Ambulance? You'll be stone dead in a moment.
Posted on 09/14/2009 11:41:51 AM PDT by Charlespg
A retired teacher died of a burst stomach ulcer after a paramedic told her to ‘stop being such a drama queen’ and failed to take her to hospital, an inquest heard yesterday.
Mother-of-three Eileen Ellis-Whitfield, 63, died just hours after an ambulance was called to her home when she fell seriously ill with chronic stomach pains.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
I have not had it since I stopped drinking fluids or large meals before bed. And alcohol makes it worse as well.
Heart disease in women often goes undiagnosed, as well. This is what happened to my mother. She had been complaining to her doctor of terrible heartburn for months. He gave her several prescriptions for the heartburn. Finally, she had a moderate heart attack and wound up in the ER. Turned out she was in need of a quadruple bypass and had advanced colon cancer and was severely anemic. She died a few days later. She was 67.
Illnesses present a little different in women and sometimes doctors put too much emphasis on women’s emotions in illness. I still find it incredible that someone can need a quadruple bypass and it went unnoticed. He must never have done any tests on her, or I am sure her severe anemia would have been revealed.
However, I will say that my mother found a doctor who told her what she wanted to hear: you’re just fine. I went with her to the doctor’s office once, right before her heart attack, and after he told her she was fine, I mentioned that she seemed very breathless lately. She got upset and as we left the office she told me she would never bring me to the doctor with her again. I doubt she had ever told him about her colon cancer symptoms, which she hid from everyone.
Ladies, make them test you thoroughly. It’s worth the embarrassment. My mother should have lived another twenty years with her children and grandchildren.
“She didn’t even get her “end of life counseling.”
My sentiments exactly. Under government-run medicine, it’s more likely these paramedics would get wrist-slapped for failure to follow some bureaucratically-designed clinical protocol than for failure to listen to a patient’s complaint. Talk about bad customer service!
been there and done that, finely had surgery, no more reflux and no more meds
It's the damnedest thing I have ever seen.
My wife and I have been married for 30 years, so I know her pretty well....I think...LOL. I usually go with her to the doctor now, because I discovered that she was entirely uncommunicative when it came to describing her symptoms. I could actually do a better job of it, and at least help with the diagnoses.
Many doctors just do a crap load of tests and some just give out a tranq or pain pill and tell the patient to come back when they can present their problem better.
LOL! Often after my wife has visited the doctor I’ll say things like:
Did you mention your headaches? “No - I didn’t have one today”.
What did he say about the sore neck? “I forgot to mention it to him”.
Did he think that other medication might be part of the problem? “Oh of course its not, I didn’t even bring it up”....
.
In fairness, I must praise the two paramedics who treated and transported my eighteen-year-old daughter when she collapsed from an asthma attack.
My daughter had never before had such an attack and didn't read the symptoms properly. She was just losing consciousness when the paramedics arrived.
The two young men followed their procedures for such a case and were on the last step in their attempt to revive her. Neither had ever lost a patient so young and both were extremely attentive to her even after she was taken to the emergency room. Her life was definitely hanging in the balance and these two paramedics made the difference.
But, of course, this was in the U.S. and my insurer paid every penney required to provide that service.
No offense taken. I think you are right. Many women, especially older women, are in awe of their doctors or extremely shy about examinations. This was my mother’s problem. She actually fought to keep her underwear on in the ER after her heart attack. She was mortified by the examinations and was so upset by the colonoscopy that she had another heart attack.
Some women are afraid. You are wise to go with your wife. All sick patients need an assertive family member to go along with them and be an advocate for the patient. Sick people can’t advocate for themselves; it’s too tiring.
Insist on a doctor who likes to do tests.
Maybe, but having been through the loops in the VA, I would say that it is quite reversed.
Her over the counter Zantac or Tagamet probably stopped working and she was on a long waiting list to be scoped and get a more potent drug like an acid inhibitor like the proton pump inhibitor drugs.
Bleeding ulcers used to be a severe problem and sometimes fatal before Tagamet and Zantac were marketed and later on proton pump inhibitor drugs.
0b0z0 care will bring back those good old days in medical care.
Actually, alcohol settles my stomach...unless I drink on an empty stomach...it is mainly sugary or spicy foods that causes my reflux. I cut sugar completely out of my diet, watch the spices, take the Nexium and sleep propped up with pillows and I seem to do ok.
Wow...that sounds just like my husband, LOL!
For what it's worth, I have a relative who uses the ambulance routinely. Chest pains, or a lack of chest pains. Chronic Constipation, chronic um, "non-constipation" ...etc etc etc. It's a social thing for her. That, and she can get away with it, and it's 100% bought and paid for already by my (our) FICA withholding.
Sickens me, but there's not a whole lot "the system" can do about it. I, and the rest of the family, have tried to shame her out of it, but she's determined to always find something wrong with her health.
It's abuses like this, that I'd like to see regulation work on. We don't need an overhaul of the system, just a little tweaking.
If you want a real eye opener take a look at the
pay scales of EMTs. I had a friend who was one in
Alabama, it was shocking how little he was paid.
I made more as a steel fabricator than he did.
You’re trusting your life to these guys and they
don’t get paid worth a damn.
She didn’t even get to live long enough to go before the death panel and make her case.
Has anyone in your office considered writing a letter to your local paper to that effect?
Ambulance? You'll be stone dead in a moment.
That is specist!!
(Species attacker!!)
So true. My daughter was an EMT in Connecticut - and a very good one. The most money she ever earned doing that was $17 per hour. Hard to live in CT on $17 per hour.
I was shocked when I found out that the people whose job it is to keep you alive until they can get you to the hospital are making such low wages.
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