A&E Hospital Stories

cruais

So I have been sitting in A&E for the past 6 and a half hours with no sign of getting any further. Bored out of my tree.

So far, one guy decides to pi$s all over the floor, junkies having a row with eachother, resulting in the guards making an appearance and another preaching Jesus.

Every creature seems to like hanging out here.

So people of after hours, please keep me entertained.

Whats your funny stories from hospital?

kneemos

Can't imagine what it's like to wait that long.

cruais

kneemos wrote: »

Can't imagine what it's like to wait that long.

Like pulling teeth

Toots

I was in for 10 hours last year, wasn't too bad cos I was so out of it I kept falling asleep. I do remember there being one young man brought in who was from a community whose houses often come with wheels, and he was NOT a happy camper. I think he'd had a seizure or something. Anyway the doctors and nurses were telling him how it was important to be in the hospital cos they didn't know what was wrong with him and he might have serious head injuries etc. Next thing his parents come charging in and demand that he come home with them, the doctors are fighting a losing battle getting him to stay. The mum starts gathering up his clothes, then the dad just yanked the IV straight out of his arm. Blood everywhere. Twas feckin great. Oh and the old lady in the trolley beside me pissed herself.

cruais

An old man just had a heart attack in front of us in the waiting room... defib to shock his heart. He is alive thank goodness.

Horrible sight

Banjo String

A bloke came in to the A&E waiting room one evening I was in it with a Punnet of strawberries stuck up his bum. :eek:


The doctor put some cream on it.

fizzypish

Been in a&e once or twice after injuring myself during the previous nights festivities. Sitting there, looking about at some of the dregs of society and a few genuinely ill/injured non drink related folk, and then realizing that I too must be one of the dregs. Must be awful tough on doctors/nurses working in a&e, baby sitting drunk twats at the weekends.

mardybumbum

What A&E are you in out of interest?

Tail Docker

I have a loyalty card for the place. Not too pushed on it though, it's full of drips.

anncoates

Years ago, I had to go in with a gash above my eyebrow. It was quite late at night and I was a bit disorientated. When they said afterwards I had to have a jab, for some stupid reason - presumably from childhood - I thought you had to get the needle in the arse so I started to dutifully unbuckle my belt and pull down my trousers to the absolute horror of the nurse.

cruais

mardybumbum wrote: »

What A&E are you in out of interest?

The mater hospital... I tell you, it's an experience...

dmc17

cruais wrote: »

The mater hospital... I tell you, it's an experience...

Are you still waiting?

Grayson

dmc17 wrote: »

Are you still waiting?

they might be there for a while. :)It's one of the busiest in the country. If you're non critical you're waiting ages. I've hear of people spending weekends there

I know someone who's a paramedic. When they drop someone to the hospital they wheel them in on a trolley. they transfer them to another trolley and then take their own back to the ambulance. Then they head off and pick up someone else.

they once spent a whole shift in the mater because when they wheeled in someone there was no trolley to transfer them to and they had to wait hours for one to become available.

Apparently Beaumont is the worst waiting times in the country.

I've been in A&E twice in recent years, bit times in a smaller Dublin hospital and both times I was seen in about 6 hours.

stefan idiot jones

My Aunty worked with a lady who used to work in an A&E in London years ago.
One hot summers day a guy came in wearing a long coat. He also would not give any details to the staff only he insisted that it was a male doctor that he would speak to.
Eventually the doctor came to see him with a female nurse who the doctor insisted being there whatever the man's concerns were.
The msn then removed his coat to reveal a baseball bat stuck up his poop shute handle first.
'Apparently' the man slipped.

cloud493

Not very long ago, I was in the waiting room of a certain Dublin hospital, about 4am? Lot of drunks and what not, usual. These absolute scumbags who'd been knocking the ****e out of each got out a pack of smokes, and lit up in the waiting room. I mean it stank anyway, but I was shocked, specially since no one reacted. I hadn't seen any security in the waiting room, only in the actually medical bit, and none of the nurses or whatever called them out on it. I dunno, I was shocked.

Rubberchikken

why paramedics have to wait to get their trolley back and the delay it must cause seems ill thought out.
there has got to be a better system running in hospitals worldwide. why can't irish hospitals learn from others that are functunioning better than us?

whatdoicare

One time I was waiting with the husband to be admitted when in ran a woman with a very small baby. Baby was maybe three months, four at most was in a car crash and the baby wouldn't wake up.

The absolute fool of a receptionist asked her to take a seat while the poor woman was calling her baby trying to get her to wake up.

I never saw such greatness after this, everyone in the waiting room started pounding on the door to the hospital part until someone opened it and we ran in roaring for the doctor!

Another woman tore strips out of the receptionist, who still couldn't see what she did wrong! Like wtf!

I don't know if the baby was alright after that but I still have nightmares from it! How could they leave a baby waiting?? Surely the queue doesn't apply here?

This says it all about the state of our health care and the attitude of those running the show. Not an ounce of cop on.

king_of_inismac

I have never been in A&E in Galway hospital without there being members of the travelling community being there.

Must be the lifestyle/culture thing that makes them more prone to illness/injury.

Before the PC brigade rush in, I'm not talking about injuries from fighting or anything similar - just normal illnesses or injuries.

DeadHand

king_of_inismac wrote: »

I have never been in A&E in Galway hospital without there being members of the travelling community being there.

Must be the lifestyle/culture thing that makes them more prone to illness/injury.

Before the PC brigade rush in, I'm not talking about injuries from fighting or anything similar - just normal illnesses or injuries.

It's possession of a medical card and a lack of anything else to do.

DrGreenthumb

king_of_inismac wrote: »

I have never been in A&E in Galway hospital without there being members of the travelling community being there.

Must be the lifestyle/culture thing that makes them more prone to illness/injury.

Before the PC brigade rush in, I'm not talking about injuries from fighting or anything similar - just normal illnesses or injuries.

Do some recearch on inbreeding and that should answer your question

ruthloss

cloud493 wrote: »

Not very long ago, I was in the waiting room of a certain Dublin hospital, about 4am? Lot of drunks and what not, usual. These absolute scumbags who'd been knocking the ****e out of each got out a pack of smokes, and lit up in the waiting room. I mean it stank anyway, but I was shocked, specially since no one reacted. I hadn't seen any security in the waiting room, only in the actually medical bit, and none of the nurses or whatever called them out on it. I dunno, I was shocked.

Perhaps the Nurses 'or whatever' don't like being cursed or spat at or indeed having the crap beaten out of them., and before anyone makes the "oh don't be so dramatic" comment., I was that soldier.

DeadHand

cloud493 wrote: »

Not very long ago, I was in the waiting room of a certain Dublin hospital, about 4am? Lot of drunks and what not, usual. These absolute scumbags who'd been knocking the ****e out of each got out a pack of smokes, and lit up in the waiting room. I mean it stank anyway, but I was shocked, specially since no one reacted. I hadn't seen any security in the waiting room, only in the actually medical bit, and none of the nurses or whatever called them out on it. I dunno, I was shocked.

Not the nurses duty to call them out on anything, they have enough to be doing. A failure of the security staff more so than the nurses.

pharmaton

I've only been to a&e once. I had just flown in to Ireland and my kidneys had taken a turn just before take off but I managed to bare down until we landed and hung on for the two hour drive home where I went to the local a&e to ask for something to relieve pain as it was early morning and no chemists were open. I didn't like having to go there and bother busy hospital staff for something like a kidney infection.

I sheepishly explained to the receptionist the problem and instead of making me wait she called a doc straight away and within ten minutes I was on a drip and queued for an ultrasound.

There was also another travelling person being seen to by the doc in the cubicle next to me, she was complaining loudly of a pain in her big toe. I think she had an ingrown toenail. I suspect the doc was happy to see me as it gave him something else to focus on as I ended up being admitted for a week.

bnt

Yikes. I've only had to go to A&E three times in my life, the first two in South Africa and once here in Ireland. All three were in the middle of the day, and I was seen pretty much straight away every time. So I have no "tales from the waiting room", and the most recent time (St. Vincent's) it was pretty quiet once I got inside. I got the impression that drunk people are kept in the waiting room to keep them from disrupting the rest of the A&E where the real work is done.

osarusan

This is my A&E story. I think I've told it here before.
I was about five or six, and I was playing "circus" with my brother. I was standing on his shoulders, when I fell off and my head landed on an upturned plug. The plug got stuck in the back of my head, in the skin only and not the skull itself, fortunately. So I had to go to hospital to get the plug removed and my head stitched up.

The doctor was from India or Pakistan or somewhere like that, and I was terrified of him. I spent the entire time I was there screaming at my mother, "don't let the brown man touch me." She was, I presume, mortified.

starlit

Were you waiting long in St Vincent's bnt I've been to A and E a few times. Waiting times varied for me 3-5 hours but had a short wait the last time but was still in A and E few hours.

kneemos

My mother went to A+E for something I forget what and brought me with her.
I was just a toddler but managed get through infants and had just started primary school when the doctor called her name.

suicide_circus

anncoates wrote: »

Years ago, I had to go in with a gash above my eyebrow.

I wouldn't say the wife was too impressed with that!

Balmed Out

Friend had food poisoning in South africa and all private hospitals were full so we went to a public one.Slow to complain about an Irish hospital again.

He was in a corridor for about 15 hours being hydrated from a drip until whatever was in his system passed. The corridor was full of others all with large amounts of bruising - I presume they were unfortunate enough to have aids.

Rather then the smell of bleach there was an overwhelming stench of urine. I sat in a corner and spent the night watching the biggest rat you can imagine walking around a corner and stealing slices of bread from patients belongings beneath their trolleys before going carrying the bread back around the corner and repeating.

steveone

I spent six and a half hours waiting in a/e blanch after a car accident. The Poster on the wall in front of me read "look after yourself..." so i got up and went home. Doubt anyone even noticed.

anncoates

suicide_circus wrote: »

I wouldn't say the wife was too impressed with that!

Was single at the time thankfully.

mardybumbum

cruais wrote: »

The mater hospital... I tell you, it's an experience...

I know. I work there.

Seen your thread just as I was having my breakfast and was going to ask you how busy it was before I went in.
Turned out to be a lovely day.

gordongekko

cruais wrote: »

So I have been sitting in A&E for the past 6 and a half hours with no sign of getting any further. Bored out of my tree.

So far, one guy decides to pi$s all over the floor, junkies having a row with eachother, resulting in the guards making an appearance and another preaching Jesus.

Every creature seems to like hanging out here.

So people of after hours, please keep me entertained.

Whats your funny stories from hospital?

Seems to be enough entertainment there already

daveohdave

cloud493 wrote: »

Not very long ago, I was in the waiting room of a certain Dublin hospital, about 4am? Lot of drunks and what not, usual. These absolute scumbags who'd been knocking the ****e out of each got out a pack of smokes, and lit up in the waiting room. I mean it stank anyway, but I was shocked, specially since no one reacted. I hadn't seen any security in the waiting room, only in the actually medical bit, and none of the nurses or whatever called them out on it. I dunno, I was shocked.

First world problems are truly shocking.

Berserker

Never been in a public hospital A&E myself. My father cut his hand in work, a few years ago and he had to go into A&E, James' (Dublin) if I remember correctly. Anyway, a young lady approached my mother looking for money for coke. My mother thought she meant Coca Cola coke ........

SillyMangoX

I was in a&e overnight a couple of years ago, wasn't anything major just asthma so I was okay but had to be kept for observation. The nurse was as thick as a plank though. Had to ask 7 times before I got some paracetamol. Had to remind her every single time I needed my nebuliser changed. I wouldn't mind but it wasn't even a busy night. But to top it off, she had to leave the room to find someone from the psychiatry unit (it was like a holding unit off of a&e where it was a bit quieter) and she asked me if I would mind keeping an eye on the patient beside me. Now from what I had overheard this patient was suicidal, had taken a lot of pills and was strongly resentful of being in hospital. The nurse told me she kept trying to rip out her IV lines so if I could just watch out to make sure she doesn't do it again that would be great.
So here's me, having trouble breathing as is, being given responsibility for a patient who could possibly attempt suicide at any moment bricking it that if anything happened I would get the blame (I was only 19, I know now it wouldn't have been my fault!). And the nurse was gone about an hour. Thankfully nothing happened but lord that was not a pleasent experience.

I was also in last Wednesday, came in a 6pm and by 10am next morning I was being wheeled into theatre to have my appendix out. First time I've had an a&e visit that I couldn't fault in any way!

ninebeanrows

A&E is quick and easy if you are in a real bad way, otherwise it's awful.

But if you have a genuine urgent issue it will be dealt with speedily and comprehensively. Well that's from my experience anyway!

Beano

I had to spend the night in the waiting room in Beaumont on a friday night a few years ago when my mam had a stroke. The people who complained about a smell of piss had it easy. There was a drunk sitting in the same waiting room who had shat himself.

pq0n1ct4ve8zf5

I was in A and E in Galway a few years ago. Got there Saturday afternoon. There'd been a traveller wedding, which had at some point kicked off. Injured parties from both sides were brought to the same A and E. Surprisingly enough, it kicked off again in the waiting room :pac:

So anyways I had minor injuries and was fairly far down the list of priorities. Nurses walking around looking for patients with fairly traveller-ish names for most of the afternoon ("Princess Mc Carthy" is one that's stuck in my memory). Man with a broken nose and a shirt covered in blood walking around trying to calm down his tiny baby while his wife was being convinced to see the doctor. And so on and so forth.

Eventually got through triage and into a bed. It was now about ten pm on a Saturday night so a whole new wave of drunken eejits was being admitted. Young fellah in the bed next to me (settled guy btw) had gotten into a fight on a night out and broken his arm. Poor nurse was trying to deal with him while he kept roaring "Hell-oooooooooooo nurse!" a la the Animaniacs. When she left he got the phone out and called about three people to tell them to "find that scabby bastard and tell him I'm going to batter him with my cast and then me da is going to do a dance on him!". Also he was apparently going to meet people at the club later, sure it's only a broken arm.

Twelve hours after I arrived and twenty fúcking minutes after I saw a doctor I got out of there.

ednwireland

august bank holiday saturday in letterkenny was in having blackouts basically with what turns out to be an upper GI bleed ended up with 5 units of blood and in hospital for 8 days. 13 hours before i got onto a ward. got to say apart from the usual drunks and emergencies was ok. although my other half on a fold out from the wall chair might disagree.

still off work now picked up an ear infection now

have to say the front line staff just dont stop though, dont know how they do it

893bet

I went in with a bang to the head last year and with no hearing in one ear. I was seen immediately which is evidence of the triage system in practice (ended up being a fractured skull, just avoided the need to operate to relief pressure on the brain from fluid etc. was a scary 24 hours while they were waiting to see if there was a need).

I was on a trolley in the busy a and e and being seen to. I am a bad patient who is terrified of needles and hospitals. I nearly had to be held down to put in the "line" in my arm. After that I was lying there with my good ear to the pillow so my deaf ear up so hearing was muffled. Next thing I heard "my" nurse who had just put in the line in my arm talking about a catheter and up I jumped from the bed telling my wife (sitting on side of bed) we were leaving and assuring the nurse I was feeling much better and would take a few paracetamol etc. I have only vague recollection of it all but the nurse had been talking about another patient to another nurse and in my confused concussed fractured state had gotten highly excited. Surprised they didnt have to sedate me.

Funny to look back on.

average hero

Earlier this year I went into A&E with a bum knee after a training injury. Was seen to relatively quickly where I was asked to come back in the morning. Drove home (with the hurt knee - twas agony) and came back the next morning. Seen to straight away, given a preliminary diagnosis and x-ray within an hour.

I really have a lot of respect for the nurses and doctors I dealt. This was in a busy public hospital in north Dublin too. The waiting afterwards for things such as MRI and stuff was terrible but the initial care I got was excellent.

Basically: hospital staff - great. HSE, organisationals heads, government - bad.