[graciegirl]

Originally Posted by Pturner

I recently had outpatient surgery at The Villages Hospital. For the most part, all went well. My earlier, related experience in ER though was a disaster.

I went to ER the evening of March 1 when I broke my arm (which is why I haven't posted in so long, btw.) The five hour wait to see a doctor is understandable. First come, first served doesn't work in ER. Triage must always, always come first. I get that.

What is not reasonable is that I remained in excrutiating pain for five hours without medication. That's just cruel. The nurses claimed that the doctor would have to examine my arm before pain medication could be administered. That was not true. First words out of the doctor's mouth as he was entering my room were, "has anyone given you anything for pain"? When I said no, he said, "start the morphine drip". Thankfully he wasn't sadistic enough to examine my arm without administering pain medication. Unfortunately, by then, the morphine was useless. There was no getting the pain under control after five excrutiating hours.

Then, when the x-ray tech was sent for, no doctor or nurse stayed to help position my arm for the x-ray. The tech either couldn't or wouldn't. I had naively thought the pain could not possibly get any worse but sadly discovered I was mistaken when forced to position my arm for xray unassisted by someone who could take the pressure off my arm. Again, cruelty beyond belief. First do no harm?

Surely, they can do better.

Oh P. I am so sorry.