Posted on 05/24/2024 9:16:33 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
When I woke one recent morning to severe pain from a bout of kidney stones, I knew I had an excruciating day ahead of me. I didn’t realize how excruciating until I arrived at George Washington University Hospital’s emergency room where one of the ER’s resident physicians greeted me wearing a pin: “Ask Me About My Pronouns.” The remainder of my morning became a real-life demonstration of how woke physicians prioritize ideology over patient care.
The bloodwork taken upon my arrival showed a high white blood cell count, and during my stay, I complained of pain in both my kidneys. A CT scan taken in the emergency room likewise showed stranding (i.e., scarring) in both kidneys.
The next day, my primary care practitioner grew concerned that a kidney stone had caused an infection that had spread through my urinary tract. She asked me whether I had received intravenous antibiotics in the ER as a precautionary measure; I had not.
For all her outward concern about pronouns, the George Washington resident did not act concerned about a possible infection. She (they?) did not order a urine culture to check for infections, nor send the stone I passed while in the ER for laboratory analysis. She and her supervising physician also questioned the need for a CT scan, which had been standard practice during prior bouts of kidney stones, claiming that a scan would only be needed if I had a blockage or infection — an odd claim, given that I had yet to provide a urine specimen for analysis.
As a health policy analyst, I recognize that over-treating patients can cause complications such as anti-microbial resistance, not to mention raising health care costs for all of us. But when my primary care practitioner, who also happens to moonlight in another emergency room in the nation’s capital, identified basic precautions that the staff at George Washington failed to take, I became concerned not just that I had received poor care, but that the resident’s attire — one button referencing pronouns, another supporting the SEIU affiliate union representing the hospital’s resident physicians — suggested a focus on things other than patient care.
I contacted George Washington University Hospital about the care I received, but its press office did not respond to multiple calls and emails. Had hospital officials responded, I would have asked first why the hospital subjected me to a combination of questionable care and woke propaganda, and second why it billed my insurer nearly $21,000, of which my insurer expects me to pay nearly $3,000, for the privilege of receiving both.
My experience suggests that physicians should heed two lessons. For starters, leave the ideology at home. While everyone is entitled to their own opinions, others don’t necessarily want to hear them, particularly in a place like a hospital.
Rather than engage in ostentatious virtue signaling that alienates as much as it attracts, doctors should spend more time listening to patients than talking at them. Ensuring patients feel heard regardless of skin color, political beliefs, and yes, pronouns, will prove far more meaningful than putting a button on one’s scrubs.
I don’t believe that the staff at George Washington University Hospital listened to me and my symptoms, and my experience makes me fear that the low-income patients the hospital treats — the kinds of individuals my ER resident likely wants to help — may suffer from poor care and not even recognize it. Rather than injecting cultural Marxism into medicine in a way that politicizes the entire health care system, perhaps this generation of woke medical students should understand that the best type of social justice involves them simply doing their jobs.
When Obamacare first came out, I had a doctor who spent half of my visit trying to figure out how to complete the new computerized forms that were necessary for reporting. I stopped going to him after that.
Result? They lost respect.
This story is scary. I was born at a time when MiG-15s and Sabre Jets were shooting at each other, so I will be seeing lots of medical personnel in the coming years. My current doctors are excellent, but as they move on, they will be replaced by products of “affirmative action” and our increasingly woke universities, medical schools, dental schools, nursing schools, etc.
My mother-in-law called me at work one day in agony, come and get me I need to go to the ER, kidney stone. I got her into the car and listened to her agony for the ten minute ride to the ER. She’s a strong woman, I have been with her when a doctor tested her knee for a torn meniscus and she about went out of her skin then and broke my hand as she held it, but the kidney stone pain was excruciating for her.
I got her checked in and they kept diddling around and she was getting worse and I finally went to the nurse station and said she’s got to have something for the pain now. They gave her a shot of pain meds and it brought it to barely tolerable. After twenty minutes I asked them to increase the dosage and they did, she said it was barely taking the edge off at that point. All I could do was sit and holder her until they got her admitted and then they put a stint in her to allow it to pass. Me or her would have torn their heads off if they had started asking about pronouns and her in agony.
Wokism is nothing but a Trojan horse for Marxism.
My thoughts exactly.
Well said.
Despite knowing the pain of kidney stones I’d have said Eff your Pronouns and hobbled some where else.
Killing a patient won’t cause as much headache as “misgendering” one.
If I have to have a doctor ask if I am a male or female I don’t want that doctor. Unfortunately the nurses and techs are generally young who have been thoroughly indoctrinated in this tranny crap.
I had two kidney stones and believe me they were very painful. I was on active duty in the Army at the time and after the stone was verified the Military Doc at Sick Call, said to go home and drink plenty of fluids. He said if you like beer, usually two six packs will do the trick. Beer serves two purposes: One, it gives you plenty of fluid and two, it helps with pain management. I took the doc's advice and sure enough, after 9 beers, the stone passed.
Yeah it wasn’t fun- Kept throwing up from the pain, which of course woudl make the pain worse as the abdomen woudl clench while puking, putting pressure near the area where stone was- then the dry heaves- Glad it hasn’t happened again that intensely since going on the medication for it-
I work in an ER. The doctors in any ER are usually so busy and stressed asking someone their pronouns isn’t anywhere on their radar.
This is a bs story.
Yeas, she may be following the dictates of George Washington University Hospital.
Jeesh—sounds like this guy gets kidney stones easier than my cat does!
A doctor told my dad essentially the same thing.
He used to suffer from them.
I’ve had three or four that I can remember.
I am an Internist/Infectious Diseases specialist.
You (and your regular doctor) are right on all counts.
From a social standpoint, it is the duty of the professional staff to act in a neutral and unprovocative way: the patient, who has an illness and may have consequent anxiety, does not need to be assaulted with a staff member’s sociopolitical views.
We are there to help the ill, not to make a statement.
From a medical standpoint, they are guilty of following a protocol instead of taking a careful history, doing a careful physical examination, and ordering appropriate testing to confirm or rule out potential causes of your presenting symptom complex.
If you ask the right questions and then listen to the patient’s answer, they invariably tell you what the diagnosis is.
One of my Rules of Medicine for medical students and trainees is: “When all else fails, speak with and examine the patient”
I trust that you have recovered.
I do NOT drink coffee—or tea —for alcohol.
I drink regular Coca Cola-—probably about 2 liters a day.
When I was a kid-—we kept a small container (with lid) in refrigerator of COCA COLA SYRUP, with a small brush like a flux brush for welding.
When a lug nut on a piece of farm equipment had to be removed, the strip was brushed on & left overnight. The lug nut came loose easily the next day. We kids were FORBIDDEN to touch that container.
Watched the farm manager us it on rear wheel lugs on the Minneapolis Moline tractor. HE literally got the lugs off by hand the next day. Only time I remember a tractor tire needing repairs.
The fruit of Big Democrat Government meddling.
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