appalling what is happening in the hospitals...

**santoria** · 07-26-2006, 04:10 PM

http://calgary.ctv.ca/servlet/RTGAMA...calgary.ctv.ca

this happened last week. it makes me so sick.....

**baxjul** · 07-26-2006, 05:55 PM

That's terrible!

**kabin63** · 07-26-2006, 06:21 PM

That is totally inexcusable.

**Darlene** · 07-26-2006, 07:50 PM

I am so sorry and I can't expound on what I really think about socialized health care. Lets just say I think it stinks.

**AmyBoz** · 07-26-2006, 08:05 PM

So sad for this family.

**santoria** · 07-26-2006, 09:44 PM

evidently the same thing happened last month to someone.

I know when I went into the hospital with post partum hemmorhaging I waited for 3 hours.

heads are rolling already!

**miss_thrifty** · 07-26-2006, 11:18 PM

om my lord!!!! that poor family!!! totally no excuses for this.

**MOMMYDEAREST** · 07-26-2006, 11:21 PM

oh my.....how horrible!!!!

**autumnlynn** · 07-27-2006, 01:57 AM

That's just terrible. My heart goes out to the poor family.

**Edelweiss** · 07-27-2006, 09:41 AM

This is not just a problem with socialized healthcare. The same thing happens all the time here in the States. Last time I was in the emergency room (bad kidney infection and it was the weekend - couldn't get a doctor, and really needed some relief) there was a 17 year old kid who had a serious injury. He had jumped onto a trampoline without realizing that there was a metal pole under it. The pole went almost all the way through his calf. I was there from 6:00pm to 1:30am. He came in a few minutes after me and was still there when I left. Poor kid was in severe pain and bleeding profusely for upwards of 6 hours and they didn't even give him any Tylenol or a Band-Aid.

**santoria** · 07-27-2006, 10:04 AM

evidently now that this family came forward, many others have too!

at least 2 a month, miscarriages in the waiting rooms. since once a m/c starts you can't stop it. you can only really support them and provide a little bit of dignity! and before 20 weeks they won't take in the maternity department ( i didn't know that).

time for the city to build a new hospital....we just hit 1 million and have 3 hospitals 4 including the childrens. but the average wait is 4 hours for URGENT care. yikes!

**Kimberlina** · 07-27-2006, 12:32 PM

Thank goodness we have fantastic triage at the hospital where I work, and a trauma center just down the street.

**Valerie in WA** · 07-27-2006, 02:36 PM

As a health care worker, my feathers are getting a bit ruffled by this thread. We do not know the circumstances in the ER that night. Yes, my heart goes out to that woman, at least at home she would have had privacy. And it's unfortunate that they couldn't have given her some morphine to ease her through the physical pain of her loss.

But I doubt the hospital did anything wrong. A miscarriage at 13 weeks is usually impossible to stop. But what was the staff doing behind the doors? Were they resuscitating a near-drowned 2 year old? Were they treating a 45 year old for his first heart attack - and stopping the damage before his heart was terribly injured? Were they delivering a 30 week fetus that is VERY likely to live and live without complications? We don't know.

ERs use triage systems. Those with life-threatening emergencies go first. That means that wait times are terribly long for others: like the kid with the torn calf and even a kidney infection. Adding to the problem of wait times are people who use the ER for primary care, things that could wait until the dr's office is open. Sometimes homeless people will show up with a vague complaint, just to get some warmth and a meal. It's a sad state of affairs.

So please don't be so quick to jump on 'them' for not helping that poor woman.

**Edelweiss** · 07-27-2006, 03:19 PM

Maybe they couldn't get her a room, but SOMETHING should have been done for that woman. Period.

**Kimberlina** · 07-27-2006, 05:10 PM

I totally hear what you're saying, Valerie, but at the hospital where I work, this would have been dealt with differently (at least from what I have read.) No matter what was going on behind the ER doors, the triage nurses would have gotten this woman up to the Women and Children's floor, bed or no bed. We have plans in place for when our census is high so that no patient need to have this happen in public. For one, it us just way too upsetting for the other patients to allow that to happen in front of them.

But again, I totally get what you are saying. We actually have 3 separate ER areas- the regular emergency ER, the sub-acute ER, and the psychiatric ER. If the regular emergency ER is too busy, the sub-acute (read "urgent care walk-in clinic") patients wait. I am not a big fan of people who use the ER as a walk-in. We have several urgent cares in our area they should be utilizing instead.