alright so this basically took place sometime in January 07, let's flashback in time... Does anybody think that this would be enough to make a case?:
I had written an entire list of my symptoms ahead of time while I still could because I knew that I might have concentration and memory issues at the hospital. Symptoms included itching throughout entire body, nonstop menstrual bleeding, rectal bleeding, severe sphincter spasming/pain, uncontrollable muscle seizures (not just simple fasciculations but enough movement to call it a seizure of a muscle), pain in front right pelvic region while urination, strange taste of toxic fluids in my mouth, smell of rotten blood which I could only perceive, chest pain, disorientation, and a white collagen-colored gel oozing out of random arteries in my limbs, hands, and especially the scalp. Some symptoms started earlier on, and then they started multiplying at such a fast rate...
The nurse called the doctor in, and they were acting very professional about it, taking my situation very seriously, that is--until I told them about the drugs I was on. I knew that I would test positive for ketamine, methamphetaine, and heroin, but only admitted to meth. Although my last dose was over 20 hours ago, I still knew that I had to tell them about my daily injection habit in case of drug complications, in case it may direct them into pinpointing exactly what was wrong with me.
The second I told them about my drug use, I don't know WHY, but they stopped listening to me. They thought that I was either imagining or making up all the symptoms and triple-checked my heartrate and blood pressure to make sure I wasn't having a panic attack, which I knew I fucking wasn't from the very beginning! "Listen, I'm not here for my heart okay, I know my blood pressure is fine, I have one of those machines at home," I spoke firmer. "It's been this long since I took anything, I purposely waited until I was sober enough to make sure it wasn't just paranoia. I'm almost certain it's an infection can you PLEASE test me."
They took a urine sample to check my electrolytes, sodium level, and kidneys. They also talked about taking some blood samples from me to look at the white and red blood cell count.
'No no no,' I protested, 'You can do those too but please test for any organisms in my blood, I really believe I have an infection and it's invaded my bloodstream.' They wouldn't even LISTEN to me--I couldn't believe it! Here I am sitting there ADMITTING to being an IV user, ADMITTING to using unsterile equipment in infested areas, complaining about a possible infection, AND THEY AREN'T EVEN GOING TO BOTHER TESTING ME!!!
I start freaking out about it, asking why they aren't going to do some sort of blood test, and I kept demanding and demanding until he agreed to do a cross-culture test (I was to find out later that this was a complete lie). He left me with his sad example of a nurse, who rolled his eyes. "Oh yeah suuureeeeee... you're afraid of bugs in your body, right? Riiiiiiiiiiight." He was very sarcastic about any type of pain I was feeling and seemed extremely angered at my mere presence. He sat down to draw my blood and asked what happened to my arms. I told him my veins had collapsed in both arms and he would have to hit my legs. Nope, didn't listen again.
He moved up so that the tourniquet was closer to my wrist, and snapped it on as TIGHTLY as he could put it. I've had plenty of shots, and I've never had a tourney HURT as much as it did then. Then he prepares his 20G.
"I'm telling you, you won't be able to hit," I protested. My arm had already gone numb in less than 15 seconds. I asked if that was normal. He ignored my pleas about my arm going numb, just says, "Well that'll be because real nurses and doctors are doing it now, we know how to treat your veins much better than you do." Yea, whatever. I could probably hit better in the dark than this guy did. This sad excuse of a hospital employee stabs the 20G in there and of course misses. He pokes around in there for a while, and is only able to get blood bubbling in the vial at an extremely slow rate.
"I told you you wouldn't be able to hit." I said.
"Cause you have poor circulation. You have barely any blood running through you." After this observation, Nurse Obvious suddenly decided that he liked the other vein closer to my wrist better--AND SWITCHES THROUGH THE MUSCLE WITHOUT EVEN PULLING OUT!!! He did this MULTIPLE TIMES, swinging from side to side, pushing up, pushing down, fishing for it furiously as if slicing up steak with a knife.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING!!!" I looked over at my arm, and there were two strange abscess-looking white bumps protruding from the vein he was originally in. I FREAKED OUT. "WHAT IS THAT???"
"Oh yeah, if I stick my needle through one of those and pop it, it'll burst your blood vessel and make a gaping hole in your vein. You'll bleed to death," he spoke in a very monotone way. I laughed weakly because I thought he was kidding, but he wasn't. He said, "Why would I lie to you?"
My friend was still in the room when all this was taking place, and at this point even he made a comment about the nurse's malpractice with the syringes.
"I don't wanna hear it!!!" the nurse barked back. "I've been in this industry for ELEVEN YEARS, ALRIGHT! I JUST got my 16 year old daughter back from some 27 year old punk METH DEALER OKAY!!!"
At this point I started getting a REAL panic attack. This guy was taking out his personal frustrations on ME because I admitted to my drug use. I was squirming on the bed, trying to look away from my arm, grimacing at every little thing the nurse was doing to it. He kept telling me that the tingling and loss of sensation was normal, but everybody in the room knew that he was intentionally giving me a hard time.
He FINALLY finished four blood samples, and before walking out, sneered, "I'm sorry that your friend had to accompany you here." He hands my friend the list of symptoms that I had written beforehand, adding that he didn't need it because it was "disgusting" because a drop of my blood was on it (I was writing it while my hands were bleeding). I said sorry and explained that the bleeding was one of my symptoms, but he remained silent and left the room without a word. The nurse comes back after dropping off the blood and attaching a hydration bag to an IV catheter in my arm. He then injects me with a random anti-psychotic (does not tell me what it is) and then announces: "Now you're going to get some sleep. Bye bye."
Except I didn't sleep. I started dazing in and out of a delirium similar to my ketamine trips. I remember speaking to another doctor, mentioning possibility of infection or other pulmonary disease, which he gave appropriate concern... until the part where drugs and injection came into play. This is the part that upsets me so bad; they took me completely 100% seriously, until they found out I was a drug user. When found out, all my credibility sudenly went down the toilet and my symptoms have been discarded. He basically tried to diagnoze me for schizophrenia and even went so far as to ask if I knew what the date was and where I was at the moment. I answered each question he did correctly with no hesitation, and he had the audacity to respond to glance me up and down and then answer, "Well you look healthy to me."
Okay. He's supposed to be a doctor and he is judging me based on APPEARANCE. This has been QUITE the frustrating experience for me.
"Look, we've collected four samples of your blood," he assured. "We'll do a culture collect and notify you of any growth results."
At this point, I'm just glad that something is about to be done. I agreed to being released from the hospital two hours later.
It doesn't even end there.
I called the hospital the next day for an update on my culture samples. The nurse I spoke to on the phone said that they were still being analyzed in the lab and it should take 2-3 days. When I called again the next day, and for some reason my file specified that only the physician was allowed to discuss my results with me. I didn't think anything of it until the doctor got on the phone and informed me: "Your bloodwork was never sent in to the lab."
Um, what. WHY??? Why did the doctor lie to me? Why did my bloodwork, which WAS pending in the laboratory the other day, mysteriously disappear? I asked them what health condition did they think they treated me for and they claimed "anxiety/panic attack." Yeah........ except when I walked in my blood pressure was totally normal, and I was acting very acting calm, that is, until their nurse basically stabbed me with a 20G...
I'm just so fucking glad I have a witness (my friend) that can attest; he saw the WHOLE thing happen at the hospital. So... I finally followed some advice and tried to seek medical attention, I BADLY NEEDED HELP yet even professionals were not willing to give it to me. Where do I go to if I want to complain about a particular medical group? Also, do I have a right to refuse to pay a single penny to this medical hospital? I'm not the suing type, but at the very least I should not have to pay for a disorder that was caused BY one of the nurses, nor did I ask it to be treated.
My rights as a consumer SHOULD include the following: Right 1: the right to be treated with respect Right 2: the right to freedom from discrimination, coercion, harassment, and exploitation Right 3: the right to dignity and independence Right 4: the right to services of an appropriate standard Right 5: the right to effective communication Right 6: the right to be fully informed Right 7: the right to make an informed choice and give informed consent Right 8: the right to support Right 9: rights in respect of teaching or research Right 10: the right to complain
I feel at least half, if not all these, were breached. Now, this hospital has sent the bill to a collection agency and is trying to get me to ruin my credit.
Here's the thing. Shortly after this doctor's visit, I had a severe mental breakdown and was sent to the psychiatric unit for 10 days for post-traumatic stress (this was a VERY expensive visit by the way). One of the issues that I discussed was my encounter at the hospital, and having everybody treat me like I was crazy for a long time (which eventually built up and DID make me crazy), and this can be verified by the psychiatrist there. I am thereby requesting that the hospital not only drop these charges that they have filed against me, but also pay a portion of my hospitalization at the psych ward.
Note that after I was let out, I scheduled a visit with my regular doctor, with another list of all my symptoms written-down. (Notice how he was professional and actually kept the list that I had written in his file, instead of discarding it as if it was trash). He then assumed, that with all the symptoms I had been showing, I must have had some kind of infection going on in my body and proceeded with all the proper tests. This proves, therein, that all the symptoms that I was perceiving was not an episode of acute psychosis, but rather, an issue that the doctors seemed to want to disregard because of a bias they could not look past.
That's about all I've got written for now.
|