Attention, Pregnant Females!

AD, did you have a rough day today?

AD, did you have a rough day today?

Quick (serious) story: Back in 1996, I was in my second year as a patrol officer in Philly. I was working the overnight shift, and getting ready to go home.Then all Hell broke loose.Radio came over with an Assist Officer call. There was a report of an officer shot during a bank robbery in the district that bordered mine. Everyone dropped what they were doing, jumped into the nearest conveyance, and high-tailed it to the bank.When I got there it was a zoo. Everyone, even seasoned professional police officers panicked. The panicked wagon crew took the officer,, Lauretha Vaird, to what they thought was the closest hospital. It was St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children.Naturally, the children’s hospital was not equipped to deal with a gunshot wound to the chest, and had no trauma center. Laurie died soon thereafter. Temple University Hospital was about equidistant from the scene. They have a trauma center.I don’t second guess other cops, and Laurie probably would have died anyway, but the point I wanted to make is that sometimes people freak out and made bad decisions. That may be the case with some pregnant females. Just sayin’, is all.Sorry if I brought down the blog, but I just had a terrible night at work.

Quick (serious) story: Back in 1996, I was in my second year as a patrol officer in Philly. I was working the overnight shift, and getting ready to go home.Then all Hell broke loose.Radio came over with an Assist Officer call. There was a report of an officer shot during a bank robbery in the district that bordered mine. Everyone dropped what they were doing, jumped into the nearest conveyance, and high-tailed it to the bank.When I got there it was a zoo. Everyone, even seasoned professional police officers panicked. The panicked wagon crew took the officer,, Lauretha Vaird, to what they thought was the closest hospital. It was St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children.Naturally, the children’s hospital was not equipped to deal with a gunshot wound to the chest, and had no trauma center. Laurie died soon thereafter. Temple University Hospital was about equidistant from the scene. They have a trauma center.I don’t second guess other cops, and Laurie probably would have died anyway, but the point I wanted to make is that sometimes people freak out and made bad decisions. That may be the case with some pregnant females. Just sayin’, is all.Sorry if I brought down the blog, but I just had a terrible night at work.

“…but the point I wanted to make is that sometimes people freak out and made bad decisions. That may be the case with some pregnant females.”Hey, freaking out and making bad decisions, I can understand. It’s the ones who are told <>repeatedly<> that they’d be better off bypassing us and going to another hospital that really torque my sack.We had one come in last week three times. Last time, our ER doctor put her on the phone with the on-call Ob/Gyn at the other hospital, who just happened to be <>her<> Ob/Gyn. HE told her the same thing: “Don’t go there. Come here instead.”So what did she do this week? Came back to our ER with cramps and spotting, because her rice farmer father convinced her that those two <>doctors<> didn’t know what the hell they were talking about.That’s the kind of shit I’m dealing with, day in and day out.

didn’t know what the hell they were talking about.That’s the kind of shit I’m dealing with, day in and day out.

AD it’s a vicious circle. We help all who come or in our case, all we go to. I can think of four or five I go to several times a month for no better reason than the croup. (Lady freeks every time her kid burps.) I get mad when the pager goes off at 3:00 am. I try and I have to keep in my mind the one time I went and the kid really needed me. So I’m angry, but I get up and slam the pager off. I go. So do you. It’s what makes you the person you are. I don’t know you to well, not at all really, except from a few classes at conferences and reading your book. We all can tell…. You care, you get hurt, you get frustrated, you get mad. But you care, we can tell……

AD it’s a vicious circle. We help all who come or in our case, all we go to. I can think of four or five I go to several times a month for no better reason than the croup. (Lady freeks every time her kid burps.) I get mad when the pager goes off at 3:00 am. I try and I have to keep in my mind the one time I went and the kid really needed me. So I’m angry, but I get up and slam the pager off. I go. So do you. It’s what makes you the person you are. I don’t know you to well, not at all really, except from a few classes at conferences and reading your book. We all can tell…. You care, you get hurt, you get frustrated, you get mad. But you care, we can tell……

A.D. – My apologies. How’s forced sterilization for this nitwit sound? I’m buying!

A.D. – My apologies. How’s forced sterilization for this nitwit sound? I’m buying!

“…that really torque my sack”This is probably the best phrase I’ve ever heard. If I had a sack, I’d start saying it constantly. Alas, torques my ovary is just reminiscent of cyst torsions, not severe aggravation. Ah, well.

“…that really torque my sack”This is probably the best phrase I’ve ever heard. If I had a sack, I’d start saying it constantly. Alas, torques my ovary is just reminiscent of cyst torsions, not severe aggravation. Ah, well.

loved your post below….I’m in nursing school right now and followed an emt tech around the ER..amazing. I can see how you can get frustrated at times, especially when those people bog down the system and people in need aren’t being seen because of that.but then, they are great blog fodder….

loved your post below….I’m in nursing school right now and followed an emt tech around the ER..amazing. I can see how you can get frustrated at times, especially when those people bog down the system and people in need aren’t being seen because of that.but then, they are great blog fodder….

That’s the thing about your blog: I’d say a commanding majority of battlefield stories you tell involve conversations that you’d give a finger to actually have with the individual you’re writing about.It’s funny just the same. tweaker

That’s the thing about your blog: I’d say a commanding majority of battlefield stories you tell involve conversations that you’d give a finger to actually have with the individual you’re writing about.It’s funny just the same.;)tweaker

Is it possible that your recurrent patient (or whoever is driving her) simply doesn’t like big-city ER? In my area, I can drive 15 minutes north, to a ‘small town’ hospital, or 15 minutes south, to a ‘big city’ hospital. I go north. I sat in ‘big city’ ER’s waiting room for over 3 hours, suffering an allergy attack severe enough to make my face look like I had lost an argument with a baseball bat, and feeling as if I was trying to breath through a coffee stir. It’s happened before, and I know that the symptoms can be relieved with a simple injection, but they couldn’t make the time to help me.I understand that an ER’s primary responsibility is to save lives, but I refuse to believe that every nurse in the place was so busy they couldn’t give me 2 minutes of their time.I suppose if I had been told that the small town ER couldn’t handle a particular problem, I’d go to the big ER, but _only_ after having been told to do so, and it’d have to be a life or death situation.

Is it possible that your recurrent patient (or whoever is driving her) simply doesn’t like big-city ER? In my area, I can drive 15 minutes north, to a ‘small town’ hospital, or 15 minutes south, to a ‘big city’ hospital. I go north. I sat in ‘big city’ ER’s waiting room for over 3 hours, suffering an allergy attack severe enough to make my face look like I had lost an argument with a baseball bat, and feeling as if I was trying to breath through a coffee stir. It’s happened before, and I know that the symptoms can be relieved with a simple injection, but they couldn’t make the time to help me.I understand that an ER’s primary responsibility is to save lives, but I refuse to believe that every nurse in the place was so busy they couldn’t give me 2 minutes of their time.I suppose if I had been told that the small town ER couldn’t handle a particular problem, I’d go to the big ER, but _only_ after having been told to do so, and it’d have to be a life or death situation.

I vote for a qualification test for the right to reproduce. I wouldn’t have my children now, but. . . . .

I vote for a qualification test for the right to reproduce. I wouldn’t have my children now, but. . . . .

Chris, dear, dear, dear…<>I understand that an ER’s primary responsibility is to save lives, but I refuse to believe that every nurse in the place was so busy they couldn’t give me 2 minutes of their time.<>Even if that nice, small ER has a critical patient that is requiring one-on-one care (if not two-on-one or even three-on-one), tying up the only nurse(s) on duty while the other beds are slammed full taking up the tech’s time? Frankly, whenever I had anyone critical coming in, everybody waited – and no, there are not always two minutes to spare. There are only so many of us, and usually a LOT more of y’all.I also worked for years in an ER attached to a hospital that had no obstetric care available. No OB/GYN on staff, no L&D unit, nada, nothing. Liability is part of that. The ONLY thing the ER in a place like that is qualified to do with an OB patient is check a fetal heart rate and deliver/transfer if they’re crowning at the door. (and if that happens, you can bet your boots no nurse will have two spare minutes to talk to you until the patient and baby are out the door.)Coming to an ER because you “like it better,” even when you know – and have been repeatedly told – that they don’t have the services available to take appropriate care of you, is like playing russian roulette. It makes no sense except to the terminally clueless, and the outcome is potentially very, very bad.

Even if that nice, small ER has a critical patient that is requiring one-on-one care (if not two-on-one or even three-on-one), tying up the only nurse(s) on duty while the other beds are slammed full taking up the tech’s time? Frankly, whenever I had anyone critical coming in, everybody waited – and no, there are not always two minutes to spare. There are only so many of us, and usually a LOT more of y’all.I also worked for years in an ER attached to a hospital that had no obstetric care available. No OB/GYN on staff, no L&D; unit, nada, nothing. Liability is part of that. The ONLY thing the ER in a place like that is qualified to do with an OB patient is check a fetal heart rate and deliver/transfer if they’re crowning at the door. (and if that happens, you can bet your boots no nurse will have two spare minutes to talk to you until the patient and baby are out the door.)Coming to an ER because you “like it better,” even when you know – and have been repeatedly told – that they don’t have the services available to take appropriate care of you, is like playing russian roulette. It makes no sense except to the terminally clueless, and the outcome is potentially very, very bad.

Hm. I’ve never heard of a hospital that doesn’t deliver babies. I have a 1st-trimester vaginal bleeding and spotting frequent flyer who comes in every week after she passes a pea-sized clot, and I go through the whole thing every time about how it’s not necessary to come unless there is continued severe bleeding, dizziness, etc, but she still comes back after every “pea-sized clot x 1 earlier in the day” the next week and wonders what’s going on. Of course, she’s always a low acuity and waits 5 or 6 hours. What kind of life must you have to wait 6 hours a week in an ER time after time?

Hm. I’ve never heard of a hospital that doesn’t deliver babies. I have a 1st-trimester vaginal bleeding and spotting frequent flyer who comes in every week after she passes a pea-sized clot, and I go through the whole thing every time about how it’s not necessary to come unless there is continued severe bleeding, dizziness, etc, but she still comes back after every “pea-sized clot x 1 earlier in the day” the next week and wonders what’s going on. Of course, she’s always a low acuity and waits 5 or 6 hours. What kind of life must you have to wait 6 hours a week in an ER time after time?

No hospital within 60 miles of my home will deliver babies. No questions, no fancy retorts, just a plain, “We don’t do that here.”. The idgit I work with uses the local ER like an after-hours clinic and it drives me insane. I broke my foot late one Friday night and wouldn’t go to the ER because I wasn’t sure it was broken and didn’t want to take up their time and spend my money if it was just sprained.Until I started reading your blog AD, I thought it was just a local problem. Sad that it’s everywhere.May tomorrow be a better day for you. (Funny the word verification that came up was purjerk. Even blogger knows that folks who abuse the ER are pure jerks. Or maybe they’re talking about me? heh)