Doctors call USA emergency care ‘national disgrace’

When I was dying from a pendasitus my family took the time to drive me to the E.R. in the next town because the one in ours is so pathetic. I'd sooner patch myself up than go to the one closest to where I live their so incompetent.

Most of my horror stories are not about the conditions of the hospital but how i or the person i was with was treated. I was refused to be seen in one er because they did not accept my insurance. Here i am, something horribly wrong with me and they refuse to see me. The most recent one, and the one that still makes my blood boil when i think about how he was treated, is when we took my younger bro to the hospital. Now know most people are not used to people like him, i get that, and thats why me and my mom went and explained what was going on. There was something wrong with my bros ears, he was in pain, and he would beat himself in the ears and scratch them up to relieve the pain. We took him to the er, explained that he has a history of chronic ear infections, and that he is beating his ears because they are hurting him. The doc stands a foot away to look in his ears, says yep he has scratched them and thats what is causing the pain, and prescribes LIQUID oxywhatever that everyone seems to be addicted to. And he prescibed the liquid after being told he takes pills and not liquids. He would not even touch my bro and when my bro went to touch him he jumps out of the way. I was mad beyond belief. Downs is not something you can freaking catch, and neither is autism.

I am not sure why Americans fight to maintain the non-socialized health care system they have. Admittedly if you have lots of money then this is the way to go, but there are so many millions without health care because they are too rich for health care but too poor to afford premiums. As bad as the Canadian system is, at least it is accessible and some insurance company somewhere who does not know you is trying to deny you access or treatment. When I talk to Americans on the internet they all seem to, with the exception of you, swear it is the best in the world. Maybe it is not.

The hospitals in Romania are somehow similar. Although we have a national health care system, most of the times doctors won't treat you unless you give them money. I was in a surgery, a few years ago, and because I didn't give money to nurses, the gave me an epidural without any pain killer. It was the worst time of my life! I felt like they were about to cut my spine in pieces. Then, in the room, the nurses refused to give me some pain killers after the surgery because I didn't give them money. The mother of a child who was in the same room with me gave the nurse some money and she immediately brought some pain killers for the boy. When I asked again for some, the nurse replied that they ran out of pain killers. I asked a nice man who was visiting to buy me some pain killers from the pharmacy. I don't ever want to go back there! So, yes, in USA the medical care is sometimes better than the medical care in Romania!

I had a similar situation with the asthma. I was having trouble breathing and left work to go to the hospital, the doctor gave me an inhaler and sent me back to work but never checked my O2 saturation. 3 hours later I was back and had to immediately have a breathing treatment and I was admitted. I saw a different doctor and he asked, "what happened when you were in here earlier? You should have never been sent home, let alone back to work". Then there is the one hospital that is hardly ever busy, in fact their er promises that you will be seen in 20 mins guaranteed. I guess so....I have been there twice and I sent two family members there and none of us got the proper diagnosis or treatment for our conditions. It seems like their doctors are trained to just blow you off. It is scary what we are facing in healthcare today.

hi, if you think your hospitals are horrifying, how much more our hospitals here in the Philippines.

I have been to some state and government funded hospitals that serve predominately the indigent and you can get sick by just walking thru the doors of the emergency room. There are like some of the ones that you mention above. But I have been to some private funded and non-profit run hospitals and you can "eat off of the floor" it appears to be so clean. As well they offer some of the best care. Like anything else you can find examples of extreme on either end of the spectrum.