Duh. This was an emergency clinic. Why else would the guy be there if it wasn't an emergency?
My stepdad died because a triage nurse blew him off, and my sister nearly died once for the same reason. My family is very stoic; we don't whine and cry like babies, and we seek to hide our weaknesses. In emergency situations, we tend to be calm and unemotional. I wonder if this guy was the same way, and that's why they blew him off.
I'm beginning to think that medical professionals need to take yet another "diversity" class: One that teaches them that there is a such thing as the polar opposite of a hypochondriac. Then maybe the next time someone walks up to a triage nurse and without wincing, calmly explains that they're in extreme pain, they won't be ignored the way my stepdad and my sister were.
I hate whining. I was also taught not to run up bills you can't pay for.
I went to a county health clinic last year. The first visit, I had to wait forever as expected. After the EKG(boy those things are expensive, and I've had 2, plus a Holter monitor), 3 doctors kept asking me if I was in pain. To me, pain is relative. I blew out 3 disks in my neck, plus I screwed up my lower back. Feeling like you have cinder blocks tied to your chest is just severely annoying. So is feeling like you killed your left arm, and the vomiting. I had 3 doctors come in, and tell me when, not if, to call 911. On this visit, my pulse was 123.
On follow up visits, I was pushed ahead of the line. Then that bitch of a clerk decided that I wasn't eligible for MediCal, when I asked her who I made the co-pay to. I have a 560.00 deductible. I got the money together, and my worker told me to pay them. I had the paperwork with my name on it and everything. By the time I went in, I was freaking out. The nurse thought the blood pressure machine was broken. I have extremely low blood pressure normally, but my pulse rate is out of control. Oh, and Prozac sucks.
In the past month I've been under a lot of pressure from several different sources. I've almost called 911 twice, but worked my way through it. I quit going to the doctors and quit taking my meds, but I'm rethinking this, considering the lady in the billing office to me not to worry about the bills.