A woman left the ER to find another hospital after a long wait. Two hours later, she was dead

[Chelsea Bridge]

If she’s obese and experiencing those symptoms,
She should have at least been hooked up to a heart rate monitor until her blood work came back.

My mom said there’s no way if she has an enlarged heart and is overweight, that her results wouldnt have came back normal. They should have kept her there until the cardiologist looked at her results from EKG and the X-ray

 

[Mainevent_7]

Man I went to the ER for chest pains and numbness in my fingers. They told me I had a 3hr wait. My gf drove me to another hospital 35min away and they saw me right away. I waited 3min for the front desk to check me in.

Some hospitals are trash and I would avoid them at all cost.

 

[Moose_Greyjoy]

Man I went to the ER for chest pains and numbness in my fingers. They told me I had a 3hr wait. My gf drove me to another hospital 35min away and they saw me right away. I waited 3min for the front desk to check me in.

Some hospitals are trash and I would avoid them at all cost.

Im a ER nurse. I work in a lvl 1 trauma center. What people don't understand is there has been a steady increase of ER visits over the course of time. At my job it is normal for people to wait 3-4 hrs before being seen by a DR. Not only do we care for pt's who come through the ER doors themselves, but we also get a influx of ambulances that come through the ambulance bays. There are only so many resources in ERs, its a nightmare.

HOWEVER despite this, cases where pt's die after waiting long wait times are rare.
When CP pt's wait in the waiting rm, they are still being worked up.

• EKGs are done and read.
• Xrays are done and read
• Trop, CBC, BMP are done and read
• Based on pts history. BNPs could be completed

If all those test are done and completed. And if the ER still has not gotten to you after 3hrs. Chances are, You are going to live.

 

[Moose_Greyjoy]

My mom worked in the ER for 10 years in DC.. lol.

The vital signs don’t give you everything you need. You can’t tell what someone’s cardiac state is based on the initial vital signs. Those don’t give all answers. Obviously the vital signs didn’t give the right signs since the lady is dead. She should have been given at least a breathing treatment not put in the lobby..

Breathing txs wont be given without a strong indication. A breathing tx would have done nothing for this pt, based on this story. The only thing this story lacks, is rather or not blood work was completed in triage.

 

[nkb97]

If the tests were all normal.
Even if they brought her back she would have had a heart attack in a ed room which is right next to the hospital waiting room.

She choose to leave the hospital.

Her death is on her.

Some of you nikkas is unbelievable....

 

[Moose_Greyjoy]

what???

After over two hours of waiting? It’s her fault she died?

Even if the initial tests came back normal, if she had been admitted and properly administered to in a reasonable amount of time who knows what would have happened? They probably could have saved her. I’d rather talk to a real medical professional then some flukes on an Internet forum telling me this was handled properly.

You sound extremely insensitive. Let’s hope if you’re ever in a crisis the people seeing to you don’t think the same way, smh.

“Electrocardiogram (EKG): An EKGmeasures the electrical activity of the heartand can detect an enlarged heart as well as determine if a heart is overworked or damaged. ... Used along with an EKG, the test can show changes to the heart's rate, rhythm or electrical activity as well as blood pressure.”

So they did an EKG and couldn’t detect anything?????

What was her blood pressure??? I’m sure it had to be elevated.


Her heart enlarged during her 2 hour wait?????

Ekg only see stuff like heart rate and blood pressure. Nobody can literally see that her heart is enlarged. Being as big as she is I doubt her readings "normal" anyway. Heart is working harder than it should be just on account of her size. And yes her death is on her.

Would you rather have a heart attack out on the street?

Or in a hospital where somebody might be close enough to save your life if you fall out.

She chose to leave.

EKGs can only tell us the rhythm the heart is in. You cannot dx if the pt's heart is enlarged based on the EKG. That is why she got the xray.
Also EKGs are snapshots in time, like a picture. Not every heart attack shows an abnormal EKG. A person can develop an abnormal EKG over time, which is why Blood work is drawn.

 

[pickles]

I used to be an ER Doc. It's sad how this shyt happens, it's because of pure laziness and indifference by the staff. The white and Asian Docs don't care, some of the black ones care but then the nurses are all lazy and slow AF. Very frustrating to hear about this, I hope her family sues the shyt out of that hospital and gets an 8 figure settlement.

What are you doing now?

 

[Moose_Greyjoy]

I used to be an ER Doc. It's sad how this shyt happens, it's because of pure laziness and indifference by the staff. The white and Asian Docs don't care, some of the black ones care but then the nurses are all lazy and slow AF. Very frustrating to hear about this, I hope her family sues the shyt out of that hospital and gets an 8 figure settlement.

Not gonna lie breh. This post does not sound like it comes from someone who worked in a ER. And I don't normally call nikkas out

 

[Chelsea Bridge]

Breathing txs wont be given without a strong indication. A breathing tx would have done nothing for this pt, based on this story. The only thing this story lacks, is rather or not blood work was completed in triage.

It may not have done nothing,IYO, but it can help.. Again there are certain steps a medical professional should take before leaving her in the lobby. That’s the point. She should have been monitored, not put back in the waiting room. So did they take her blood work?

how do you treat a person with chest pains and shortness of breath?

 

[Chelsea Bridge]

EKGs can only tell us the rhythm the heart is in. You cannot dx if the pt's heart is enlarged based on the EKG. That is why she got the xray.
Also EKGs are snapshots in time, like a picture. Not every heart attack shows an abnormal EKG. A person can develop an abnormal EKG over time, which is why Blood work is drawn.

So she had multiple tests with chest pains and shortness of breath.. So what did the X-ray say? Why was she not continuously monitored?

My mom saw a myocardial infarction in an EKG and realized a woman was having a heart attack. Because she saw it, that woman survived

If that woman had those symptoms, I don’t understand why it wasn’t detected.

There was no reason to put that woman back in the lobby for chest pains.

 

[Yayo Toure]

Not gonna lie breh. This post does not sound like it comes from someone who worked in a ER. And I don't normally call nikkas out

That's fine. Obviously not gonna disclose where I was a resident, but it was in the hood and had alot of trauma cases come through. It does get legitimately busy, other times it's just people who are lazy and page you to do things outside of your specialty just because they are lazy/don't want to deal with a certain type of person.

Stories like this aren't far fetched:

I Spent 18 Hours in One of New York City’s Busiest Emergency Rooms

 

[Yayo Toure]

What are you doing now?

Private practice. The specialty I'm in had a component where I was on call a few times a week so I'd be in the ER. It does get busy and very disorganized so some people can fall through the cracks and have extreme wait times, but chest pain ranks pretty high up and this lady should have been seen.

The worst night was once I was watching CNN and they reported a shooting at a house party where about 12 people got shot or stabbed, the hospital I worked in saw about 8 of these cases that night.

 

[JOHN.KOOL]

Lack of care for human life, in a first world country this shouldn't happen under any circumstances