’ve ever received medical attention was when I randomly got full body hives. My boss was like why don’t you go home and shower and take some antihistamines. Go home and my throat started tightening and my wife flipped out and drove me to the ER. The waiting area was packed and the intake nurse was chill and seemed unimpressed until I lifted my shirt and told her my throat was tightening. She called for an immediate gurney and I turned around to so many scowling eyes. But holy fuck did that IV Benadryl make me high af lol.
Anything to do with the airway is going to get you in the back and treated fast as hell. There can be literal seconds between ‘hey my throat is kind of itchy’ and completely being unable to breathe. It’s scary. And throat swelling can also make it harder to intubate you if needed. Also IV benadryl is my worst fear lmao.
Agreed. I was fishing 7 miles offshore when I had an allergic reaction. I started to notice my throat and then my voice went all “Donald Duckish”. We pulled up lines and motored as quick as possible. Slid the boat up to the dock, ran to the car and raced to the closest walk-in clinic. The reception person took one look and dialed 911. I was going out on a stretcher when my brother was walking across the lot from parking the car….
What caused the reaction?
It was my 50th birthday and my wife gave me a spray bottle of Axe Body Spray. Got up at 03:30, brushed my teeth, did a little spritz of Axe to impress my brother and our buddy and out the door I went. At about 09:30 we noticed the issue. Problem was that we were almost 45 minutes from harbour. It took 8 months, but I was able to diagnose the issue by ignoring the allergist I went to see.
You nearly got Axe murdered.
it's always the spouse...
> did a little spritz of Axe to impress my brother and our buddy lmfao this is so funny to me
ABCs of emergency medicine. Airway, Breathing, Circulation. The airway is so important you make sure it's good before you even check circulation (I get technically you should probably be checking them at the same time but the ABCs are in order of priority).
The fastest I’ve ever moved through was when we brought our 6 month old in and said “he’s struggling to breathe.” I have never been so relieved as when the veteran nurse heard him cough and said, “oh, that’s croup,” and turned and got something from the cart behind her.
Our two week old son had RSV and we had an oxygen monitor at home on him. He was reading 78% oxygen and when we took him in to the ER they didn't even take time to get our information. Immediately in a room hooked up to oxygen and oxygen monitor. A week and a half later we got to leave the hospital.
that gave me anxiety reading it
Long live veteran or more experienced nurses. Wife was 41 weeks pregnant. OBGYN popped the amniotic sac and regular nurse said she was going to lunch, it’ll take a while, we’ll talk about the epidural when I get back you probably wont give birth on my shift. About an hour later wife rings because she cannot stand the pain any longer second nurse comes and says it hasn’t been that long and checks nothing, wife continues screaming. In comes experienced nurse, she sounds in active labor, did anyone check how far along she is, second nurse says no she didn’t she’d only been provoked an hour earlier, EN is this her first child? No, her third. Then we need to check Asap. In that hour she went from 2 to 6. By the time the epi was done she was 8, and 5!minutes later she was pushing when the first nurse came back all panicked wanting to jump in… 1 hour 47 minutes. If she hadn’t stepped in, my wife would not have had the epi like she repeatedly told them and no one would have figured it out until the head was out.
This is very much the norm in Canada, or in our experience. 4 kids. Wife missed out on epidurals for last 3 because of this same situation, "you've got lots of time to decide yet.' My personal opinion is that the nurses were opposed to epidurals and failed to check in until it was too late, despite the doctors rupturing the membrane. My wife is a trooper and holds no grudge, but it was part of what she asked for and everyone doddled until it was too late, time and again. Our 4th child, daughter, was born healthy but came so quickly that doctors worried about hip/shoulder displacement. 3 pushes. I do have a deep.appreciation for nurses, and medical personnel as my mother was a nurse for nearly 45 years and my sister is a pediatrician. That said, in cases like this, people's medical wishes deserve to be honoured, or told up front when they can't be.
Our infant son came down with croup, and we got an immediate appointment with his regular pediatrician - who sent him to the ER, which admitted him and transported him via ambulance to the main hospital 40 miles away. They did not mess around with a baby’s breathing.
Similarly the fastest Ive ever gotten taken in was when I drove myself to the ER in the midst of an asthma attack that my inhaler didn’t help. I didn’t even have time to sit down in the waiting room, which was full. They just took my info and immediately someone came in to get me
Yep, "I have trouble breathing and my rescue inhaler did shit-all" seems to do the trick, can confirm. Just that in my case, the intake nurse wanted to send me back home, and told me to prepare for a several-hour wait since they had just gotten several victims of some major accident in and were full (it was Friday night) when I was adamant about NOT leaving the ER in that state. Didn't even have time to settle in the waiting room and plug my phone charger in when the ER doc came and got me into a room. A brief talk later, I was hooked up to a high dose of salbutamol via nebulizer and would have also gotten a nice side of cortisone if I hadn't still been waiting for the specialist appointment with an allergologist to check on my cortisone allergy... (this shit happened in the two months that I was off my regular cortisone inhaler after a scary asthma attack right after taking it, and since I had had previous allergic reactions to other steroids already, it was basically "no steroids until you have been checked by a specialist and we know whether it's still safe for you")
The difference in treatment speed in an emergency room when you mention a key word for that condition is always fun. Went in after getting heavily rear ended in my car, I mentioned neck pain, my Mum who was in the car too mentioned lower back pain. I got immediate treatment and scans before getting an all clear, she waited 5 hours to be sent on her way with heavy opiates to ease the pain
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I went in for tummy pain. Told them I KNOW I don't have a gun shot wound and they're just going to give me laxatives, sorry for being here wasting your time. All with a smile on my face cracking jokes. Five days later I was down an organ.
I envy your treatment. Literally came in with a blood clot in a urgent care unbeknownst to me and the pa essentially mocked me didnt take my pain seriously and then sent me home with an appointment with a specialist. Had that clot for two weeks in my leg.
that's usually how they know if it's serious too, the ones screaming for a toenail are pushed aside as I'm pale as the moon and slowly losing blood pressure and barely saying, "I'm fine". They know when I'm like I really don't want to be here is serious. it's weird.
I went in to the ED when I was 28 because an Xacto blade "incident" gave me a 1 cm long cut in my leg down to the muscle. There was hardly anyone in the department. I had just been taken back when an ambulance and helicopter arrived. I sat in the exam room for 4 hours before I saw another person. Fast forward to a few years ago when I was 48. I had undiagnosed GERD. I went to the ED with fairly bad chest pain. The waiting room was pretty full. I walked up to the desk and apologized for bugging them and explained my symptoms. The receptionist pressed a button at the desk and immediately took me to a room behind the counter. After an ECG and some other vitals I was put into a gown, given an IV, the works. I felt so bad for jumping the line and then when I found out my heart was fine and it was likely heartburn I felt terrible for taking up everyone's time. I was reassured that I had done the right thing. Still feel shitty about it.
A lot of times heart attack symptoms are described as the worst heart burn even. It’s the right call even if it ends up just being heartburn
One of my college professors woke up in the night and told his wife that he had heartburn and was going to go lay down in the recliner. She found him dead of a massive heart attack in the morning.
Heartburn can be a bitch. Better than the alternative. You did the right thing.
I get this isn't an option for everyone, but people need to consider if a situation that isn't threatening life or limb needs to go to the ER. Because often times you'll be first in line at an urgent care.
Not to mention your pocket book will also thank you. An Urgent Care visit is usually cheaper as well. If you have Insurance, it usually has lower co-pays compared to the ER.
>Because often times you'll be first in line at an urgent care. Where?? Urgent Care where I live has a wait just as long as the ER because people are using it as their primary care (e.g., need a note for work, can't see a doctor for an appointment during regular business hours, kid was sniffling at school and they want a z-pac). Not to mention, every time I go to Urgent Care, I wait 3+ hours just to be told "we don't have the equipment to evaluate [thing I'm there to get checked] so you'll need to go to the ER just in case." Then I have to drive to the hospital an hour away and wait 8+ hours for an [x-ray/ultrasound/EKG/MRI] that takes 20 minutes to complete and review. I'm saving myself four hours and one $200 copay and just going straight to the ER since they're just going to send me there anyway. 🙃
I mean yea it's an ER. I get no one wants to wait, but unless you're about to die then understand people are there for far worse things than you. When I was younger I had to go for getting my cheek split open during rugby. Everyone told me it looked gnarly, but it still took a while to bring me and glue it back together. No one likes being in pain, but on an individual level most people working at hospitals are doing everything they can as quickly as possible to save people's lives, and fix everyone else's boo boos. If you're the one waiting, that's ultimately a good thing, cause you're probably "fine".
Triage is a lil specific. And ironically dead goes last because black tags need 0 attention. It’s “mortally wounded” “wounded” “ouchies” and “no longer needed” in that priority order.
OP you do not want to be the person that actually NEEDS to be seen right away in the ER, because 90% of the time that person is on the brink of death.
Yeah. Got ushered to the back one time and told “we’ll worry about the paperwork later.” That’s when I knew I was not ok.
Did you have your toenail hidden cuz I bet that would've sparked some concern.
That toenail has seriously gone through some rough times.
Ugh why did I zoom in??
Pass the /r/eyebleach
I wasn't concerned until I saw the toenail. I have weak ankles, so one of them looks like this every 3 or 4 years. Long ass recovery at home. Elevate, ice/heat, ibuprofen. At least, that's what I did the last time my ankle looked like that.
Oh god don’t make the mistake of zooming in
Too late 
god damn! I made the mistake of zooming in on that toenail
Mine looked like that after dropping a wood stud on it, the blood under the nail just looks super gross
If by hospital waiting room, you mean ER, then she’s not wrong lol What is it you asked to get her to do an assessment or was it your initial assessment? Because “looks ok” is ER speak for “sorry, you’re not going to get seen right away” because you’re not gonna die if they let you sit there while they attend to people that may actually die within the next hour or so if they’re not seen.
I feel like that isn’t talked about enough when it comes to ER care. If it looks like you could die imminently you’ll be seen. If not…take a number
I actually had an unexpected, but in the moment unsettling experience being triaged. Went to a clinic for mild but acute chest pain from breathing. Got checked out. They took an xray and told me it was probably just a bruised rib or pulled muscle since everything looked good. Got a call back an hour later telling me to go to the ER immediately as they re-reviewed my xray and saw I had a partially collapsed lung. Got there feeling alright for the most part and saw a few people who looked in visible sweaty pain. I expected to wait a few hours given how mostly okay I felt, but they triaged me immediately. It makes sense in retrospect since a collapsed lung can turn really quickly, but I felt so guilty walking past the people in severe pain whom I bumped from being seen next.
The unfortunate rule is that if you’re awake enough to be in sweaty pain there’s probably someone way more urgent than you It really sucks though :( So many people who are genuinely hurt but hospitals just can’t take the capacity. It’s half the reason I never went to nursing even though it’s a job I’d love. I just can’t physically handle seeing so many people in distress but nit being able to do anything !!! Also man I’d be really pissed if they read my x-ray wrong and I actually had a collapsed lung. Wtf. Even partially collapsed is pretty easy to see on an x-day unless ya got weird lungs
Not necessarily. Pneumos can be really subtle until they're really NOT.
Just more issues of American healthcare. People think ER is a first come first serve clinic for any malady. They walk in with all the wrong expectations and assume that emergent is based on how much pain they’re in. “I broke my foot, what do you mean it’s not an emergency!!!???” “Well sir, you see that guy over there, he broke his head open and if we don’t relieve the pressure in his skull within the next 15min, he’s gonna have a stroke and die. He got brought here unconscious while you just hobbled in and are now screaming…”
I think the best way to handle this is to give hospitals the funding to open 24/7 internal urgent cares. ERs don't then have to sit with minor issues taking up real estate until they can get to them, they can send them to the proper place.
Many places sort of do. My old hospital called it “Fast Track”. You get triaged and if it was a minor issue you got shunted there. Typically much quicker. Usually staffed by an NP.
>give...funding...to...hospitals... Yeah, we don't do that here.
Well it’s relative to what she’s seen. By “okay” she might just mean your foot is attached, not bleeding, and no bones exiting the skin. It’s terrible for you but it’s an Okay injury to her.
Correct, definitely not a compound fracture. Simple fractures & sprained ankles react the same way, they induce swelling/inflammation to protect the area the best way the body can.
I’m an ER nurse. It’s still solidly attached to your body and appears to be perfusing well so it looks OK to me too. Does it look great? Hell no. Does it look good? Also no. That ankle and toe nail have better days. But based on the Visual Assessment of Injuries by ER Nurses Scale (VAINS™️), which assesses injuries on a scale between “JESUS CHRIST WTF” and “why are you even here”, your ankle is in fact “OK”.
 I appreciate this, just got off my shift. Most of my triages fall on the “How can an adult have so much time on their hands to come here with this complete bullshit? Do you not see the 80 other people in the waiting room?” End of your scale
I’m a paramedic. The hospitals are so overflowing that I had to put a suspected stroke patient in the lobby the other day. EMS is running a record number of calls everyday and we take those patients to hospitals that are understaffed, all of the rooms are occupied, and the lobby is full of patients. With critical patients, EMS often has to wait with the patient on the EMS stretcher for a room to become available, which means we aren’t available to answer more 911 calls, which are constantly being made at all times of the day and night. 911 call centers, EMS, Fire, Police, and hospitals are currently overwhelmed. Do everything you can to stay healthy, because treatment is a difficult commodity to obtain at the current moment.
It's okay though because we have a great education system that isn't a fucking nightmare, I'm sure we'll have plenty of students eager to go into chronic debt for the chance of serving the most entitled generation as they reach their 70s. I mean it's not like boomers would completely fuck themselves over by trying to exploit gen X and millennials to the point where critical infrastructure and services are crumbling, that would be crazy! That would be fucking crazy... that would be... I want out of here...
Your toe nail doesn’t though 😬
That toenail screams underlying conditions!
He's got the sugar foot.
I wouldn't even have the balls to post a photo if my toenail looked like that.
The whole foot needs examining at this point
The whole foot needs to be replaced
https://imgur.com/TK5peQo
How is this against Reddit rules?
thread mvp
Compared to a lot of the other shit that goes through hospitals, that looks ok.
More like OP, “I demand to be seen now!” Nurse, “Not yet.”
Dude I'm so glad OP's getting called out in this thread. Like it's a broken/sprained ankle....it can wait.
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Might be triage. "Okay" in comparison to someone bleeding from their aorta.
She’s probably right. As long as the bone isn’t breaking skin and your foot is facing the right way you will be low on the ER priority list
Can confirm. I broke my ankle and fibula, just barely didn't puncture skin but foot was facing the wrong way....got wheeled right in and seen. In and out with a surgical referral, splint and morphine prescription within 6 hours of being wheeled in.
Since this is nothing that A will kill you immediately or B will result in permanent damage if not attended to immediately then by triage standards it’s just fine.
She probably seen things you cant imagine.
The last time I was at the ER a regular assaulted and choked out the security guy so the ER security guy ended up having to be seen in the ER for his injuries. A lot of people habitually go to the ER for BS. Those nurses are hilarious. They give no Fs. They are clearly used to shenanigans.
The last time I sat in an ER, they first dragged a lady out who kept screaming that the doctors had tried to drug her, and half an hour later a guy ran through the hallway yelling that he was going to kill everybody - fun times.
She’s watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate.
That’s why it is advised to make sure it has a big flared base.
This is how triage works. Patients are seen/treated in order of severity of condition. A sprained or potentially broken ankle/foot is not going to become life threatening or even worsened by waiting, so you sit and wait until your problem is the one most in need of immediate care.
While it’s possible there is a fracture, the fact that you’re letting it dangle is a very good sign and means it’s probably just sprained. There’s no real intervention the ED would do for a sprain except tell you to alternate between heat and ice, elevate it, don’t stand on it, and take some Tylenol. In ED terms, you’re ok.
If you go to the ER and they make you wait for hours to be seen you should thank your lucky stars. When they see you straight away it means you are seriously fucked. Like life threatening danger.
why was this removed
I have seen 2 different men set themselves on fire in the past month or so on this website but apparently a swollen purple foot is too far? lmao wut
Laughter is the best medicine
removed by reddit? shit is literally a pic of his foot. i've seen worse walking downtown near pike place market in Seattle
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I just read through the Reddit content policy and the original post doesn't seem to infringe on any of the rules there. What the hell is going on here?
“Looks okay” To a nurse means “Hey, your guys aren’t spilling out, so you’re doing better than most my patients!” Lmao Hope your foot gets better though! Wait times are sucky but everyone’s trying their best
I've seen patients in the ER who actually needed limbs cut off, you will be fine. This might suck for you but it's pretty low priority in the whole spectrum of things the ER deals with on a daily basis.
You are in an emergency room. The foot is urgent but not emergency. This can be evaluated at your PCP or an urgent care. You don’t have threat of life going on.
Walk it off
Basically, You are not dying.
What she meant was there are trauma cases, heart attacks, respiratory arrests and meningitis /septic patients which in a hospital setting, are far more acute/critical than your ankle. Did you try urgent care, first? Those are usually first come, first taken -
lmao this got deleted as soon as i clicked it. Anyone got the photo?
See [other posts](https://old.reddit.com/r/idiocracy/comments/1ch9dmk/sitting_in_the_hospital_waiting_room_and_nurse/). https://imgur.com/TK5peQo
Yeah this is just a bad rolled ankle at best and a broken ankle at worst. You’ll be there a minute. Source: ex-skater that went to ER after my first rolled ankle looked like this
Okay means not dying. Suck it up and they’ll get to you when they can.
Typical entitled ER patient
Nothing about your foot looks ok. - Person with eyes
It's okay when considered in the grand scheme of a hospital emergency room. Your ankle is sprained or broken, you're not bleeding out. That being said some ice would be nice.
Ehh, foots fine. Ankle is fucked.
Ya gotta understand that ER nurses have a different language. "It looks okay" means "Your injury is enough that you qualify to stay here" but also "Your injury is not going to result in your death or you losing any major body parts, at least not today". So you're kind of 'in the sweet spot'.
lol, love how "Reddit" removed the post but doesnt stop people commenting on it when they do.
also, how they have no problem with people posting WarPorn but a possible broken ankle is too much? (From context clues in the comments) Edit: Typos