To Whom It May Concern:
On Saturday, May 4, 2002 at approximately 11:45 p.m., I took my son and his friend to the emergency room at Citizens Hospital for injuries that happened due to an assault. I immediately went to sign both boys in at the front desk and asked what the procedure would be to have them seen and administered. I was told that they take people in on a first come first serve bases, which I understood. It was visible to all that these boys were badly injured and had visible serious head wounds and were both bleeding profusely. We stayed as calm as possible and held on to their injuries with the towels that we brought from home.
My son, James XXXX had at least a 2″ x ½” cut to his left eyebrow that was a gaping wound, his face was swollen twice it’s size due to blows to the cheeks and jaw and had obvious head trauma. The other boy, William XXXX had approx. ½ ” scar on the forehead was taken in before my son. That was fine, I felt that one or the other had to both be taken care of. By the time my son was taken back, an hour had passed by, another half hour for the X-ray and half an hour to wait for results. 2 hours later the doctor finally decided to take a look at my son. By then his friend who was already stitched up and was released from the hospital at 2:00 a.m. and sound asleep comfortably at his home. My son was bleeding, light headed, felt sick to his stomach was shaking and trembling and head terrible head pain. I asked for a blanket for my son and was told where I could get one for him. (not that they would bring one to us, but that I could get it myself) the doctor requested for a catscan, which I agreed should be done. Another half hour passed by when I finally asked what the hold up was, I was informed that they had to call the person at home, wake him up and request that he come to the hospital to do the catscan. I was shocked at the fact that no one was on staff to perform this at the hospital. In the mean time, my son’s injuries still had not been tended to. I waited patiently for some time before I had to go and ask at the desk if this person had arrived, their answer was “yes, the person was giving a cat scan to someone else. Why were we being completely ignored? I should have walked out at that point and regret that I did not.
The catscan was performed quickly, but then we were back in bed waiting for another half hour for the results. By this time, it was 4:00 a.m. and totally exasperated with the wait when I went to see if the results were in, the doctor said they were still waiting, so I then told them that my son was in extreme pain, and asked if he could be given pain medication or if they could please come and start to stitch him up. We could have been just as well off at home, why were we not even offered an ice pack for swelling. With indifference, I was told by the doctor who was sitting and visiting with the office staff, “how are doing, feeling any better?” He had completely forgotten who I was and with whom I was there with! He realized his mistake and said he would be there shortly. At 4:20 or so, the nurse finally came in and started cleaning the wound and prepping the wound for the doctor to suture. I felt that this should have been done much earlier if not upon arrival. My son’s gaping wound was open, exposed and uncleansed for nearly 4 hours before he was attended to. The doctor said that he called and spoke to the other doctor to discuss my son and told him that he would see us Friday. I believe that this is highly unlikely since this is now early Sunday morning. We were finally out of there by 5:00 a.m.
My questions are:
1. What is the purpose of an emergency room?
2. Why aren’t injuries prioritized by the severity of the injuries?
3. Is it standard procedure to ignore patients and to leave unattended?
4. If I had personally known the doctor as the other boys parents did, would we had been treated expediently?
5. Why weren’t my son’s injuries looked at in timely manner?
6. Why were my son’s symptoms of trembling, extreme head and facial pain not cared for in a humane manner?
I am disgusted and furious with the services we received from the Emergency Room at Citizens Hospital. I can guarantee that I will never take a family member back to Citizens Hospital nor will I recommend this Emergency room to anyone. I would like to know if that the poor quality of service and the ridiculous length of time spent at the Emergency is standard procedure? And lastly, I can at least thank one of the nurses for giving us an ice pack upon departing, not that it would do any good after the fact that 5 hours had passed.
Now you may read this letter and think that I am just another impatient and over reacting mother, but I’ll have you know that I am one of the most patient, understanding, self-controlled and non-violent individuals. I can only hope and pray that no other person, including one of your own family will be treated as merciless and inhumanely as we were.
Suzanne XXXX