Emergency Room Express
Posted by: sudiptabq on: June 17, 2010
So you all know that I sliced my foot open. I forgot to tell you, though, about the experience of getting treatment.
I was brought to the emergency room after the whole fainting episode, and after the folks who were around wrapped my foot up in bandages to, you know, keep me from bleeding all over everything. Upon arrival, I was put into a wheelchair and then… I waited.
No one checked to see if I had done real damage, or if I was bleeding uncontrollably. Probably because there was already a bandage on it.
When I finally saw the triage nurse, I figured she would take a look at the foot to, you know, triage it.
WRONG.
She merely took my blood pressure and wheeled me to a separate part of the ER called, “Express Lane.”
You know how there are those signs at amusement parks that say, “You wait from this point is 214 minutes”? If there had been a sign like that I actually would’ve respected it. It would’ve made me smile. I’d have seen the humor in it and found patience.
Instead, I found it incredibly insulting to be take to the “Express Lane” where I waited for 2 hours (again, with no one checking on the status of my bleeding). Really? Express? I’m not sure that word means what this hospital thinks it means.
2 Responses to "Emergency Room Express"
November 9, 2011 at 10:48 am
Hi Sudipta – I came here from Tara Lazar’s PiBoIdMo post this AM and I am so glad I did! Your blog posts are extremely funny!
My ER story is a different one: As I lifted my chubby 3 yr old from the tub one night I felt a ‘pop’ and figured I’d pulled a muscle in my stomach. Woke up the next morning with throbbing pain. Asked DH to take kid to preschool and drive me to doctor. Doctor sent me immediately to the ER with an ‘incarcerated umbilical hernia.’ ER plopped an IV in my arm and wheeled me toward surgery as I said, “No, wait! I have to pick my kid up from preschool!” This was all happening too fast for me. I’d been in the hospital only twice before – for the births of my two kids! At the pre-op door my gurney nearly smashed into another carrying a 4 year old girl with a ruptured appendix. Doctors proceed to argue about which patient needed surgery first. And they picked ME! In recovery I asked about the little girl – she made it through surgery and was OK – but I’ve always felt incredibly guilty about bumping her from priority status. I guess whether you have the multi-hour wait or the express lane, the ER is no place that you want to be if you can avoid it!
July 17, 2010 at 4:20 pm
Hiya Sudipta. I loved your lecture at the SCBWI June 2010 conference in Princeton. I loved it so much that I forgot to get up and meet with Rebecca Fraser for my one on one at 4:15. (Met up with her at the Cafe Centro dinner in NYC on June 29th and apologized). Here are my comments: number one, you are a fun to read blogger; “B”, sorry about your foot (I don’t do well with blood loss either. who does?); and, lastly, I am addicted to NJ Housewives, and my friend’s kids go to school (Consolation in Wayne, NJ) with the NJ housewife, Danielle’s kids. My friend attended that dinner Danielle threw for her daughter, who wasn’t even at the dinner, and my friend is only an aquaintance of Danielle’s. How many of those women are her true friends? I wonder. My friend said that she can only take her in small doses. Just a little gossip to cheer your foot up…love that Choo =) Happy blogging! laurabdiamond.wordpress.com