Hey Freepers, if you ever go to the ER with a real emergency situation, either pass out in front of the reception desk, tell them you're on Medicaid or an illegal alien so you can get some service.
Well, 308, normally if a person shows up complaining of chest pain and shortness of breath, they get a "get-into-the-ER-right-frigging-now" card. Insurance or legal status has nothing to do with it. EMTALA (Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act) requires ERs to assess and render emergent care to all comers regardless of condition or insurance status.
Feigning syncope (faked passing out) is likely to make a lot of very busy ER staff extremely unhappy with you, especially if there are a lot of genuinely sick people waiting to be seen. We get the "swooners" every now and then, and it's amazing how quickly their eyes snap open and they recover when they hear the words "Foley catheter" and "nasogastric tube" in connection with their name. It's a miracle, I tell you.
Not that I'd expect you to do such a thing, mind you- just that we have seen it all at least a thousand times before.
I still have a hard time understanding how this woman could present with those symptoms and be ignored. It just grates on my professional conscience.
Or if the patient is a baby with a high fever.
And that's not a joke.