Spotted : Over the weekend, my mother who is suffering from colon cancer spread to the bones had a bad reaction to her first dose of chemotherapy. Her at home nurse recommended we call an ambulance and take her to the ER. What a mistake that was! The paramedics were fantastic; personable, caring, and helpful. Unfortunately, the same could not be said about the nurses on call that evening. After waiting in the ER for 5+ hours without any pain meds because she was unable to ingest them (bone cancer is known to be one of the most, if not the most, painful cancers), the way she was treated by the attending staff disgusted me. She was told that she should "accept the consequences of chemo or give up" and that the hospital was crowded enough without her there. The fact that anyone had the audacity to say this to a suffering patient is truly despicable. Once we relayed this information to her nurse from Saint Elizabeth, she was as horrified as we were and shocked they did not admit her to the hospital overnight. We will of course be lodging a formal complaint against these individuals, but I thought that this would be an appropriate method to show the lack of sympathy shown to my mother. The other patients there that evening shared this sentiment and I believe they too are owed some sort of reconciliation of the situation.
Any Met ER nurses reading this: I sincerely hope this opens your eyes to the way patients deserve to be treated.