Emergency Room Nightmare

[debbluebird]

My experience happened 2 or 3 years ago. I don't remember. My memory is getting worse.

[yawny]

Steve,
I’m horrified by what happened to you. I know we all are. The only bright light that I can see in this is that your horrific experience is a cautionary tale for all of us here and we can learn from it to protect ourselves. I’m so sorry it happened though. I hope you know that everyone here supports you. We need you here and will be here when you’re ready to come back. Wishing peace and healing to you and your family.

[badnights]

People follow policies rigidly because they don't have the knowledge nor the imagination to see where the policies don't apply. And people make policies that don't apply because they also lack knowledge, and lack the imagination to envision scenarios where their proposed policies might not apply. What kills me is the PNs on the floor, though. How dare they presume to tell Steve he doesn't need his meds? How dare they pretend to know anything at all about WED/RLS? They definitely need to be sued. I don't believe that suing solves things in most cases where it's applied, but it was invented for a reason, and this is the reason.

[Rustsmith]

A bit of an update. I found out two days ago that the attorney for another previous patient filed a lawsuit against the psyc hospital while I was there. The lawsuit alleges criminal activity by the hospital's parent company. My attorney has been in contact with them and we will probably cooperate. The state has also been investigating the hospital and there is a hearing in May to revoke their license to do business. I may get an opportunity to get even for holding me captive for a week and ruining my Christmas holidays. If you google "Clear View Behavioral lawsuit", you can learn more. I didn't observe the sanitation issues described, but I did see most of the rest.

How dare they presume to tell Steve he doesn't need his meds? How dare they pretend to know anything at all about WED/RLS?

I realized once I got out that I could understand how things happened if I remembered who many of the other patients at the hospital were. Many of the individuals at the hospital are either delusional, drug addicts or alcoholics. As such, I suspect that many of the staff tend to totally discount what patients tell them. They did not know anything about RLS, but they also regularly discounted my pleas that I needed to be in a neurology ward and not confined to a psyc hospital. I could almost see it in their faces "yeah, yeah, yeah". Sort of the same reaction that jailers probably have when someone in jail insists that they are innocent.

[Polar Bear]

I googled as you suggested. What an awful place, it's pretty scary that people can be involuntarily committed into such an uncaring situation.

[debbluebird]

My goodness.

[mack]

Steve,

Sorry to hear of your awful experience. That hasn't happened to me. But, the first time I went to my family doctor for (what turned out to be) RLS, he sent me to a psychologist. He knew next to nothing about RLS and thought I was nuts. The psychologist reported an "absence of depression and anxiety". But my doctor said the psychologist was wrong. He did eventually put me on Requip, after trying non-RLS meds. But every time I went to him, no matter the problem, he kept saying it was just anxiety. Finally, after 7 weeks of terrible head pain, and him playing psychologist, I switched doctors. (It turned out to be a gum infection.)

This is nothing near as bad as what happened to you. But it does help to illustrate how little some doctors know about RLS.

[Rustsmith]

While I was in the ER, my legs were going crazy so I tried to walk the hallway outside of the examining room. That worked until hospital security told me that I had to stay in the exam room and could not be in the hallway. So, I walked from one side of the examining table to the other and back in a U shape for a couple of hours. I later found out that the doctor recorded in his notes that I was experiencing anxiety because he saw me continually pacing. He knew that I had RLS but had absolutely no idea what that meant.

When I was discharged from the psyc facility, they gave me recommendations for my meds. The medical nurse practitioner said that I should stop taking methadone, continue with pramipexole and that my gabapentin was for peripheral neuropathy. He spoke with me every day for a week, knew that my meds were prescribed by my neurologist, who is a professor at the state medical school and not once did he ever ask why I was taking methadone or gabapentin. He was totally clueless when it came to RLS. I guess that he assumed I was on methadone for drug addiction. Since the facility had a number of recovering addicts, I guess that it was simply a case that he couldn't think outside of his pre-conceived notions of why various meds are used.

[ViewsAskew]

Steve - how are you feeling now? Hopefully improving after this experience.

I was just reminded of my grandmother disappearing for several days when I was a young child. She lived a few blocks away and I was there quite often. She had complained of RLS (this was the late 60s or early 70s, IIRC, and they institutionalized her. I don't know details and she is now deceased...but such a horrible situation. And, while I can sort of make an excuse for this 50 years ago, I certainly cannot now!