I was taken to St Vincent s Birmingham via.ambulan...

I was taken to St Vincent s Birmingham via.ambulance a couple of days after a car accident with a fluke heart/trauma incident. From the moment I arrived I was treated in the most belittling, dehumanizing manner. As if I didn t know anything about my own body and the difference about how it felt when it was normal & when something was terrible wrong. None of the staff from the nurse to the nursing assistants to the dr, a Dr Maude Crepault would listen to anything I told them. I am an extremely difficult stick when it comes to drawing blood or starting an IV & most of the time a member of the PIC team has to be called. Because this was a Sunday, supposedly the PIC team wasn t there, so the dr brought in a a sonogram machine to find a vein which was in the top of my arm. It hurt like heck. So bad that my arm & hand began to swell. I pressed the nurses button to let them know this & after 12 minutes of the alarm going off, a long haired CNA came in the room & I told him what the problem was. He said he would tell my nurse, but in the meantime I had to be taken to CT. There was someone currently having a CT, so I was left in the hallway for 30 minutes. I again told this CNA told him that this IV needed to be looked at & he said in a belittling tone, I ll let the nurse know & as soon as you return, she ll take a look . When the CT tech, who was the only person in the entire hospital with any compassion or sense for that matter came out with the patient she had been working with & got me, she was asking the usual questions as to whether I was allergic to contrast and such. I said no. I didn t even have to tell her the trouble I was having with the IV because she took one look at my arm and could see how much bigger it was than the other. First she wanted to know who put it in and then she asked if I had asked them to look at it & I said yes. She immediately removed it. She did attempt to put one more in my hand but it instantly blew & she wasn t going to put me through any other pain. I had been back from CT for almost an hour when that same CNA came in to see if they had checked on my IV.
When it was first inserted it was to give me pain & nausea meds plus fluids. The dr had ordered Zoltan for nausea & I asked if she would please give me phenogran instead. Zophran doesn t work for me. I have a long history of migraines & nausea is a common symptom that occurs with my migraines & phenogran is the only thing that will work. She refused.
I asked to see the dr. in charge of the ER, but instead the sent in the charge nurse who was about as useful as a piece of dust on the ground.
I also asked for each of their names & was told it would be on the paper work when I left, which I knew was a lie as soon it was said.
That Monday I called the head of the Emergency Room, a Ruth White to explain the treatment I had received. I have still not received a call back from her. She has now had 10 days to return my call which is more than enough time to respond. I have only made one call to her. I have not harassed her with multiple messages, but tomorrow I will call her again. This time if I do not get a response from her, I will go above her head and find out who her boss is.
I don t find going to the emergency room a pleasant way to spend my day. It was not how I wanted to spend my Sunday. However, when I do go I expect to be treated with compassion, respect, and like someone who knows what is wrong with their body. I don t want other people to receive the same care that I did. I expect their to be some type of repercussion for their actions. I don t just want to vent at a figure head.
Take my advice, the next time you are in need of medical emergency care, do not go to St. Vincent s Birmingham! If there were an option to not give any stars, I would not. If they continue to practice this type of patient care, there ER will no longer exist.