posted
Has anyone been ridiculed by paramedics? I called them because I was having trouble breathing and they literally made fun of me. It was humiliating. One of the women on the ambulance poked her bottom lip out and asked in a 'baby voice' if I wanted to go to the hospital.
Wow.
-------------------- "Sometimes you're the windshield; sometimes you're the bug." Mark Knopfler Posts: 111 | From East of Eden | Registered: Mar 2012
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glm1111
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 16556
posted
Yep, Had that happen to me years ago and I was really in trouble. My doctor was actually the one that called the ambulance.
When they got there, I was sitting very still because I couldn't get any air in and was afraid to move. The EMT said to me sarcastically, "what do we have here?"
The other EMT realized I was in trouble and took my vitals....b/p was 70/30...not good, sooo they slapped some oxygen on me and rushed me to the hospital.
Sorry you were treated like that, it's absolutely unacceptable. Not all EMTs are like that, but it's maddeding when you run into one. They shouldn't be working in the medical field, let alone on an ambulance. It's scary!
Gael
-------------------- PARASITES/WORMS ARE NOW RECOGNIZED AS THE NUMBER 1 CO-INFECTION IN LYME DISEASE BY ILADS* Posts: 6418 | From philadelphia pa | Registered: Jul 2008
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posted
Sorry you experienced that. How unprofessional! I mean really. It is bad enough to be at the point of having to call. You don't need to be treated like that!
Hope you are feeling a bit better
Posts: 238 | From new england | Registered: Feb 2013
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lax mom
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 38743
posted
When I was in the ER a few months ago, the hospital staff received a call that the Paramedics were bringing in someone who had shortness of breath.
The hospital nurses were being so rude and were annoyed that they obviously had "another anxiety" case...they hadn't even seen this patient and already they had assumed it was mental.
poppy
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 5355
posted
Makes you wonder if they see countless "anxiety" cases that have nothing medically wrong with them. It doesn't seem very likely.
I got this treatment too at an ER years ago when during a herx, my heart was behaving very eradically. I waited a very scary hour before driving to the hospital in the middle of the night. They told me I should not have driven and was I having a panic attack! Not long after I got there, my heart rhythm stabilized, so naturally they figured it is nothing all along.
After that, I decided I would just take my chances, not go to an ER again for any reason.
Posts: 2888 | From USA | Registered: Mar 2004
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posted
Yeah, I was under the impression that paramedics aren't supposed to diagnose, just treat the sx and get the pt to the hospital asap. This gal was a regular expert, I'm wondering why she was on the ambulance and not running the ER. I can see where these people would get jaded after awhile, but they don't have to be hateful. Thanks for the kinds words everybody.
-------------------- "Sometimes you're the windshield; sometimes you're the bug." Mark Knopfler Posts: 111 | From East of Eden | Registered: Mar 2012
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posted
Yes, I've witnessed "too much certainty" in paramedics, too quick to judge.
If we have needs, then be like a broken record until they hear what we need. Like for me, I have unstable joints and I have to navigate that need with them, over and over, until they hear me.
And once in awhile, I lose, as in they do what they do, and I have to repair the damage after I get released from the ER - ie, go to the chiropractor - sigh.
Posts: 13116 | From San Francisco | Registered: May 2006
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Keebler
Honored Contributor (25K+ posts)
Member # 12673
posted
- I've had exceptionally good care from, oh . . . let's see . . . 4 different teams of parametics during about a ten year span.
Some did not understand the kind of seizures I was having but others really responded well when someone said I had "lyme" - they said how serious that could be and that my life could be at risk if I did not get to the E.R.
It appeared as if stroke might have been in the picture as my speech was so slurred. But the seizures were nearly continual, beyone what I had experienced at that point in time.
[Now, I know that my blood sugar had gotten way dangerously low and I probably also was deficient in magnesium - that trip could have been prevented but I did not know that then.]
I did not want the paramedics to even mention lyme to the E.R. staff but they did. I heard the doctors say outside of the room even before seeing me that they "will not treat her" - we don't talk about lyme, was the gist of the head intern to the junior one that rainy 2 a.m.
I did follow the strong urging of the paramedics to to to ER but, only to be litearlly be kicked out of the E.R. when a seizure hit because they said I "tried to throw myself off the table."
I was told to "leave" & "leave now." Even before the seizure had run its course.
I'll take paramedics to doctors in my state any day. But, I never plan to see any again - ever. I've learned a lot about how to take care of myself and it if goes beyond that, so be it. No more E.R. ever, not for any reason. Not for me. Not going to subject myself the kind of treatment that prevails in my state with doctors.
I've had numerous events of medical abuse in the E.R. - mostly because of my file and the red flag of a "difficult patient" - it's a terrible code that derails any chance of proper assessment.
Before I knew about lyme, I was researching at the computers in a health center and had a seizure. The staff person at the research room told them I had "CFS"
That ER doctor told me that "there is no such thing as CFS" -- all this during a seizure. He told me to stop faking it and get a life and get out of the place.
And hospitals are just so noisy, all kinds of sensory overload and that is just not a help to me if my body is in need of any medical care.
WHAT I'VE LEARNED TO STAY OUT OF THE E.R.:
MAGNESIUM has a remarkable capacity to help so many symptoms from ever getting to an emergency state. -
Posts: 48021 | From Tree House | Registered: Jul 2007
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Keebler
Honored Contributor (25K+ posts)
Member # 12673
posted
- Trouble breathing was noted above, magnesium can help that, too, but be sure to avoid anything with any amount of acetaminophen.
. . . Even a single dose of acetaminophen can reduce the body's levels of glutathione, a peptide that helps repair oxidative damage that can drive inflammation in the airways, researchers have found. . . . -
Posts: 48021 | From Tree House | Registered: Jul 2007
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Keebler
Honored Contributor (25K+ posts)
Member # 12673
posted
- homesick,
I'm so sorry that you experienced that treatment. It's truly beyond bullying to medical abuse.
The thing is, that if you complain, that is so very stressful and we feel like we have no basis for our defence since "lyme" is not a well respected condition.
Still, I hope you can find an advocate who can file a proper complaint for you - in just the right way as to lessen your stress of having to do so, and in a way that will actually be effective.
Anyone who treats another as that should not be in that job.
Once, during a ride on the mini-bus (for - gulp - disabled) . . . I was in the "seizure zone" with hyperausis and sensory startles on red-alert -- and asked the driver to turn down her music radio. She would not.
Seizure hit and she treated me like a deliquent kid having a temper tanrum. That was over 15 years ago and the memory of torture I went through on that bus ride home still brings distress.
I did complain to the transport company but they said she had the right to listen to any music she wanted and I better learn how to behave on their bus.
I never rode again. It's just too much stimuli, like a really bad, off-kilter washing machine spin cycle anyway, with no shocks, so much noise, etc.
I hope, though, that however you file a complaint with the company that you have a better reception than I did - I was treated terribly by the company, too - that's why I suggest some kind of an advocate to do this for you. -
Posts: 48021 | From Tree House | Registered: Jul 2007
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posted
I'm now on the same page with many of you. No ER or paramedics for me. It really doesn't prove a thing, just humiliation and poor treatment. did nothing to improve my condition. I'll stay home and put myself in God's hands from now on. so sorry to hear that so many of us have to put up with so much stuff.
-------------------- "Sometimes you're the windshield; sometimes you're the bug." Mark Knopfler Posts: 111 | From East of Eden | Registered: Mar 2012
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