March 20, 2012
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Sorethroat
Time to vent.
How many times have you taken an ambulance? If you are like most people, the number is less than 5.
Before I became a physician, whenever I saw an ambulance what I imagined inside was a person struggling to stay alive just long enough to get to the hospital to be resuscitated. I imagined some poor soul on the edge of death, minutes away from the great check out.
Now lets recap a few friends I’ve had lately.
One is a lady who I’m pretty sure every ER doctor within 100 miles knows very well. She comes in about every two days for her anxiety. She complains she is short of breath, when clearly she is not. She gets seen and discharged over and over and over again. This is frustrating especially because we have tried multiple counselors and case workers and interventions to help her. She continues to call 911 and come in.
This is not as bad as the guy who comes in for his cold. He had a runny nose and a cough. No fever, no productive sputum, no shortness of breath. He pretty much called it a cold. He also came in by ambulance. What made this especially irritating was that this fine gentleman had already been seen earlier in the day, he was prescribed different medicines to help with his symptoms, he tried none of them and came back to the ER 7 hours later. I checked up on him days later and everything was fine, as we all had figured it would be.
But the most frustrating was the young guy who came in for his sore throat… by ambulance of course. Now, don’t get me wrong, there actually ARE reasons to come into the ER by ambulance for a sore throat; this guy had none of those reasons. I’m not convinced he actually had a sore throat… or a soul.
What he did have was a VERY pissed off attitude that he did not get seen immediately. Then he became irate that I did not treat his sore throat with heavy duty narcotics (“the only thing that helps!”). Then he became enraged when I told him I was not prescribing Vicodin for his alleged sore throat. Then I showed him his MAPS report (which shows the last years worth of narcotic prescriptions he had obtained from different pharmacies across the entire state). Apparently our fine friend had been very busy going from place to place to get narcotic prescriptions.
It was at this time he miraculously got much better and left.
Mmm… that’s your tax dollars hard at work.
What have you taken an ambulance for?
Comments (6)
I’ve never been in an ambulance. I’m always afraid that I am making things seem worse than they are so I am always reluctant to call an ambulance. I imagine if I ever score an ambulance ride, it’s going to be because someone else called one due to me being unconscious, lol. The only times I’ve even been to the ER were for nicotine juice in my eye (felt like it was on fire and I couldn’t seem to get it out by flushing on my own), no fluids in 36 hours due to uncontrollable heaving (I wanted an IV of fluid) and one time I had some kind of spasm going on where I could barely breathe without convulsing in pain.
I have a paramedic friend that tries to convince me to call the ambulance whenever my chest pain, arm numbness and extreme fatigue kick in, but if I did that, I’d be going for an ambulance ride twice a month. (And no, indigestion meds don’t help). I don’t want to be one of those people.
I always assumed as you did about who was in the ambulance. (The great check out -lol)
I have been a patient transported one time. Car accident. I remember being very embarrassed because they would not let me move and slid a backboard behind me and lifted me out of the car. I “knew” I was pretty okay, but the paramedics did not like my answer to one of their questions. So instead of a dramatic rescue where I was touch and go to even make it to the hospital, I was just embarrassed and feeling like I was taking up space and time that might be really needed by someone else.
Btw, Thank you for doing what you do. I know you don’t hear that enough!
It’s scary how addictive narcotics are for some people and the lengths that some people will go to get their hands on them only shows the seriousness of this addiction. I only wish more doctors were as strict about giving them out as you are.
I’ve been to the ER once in an ambulance because of an allergic reaction. Throat swelling up, weezing, hard time breathing, hives, coughing, uncontrollable itching, overall a bad time. They gave me a shot of steroids or maybe it was adrenaline or something like that while I was in the ambulance. It wasn’t fun.. especially when he had trouble finding my vein and he seemed nervous (from the drops of sweat that were rolling off his face). Thanks for doing what you do and I always enjoy reading your stories!
@BohemianLotus - Nicotine juice in the eye? Sounds weird (and painful!).
@storyslut - Yeah, if you get in an accident the EMS has to follow crazy protocol to keep people safe (aaaah sweet litigious society), so if you crash… you get strapped down regardless.
@lovepeacecalm - Narcotic abuse is so prevalent it’s ridiculous. Unfortunately, our current system is pretty pathetic at preventing and helping addicts. It’s the easiest thing in the world just to write a quick prescription and get them out of the ER, considering the alternative is a long, angry heated argument that can only take place after a good bit of detective work.
@slicy - Yeah it’s the juice that people who use electronic cigarettes refill them with – food grade chemicals with various strengths of nicotine in them. My roommate uses one and was swinging the damned thing around, the juice flew out and hit me smack dab in the eye. It was one of the worst experiences ever.
I’ve been in an ambulance once. When my son was 6 weeks old and had to be transferred from one hospital to an other. He was diagnosed with pyloric stenosis and that was a scary time and ride for me. 14 years later its little more than a dream but I am glad for all that were involved in saving his life.