Right now at this very moment, I’m sitting in the ICU waiting room on the 7th floor of Lafayette General Hospital, Lafayette, LA. This story starts 6 days ago.
Last week and very good friend of mines sister came to the emergency room at Lafayette General, she was complaining of a very bad headache. So in their infant wisdom, the E room doctors figured that she was displaying drug seeking tendencies and just treated her with aspirin and got her released asap. Well the headache continued along with weakness and slurred speech. She told her boyfriend that if she didn’t feel any better by this morning that she needed to go back to the E-room. To make a long story short, this young lady was brought in by ambulance early this morning after having several strokes. She is now laying in a bed brain dead of course waiting for the family to get here before they turn the machines off.
I am just a friend of the family who gave her 2 older sisters and ride to the hospital to see her.
Is the government’s involvement in the fear of dispensing opiates causing doctors to overlook potentially deadly ailments?
Or is this just a hospital not to come to if you’re not feeling right?
I just have a feeling that if these E-room doctors didn’t automatically jump to the conclusion that this young lady was seeking opiates and done their jobs the first time that she might still be alive.
Filed under: General Problems
I would encourage any chronic pain patient who goes to the ER for pain who is given the “bums rush” out of there only to find out they have a serious/life threatening condition to sue the pants off of these negligent “doctors.”
That’s assuming they do not lose their life in the process. If they do, their families must sue these hospitals. At the end of the day, these people only understand one thing and that one thing is MONEY. If we continually hit them in the pocket book where it hurts them the most, they will not be do quick to dismiss people in pain as mere drug seekers.
A little update on this incident. The attending surgeon had no idea that my friends sister had been to the E-room complaining of an extreme headache prior to her untimely death. After the woman’s boyfriend spoke with the surgeon, who by the way agreed with my assumption of the E-room physicians poor diogenes, he contacted an attorney and is moving forward with a malpractice and wrongful death suit against this irresponsible E-room attending and the hospital. The surgeon was very upset and said that he would have had a chance to save her if there would have been time to treat and repair the blood vessels that caused her problem. I Truly hope that his attorney nails all responsible parties to the purverbial wall.
The family would also like to thank all of you who shared your support and concerns. We buried Arlene Saturday in her family plot, seven of her surviving siblings, her boyfriend, his family,her three sons and a lot of her nieces, nephews and friends attended. It was a nice service but it happened way to early in her life. I will attempt to keep everyone posted on what happens next.
I hope that family sues
Unfortunately this is happening everywhere, and has been for years. Doctors need to learn the difference between “drug-seeking” and “RELIEF seeking!” We, as patients have to be almost militant about getting treatment. Personally, I’ve been accused of drug-seeking more times than I can count. You have to know the law, and let them know that you know they are allowed to and supposed to treat your pain–as well as run diagnostics to see what’s wrong. Also, make sure you read your medical records. If you’re a chronic pain patient, doctors automatically judge you as lazy, useless members of society, who come to the hospital to get high….REALLY?? You think I would wait six hours to get one measly shot of narcotics?! In fact, I’ve even been discharged with a diagnosis, then two weeks later, read online records claiming a diagnosis of narcotic withdrawl! I have pain meds at home! And yes, I expect to have my pain managed, but I also expect them to try to figure out WHY I’m having the pain! Stories like this infuriate me.
ALL THE MATTER MORE TO STAND FIRM AND UNITED AND TAKE THIS FIGHT TO ANOTHER LEVEL! FIGHT!!!
My daughter had a physical therapist break her neck a couple years ago. She has had chronic pain ever since. She never goes to ER unless she is really bad off. Anyway she went the other night because she feels like it may have rebroken. Nothing was helping the pain or swelling! She waited 5 days at home trying to see if it would go away on its own. She takes pain meds daily but they just weren’t touching the pain. Anyway, doc decided she was seeking drugs right away and refused to help her. She had to beg him for prednisone to take the swelling down!!! She had her meds with her to prove that she hasn’t run out. She was hoping he would give her prednisone and an IV with some stronger med just long enough to get the pain level more tolerable. He was so worried about the fact she needed something for pain that he wasn’t even going to offer something to take the swelling down!!! Which is the reason she was hurting so bad to begin with!!! They seem to also think that if you are taking pain medication, you cannot have an emergency situation arise!!! If you do, you are automatically a drug seeking, lying junkie!! If a person gets hurt in today’s world and is going to be chronically hurt, your whole world changes. You go from being seen as an honest decent soccer mom who has alot to contribute to society to a lying, cheating, drug seeking piece of crap who is taking up space in this world! TRUST ME, IT HAPPENED TO ME!!!!
This is SO TRUE! They are negligent and ignorant about acute on top of chronic pain. They think that if you have pain medicine it should cover any and all pain, when the reality is, your home pain meds are maintaining a baseline. If you have a new, acute pain, YOU NEED MORE MEDS! They don’t understand that what’s a “high dose” of medicine for opioid naive patients will not touch the pain of someone who’s opioid tolerant.
Working as an ICU RN in a level 1 Trauma and Heart Center, I know what good patient care is. After my own experiences in the E.R., I have never entered an ER again for pain.
I went in with severe pain several years ago. As soon as they learned that I was on Opiates for pain, I became a criminal and not worthy of a basic physical assessment. A quick check of my reflexes would have alerted the worst Doctor that something was terribly wrong and required further work up.
At the time of that visit, I had right foot-drop, no reflexes in my right leg and couldn’t control movement of that leg. The swelling alone should have concerned any healthcare worker. But I was only there trying to get high, in their view. I wasn’t worthy of a 2 minute basic neurological assessment. I wasn’t worthy of a basic visual assessment. I was there to “score” and I wasn’t going to fool this ER doc!
The next day, at the hospital where I work, I was rushed to surgery to remove a disc that had completely extruded and traveled up my spinal column to the next level, compressing my spinal cord.
I’ve lost all faith in our medical system and fear for all of us.
When a patient comes in with pain, work it up!
That’s a horrendous story. I am so sorry for what they put you through. I fear for us all, too. When you go to the ER, their FIRST priority is to see if you’re a drug seeker. Period. That’s the main objective, nothing else matters. The pictures at the top of this article were taken by me at the hospital I was born in. It’s the main thing they want people to know, “You’re not getting any drugs, so don’t even try!”
We sat for almost five hours in that ER the day I took the pictures, before we took my mom with her broken back, home. She went two weeks, awaiting MRI, before getting ANY opioid pain meds. I’ve never seen her in so much pain. She was 78 years old at the time!
It’s a scary freaking world!
My brain can’t process this. A young woman died because a ER doctor judged her & failed to properly diagnose her??? I’m literally sick to my stomach. Isn’t “do no harm” one of the first part of the Oath doctors take?? My heart is bleeding as yours should be too. This could have been a family member of ours or us??? Blessings to this woman & her family. Shame on out system & this ER to allow this to happen. Speak up friends & be your best advocate.
Shouldn’t this story be sent to the CDC comments before they close??
Once my husband went to the ER after being hit in the face with a softball. His teeth were falling out and there was hole clear through his lip. I overheard the doc and nurse in the hallway talking about him being a drug seeker… Um hello there’s a hole in his face gushing blood!! They were so adamant against treating this “drug seeker” appropriately that they finally conceded to giving him ONE ORAL Percocet they tried to make him swallow with a cup and straw!!! I’m not sure what they teach in nursing school but a stew works on vacuum suction so when there’s a hole in your lips you can’t use one!!! Needless to say he couldn’t swallow this pill whic was ridiculous that that’s all they wanted to give him anyway and he had to deman to be given an IV with real pain medication. They did so very reluctantly, made the experience as awful as possible by sticking him almost ten times when even I could see a perfectly good vein (I used to be a phlebotomist) and the. They gave him the lowest dose of the least potent medication they could. It was awful! The. Immediately before the Meds even kicked in they tried to stitch the hole in his mouth shut! The whole thing was brutal and I humane all because they, for whatever reason, decided that my husband was a drug seeker. It’s criminal the way patients are treated now due to the fear of opiates!!! Something has to change!!
that sign looks like a lawsuit waiting to happen,
does this hospital have a legal dept?
I think NOT
The DEA is the main government agency responsible for scaring doctors giving them red flags for drug seeking behavior because of the “huge opiate epidemic” we have in our country. Remember, they have to create an epidemic to justify their big budget and their very existence. The real epidemic are the medical mistakes resulting in gas and severe disability. No one seems very concerned about that though. I’m sure this lady’s family will have a solid malpractice case and when hopefully a lot of money from this hospital. But that’s not going to bring back their loved one. What a sick and disgusting tale to read this morning. My heart goes out to her friends and family and my anger boils at this incompetent ER doctor. How many more deaths have to occur because emergency room doctors turn away people with severe life threatening symptoms because they judge them to be a drug seeker? More blood on the hands of the DEA.
Should say death and severe disability….
I am so sorry for your loss. This is happening in our area also. A nurse at the doctors office we go to was told flat out she was drug seeker at the ER , (and she was personally against taking drugs), she had just had an epidural shot and by evening her neck and head was in so much intense pain she wanted to find out if she had had a stroke or something. They NEVER checked her out!! Isn’t that why people go to the ER , when you suspect a stroke or heart attack, etc?
Yikes!
An epidural shot should have been an immediate red flag for a spinal fluid leak. I know as I’ve experienced it twice. The first mended on its own. The 2nd, caused by a lumbar drain, lasted 5 months! During this time I was told that I was making it up, the CT/MRI didn’t show a leak, and if I was truly leaking that I would be too debilitated to drive, work, etc. I finally found a specialist approx. 800 miles away who found two leaks and fortunately was able to patch me up.
I would sue the shit out of them
Sue the shit out of them… great… but we still are left with a dead young woman. Their insurance covers it and nothing changes and many more die.
GW and his ‘frivolous lawsuit reform’ made it so suing is no longer an option. My neck broke ten years ago, and the doctor read the exray as a ‘strain’, and I’d be better in 4 weeks. After emergency surgery six weeks later to pin my neck together, a paralyzed hand and chronic pain syndrome, the attornies told me it was futile.
Lawyers are afraid to spend their money on a possibility and I really can’t blame them. They would all rather spend a few bucks to represent a person filing for disability then represent a person who is trying to sew a hospital or company unless they have absolute prof, it’s cheaper that way.
Im so sorry to here this again happen close to my home town to same shit er tune a young mother away and she died same reason different not much this has got to stop
This happens all the time. And yes, I’m starting to think that they just want us to die.
Wow what a sad story I’m so sorry you and the family had to go thru that and the young woman who’s life is hanging needlessly in such a bad state. Things have got to change this stuff cannot go on! God bless! I wanna scream!
wow is a sad story my wife worked in the medical field as soon as she read slurred speech she said poss stroke. what has happened that here is everywhere. there were certain people seeking pain meds what dea calls pill mills and people were dying. so it put assume there all drug addicts. well the people with cancer and several other legitimate reasons to be on these meds are dying a slow painful death they should have went case by case