TexasCHLforum.com

crazy2medic wrote:

mrvmax wrote:

RPBrown wrote:Glad it wasn't worse and you will be okay.
See
I've told this story on here before but it's worth a laugh again. First though, do you ever wonder if doctors and nurses in an ER ever talk to one another or even read a patients chart. I'll explain during this story.
Several years ago we (I) was separating some of our pond plants. I was in shorts and flip flops (yeah, I know) and was squatted down with a plant in front of me and a razor knife in my hand. Now I had already separated several others in this same fashion but my wife walks out, sees me and the very first thing she says is "your going to cut yourself like that". Of course I look at her with that "I know what I am doing look" and the very next slice down the knife slips and punctures my ankle. There is a very small but pulsing stream of blood coming out. I put my thumb on it to stop the bleeding and after I had to hear "I told you so" a few times, she takes me to the ER. First, have you ever seen an old fat man walk while holding is ankle. Not a pretty sight. Anyway, the firs nurse brings out a wheel chair for me and proceeds to ask what happened. We told her and she puts it all in the chart they are building. She then takes me in to another nurse that takes my vitals and she asks me what happened. I told her and she writes in the chart. She then puts a pressure bandage on it so I can straighten up and wheels me into a room. During the next hour of waiting, 2 additional nurses came in to check on me and both asked the same thing, "what happened". Both wrote it down in the chart. Finally the doctor comes in sits down, looks at the chart, looks at my ankle, and asks "what happened". By now I am a little irritated and decided to become a bit sarcastic. I looked at my wife and saw the "oh no" look on her face and then I told him " well I decided to end it all by puncturing my ankle". My wife lost it and spewed coffee but the doc closes the chart, leans back and says " Mr. Brown, do you have these feelings often?" I asked him point blank, how many times the cause of my injury was actually written in my chart and he said 5. I said why, no one reads it. He then had the nurse put some antiseptic on the puncture, put in 1 stitch and discharged me.

I really do not mind them asking me how it happened but I don't like the fact that the initial ER dr. that looked at the cut missed the fact that an artery was cut and they left me bleeding for 20-30 minutes. After he removed the pressure bandages to looked at the cut he said it wasn't as bad as the Urgent care dr. stated and it only required a few sutures. He said they would get an x-ray to make sure the bone was not cut and Instead of putting a pressure dressing back on he handed me the bloody dressing he pulled off that urgent care applied and asked me to hold it on the cut. It was about 15 minutes before they came to x-ray it and it was after that that I got fed up with blood running out of the blood soaked bandage before I had to ask a nurse to stop the bleeding. When the second dr. went to put in the sutures he found out why the bleeding was hard to stop, an artery was cut and the first dr. missed that. The first dr. came in to tell him something unrelated and dr #2 told him that an artery was cut. Dr. #1 just walked out and didn't say anything. I also realized talking to my wife that they never cleaned the wound, they sewed me up without ever cleaning it out with an antiseptic. My wife was there the entire time so it wasn't just me forgetting. I had to call my primary care dr. this morning to see if he would prescribe antibiotics so I do not get an infection since the cut was so deep and I was using a razor knife that I cut no telling what with. I realize these guys are busy but it seems like too many minor issues and this is why I have an aversion to doctors.

My principal job is to take patients from little hospitals to big hospitals because the little hospital can't handle their illness or injury! My EMT partner and I get a call to transport a trauma patient to one of the big hospitals in ft worth, patient fell through a glass coffee table (Yes alcohol was involved) putting a glass shard thru the thigh right down to the femoral artery, the ER Dr. at the little hospital attempted to suture it with obvious failure, then attempted to use a clotting agent that also failed, Dr threw their hands up, walked past me and my partner saying "I can't fix it here" several times as they just walked off, turned to my partner told him go to the ambulance get me two rolls of curlex and two 5×9's, nurse that was standing there asked what do you need, I repeated my order to her and she said she'd get it out of hospital stores, when she returned with the bandages me and my partner placed a pressure dressing on the man's thigh and transported him over an hour to Ft Worth without one drop of blood coming thru, how that Dr. ever got a license I'll never understand!