asthmatic patient has near fatal experience at health facility
By trinihd
@trinihd (996)
United States
January 2, 2008 1:37pm CST
It's scary to think that going to one hospital (vs another) might actually be hazardous to your health, but that seems to be the case with Trinidad's Arima Health Facility. A woman became unconscious before she was allowed to see a doctor. In fact, the first time she saw the doctor was when she regained consciousness, and he was asking questions to the security guard who had previously refused to admit the patient through the emergency entrance, but the guard just walked away without answering. Isn't that outrageous!? I can't imagine what in the world would possess a security guard to refuse admittance to a patient who dragged herself over to the emergency entrance, clearly in distress. Are these security personnel in need of mental health counselling? Are they sociopaths? Somebody would have gotten suspended, or fired if I was an administrator in that hospital. But I wonder if the doctor even complained to hospital management about the guard, or if they listened to his complaint. I feel that this guard should not be allowed to continue unpunished because the next time, someone might die as a direct result of his/her actions. Then what will they do?
http://feteandmadness.blogspot.com/2008/01/health-madness-at-arima-health-facility.html
2 responses
@4monsters4me (2569)
• United States
2 Jan 08
I find it crazy that a security guard with no medical training can determine who does and doesn't need care. That is just insane.
I remember once when my oldest was about 3 I took her to the ER because she had been complaining of a severe headache since the night before. I took her to our local children's hospital which was attached to a regular hospital. The children's ER also served as the adult urgent care center (meaning if it wasn't life threatening they were sent to the children's hospital ER).
The waiting room had seating for about 10 people and it was crammed with about 4 sick kids and 3 adults (one who had cut his finger almost off).
We waited for 3 hours and only 2 people went through. Some of these kids were really sick. My child was not and here we were sitting in a tiny room with really sick kids so we went out to the hall to wait. Out in the hall was this little boy, maybe 5 years old laying across his mother's lap as she sat on the floor. He had tears running down his face and obviously was having trouble breathing. Every breath was labored and drawn out and I wanted to cry for him. Someone in the waiting room said they had been there several hours and the boy was there before they were and couldn't breath then either.
We ended up leaving before we saw a doctor and I was disgusted that the poor boy who was obviously having a serious asthma attack was left to suffer in the hall instead of actually being sent to the top of the ER list like he should have been. Instead adults and others that weren't emergencies were going ahead of him. And this was supposed to be one of the best children's hospitals in the area.
1 person likes this
@trinihd (996)
• United States
2 Jan 08
Oh my!! I cannot believe this happened at a hospital that is supposed to be one of the best children's hospitals. The fact that a young boy who was so obviously suffering was not attended to immediately is frightening. I would hope that events like this are not repeated. How could a hospital maintain a good reputation when things like this are happening?
