My Emergency Room Ordeal

Emergency Room

I have come home from an excellent eight days stay in the hospital only to find myself in the Emergency Room (ER) the following day with my injured leg. I was trying to get up from a gliding recliner when the injury occurred. My kneecap was at at 90 degrees to my 40 degrees right leg angle and locked up. My daughter Kassidey and my dear husband Robert thought the kneecap would pierce the skin any moment so they call for emergency medical and I was transported to the hospital by ambulance. The paramedics from the fire department and ambulance service said in their opinion that my knee was dislocated. Robert & Kassidey agreed that an emergency doctor was needed.

Robert had tried yanking on my leg to pull it straight, the paramedics had tested the strength by checking on the degree of angle and if it would move. They also put my leg in a blow-up cast that would become rigid around the injury.

Praise God, when I finally arrived at the hospital; driven over every pot hole in Texas, I was dropped out of the ambulance. No kidding, the ambulance and hospital workers pulled the gurney and I fell down -gurney and all- I screamed from the pain and surprise.

Inside the E.R. things were to become worse. The doctor came and looked at my leg. I told him that I had been due for orthopedic surgery that day but my doctor had backed out because of my epilepsy diagnosis. So the doctor got hateful with me and told me they didn’t have any orthopedic doctors on staff and asked what I wanted him to do. I told him he could stop the pain for one thing. He told me my leg was straight and the kneecap was in normal position that I didn’t have a dislocated knee and I misdiagnosed myself and wasted their time. But, I surmised that when the hospital staff dropped the gurney at an angle when they got me out of the ambulance my knee shook loose and the leg and returned to its normal position. Glory be to God.

Five hours later, the doctor came in and Kassidey was there waiting on him. The nurse had told him I was faking seizure’s. I had just spent a week in their hospital trying different medications to get the seizures under control. Kassidey told him flatly that his nurses need to go back to school and learn Neurology before they diagnose a patient on outdated information. And then, share that information with other nurses and technicians. But, I surmised that when the hospital staff dropped the gurney at an angle when they got me out of the ambulance my knee shook loose and returned to its normal position. Glory be to God.

What are a partial (focal) seizure? It happens when unusual electrical activity affects a small area of the brain. When the seizure does not affect awareness, it is known as a simple partial seizure. Simple partial seizures can be: Motor – affecting the muscles of the body. Sensory – affecting the senses. Most of the symptoms associated with simple partial seizure are internal and only noticed by the person having the seizure. These symptoms may include: changes in how something might taste, feel, look, or sound. Distorted vision of items around you or of your own body.

Types of Generalized-Onset Seizures:

1. Absence Seizures (“Petit Mal Seizures”) , Myoclonic seizures., Tonic and Atonic Seizures (“Drop Attacks”) Tonic, Clonic and Tonic-Clonic (Formerly called Grand Mal) Seizures. I happen to be in the ATONIC/CLONIC Seizure arena.
2. She (me) had a ligament medical complaint when the paramedics saw her. She didn’t appreciate me being dismissed so rudely by him just because the injury became less critical. She (me) didn’t come to the hospital ER because of not receiving surgery.
3. The doctor dismissed me by talking over me to Kassidey, telling her his observations and then said I would be discharged after a soft foam with metal straits would be bound on my leg to keep it straight and help prevent additional injury.

An hour and quarter hours later, I was released from the hospital. I was never so happy to leave a hospital ER than at that moment. I know ER is for injured or sick people; I was injured. But, just because you are injured or sick does not negate human kindness and dignity, it’s a two-way street. The doctor dismissing my injury, the nurse misdiagnosing me, the length of time waiting for the doctor to re-arrive and rend his verdict was all disrespected of my time and suffering.

I know ER’s are busy and understaffed, so are teachers, police, and engineers at critical life safety jobs, etc. If you are too tired to show the respect everyone deserves then you need to find a different job. I have had wonderful experiences in an ER prior to this when everyone did their job efficiently.