Have you ever had to go to the emergency room?

[Amelia G]

Have you ever been in a situation where you had to go to the emergency room? If so, did you go? In a car, on foot, in an ambulance?

The last time I was in a situation where most people would have, I just made a doctor appointment for the next day, took a pain killer, and lived with it.

My emergency room experiences, both for myself and with others, have been almost uniformly negative. And I don't mean negative like nobody likes bleeding, but negative like most emergency rooms just charge a lot for not really taking care of people. At least in my experience.

What have other people's emergency room experiences been like? If you were injured now, would you go?

[Janiac02]

Sure, I've gone to the emergency room. I generally try to avoid it unless I'm worried it will some how be life threatening if I don't, or if a part of my body has been like, ripped open.
I work down the hall from the ER, I think they are a bunch of putzes, mostly.

[Lady Alias]

Yeah. I hated it. And they didn't do anything.

I'd imagine if half my arm was laying on the floor, I'd lean towards going again.

[Velvet-Tongue]

Had an allergic reaction to pencillin and had to go. It sucked.

My mom had to go once for intestional problems..they let her in the front of the line because she worked in the hospital (on a nursing floor)

Has to be a shitty place to work.

[TheQuietPlace]

Had an allergic reaction to pencillin and had to go. It sucked.

Been allergic to that since birth. Heh.

Anyways, I've been more times than I can remember.


1. At day care I thought it would be cool to jump off a toy on the playground set, split open my nose.
2. At day care some asshole threw a wooden block at my face.
3. Accidentally hit a vein in my index finger with a steak knife...
4. Busted my lip open pretending to be superman...the left corner of my lip.
5. Got punched in the face with braces on. Cut a huge hole in the right corner of my lip. (It was $600 for 4 stitches)
6. Accidentally shot my hand point blank with a BB gun, had 2 lodged in there...my medic buddy was able to get one out. A week went by and the 2nd one surfaced...Was put on antibiotics.

I know I went more than that, but thats all I can remember right now...I was an accident prone child.

[Mr Karl]

been a few times, and only cause I needed repairs otherwise I wouldn't bother, and now I'd probably just sew myself up with dental floss, wasn't a bad experience, just time consuming and we've got good coverage up here so it's free but still unless I'm bleeding to death I wouldn't bother

[Evilbink]

My local hospital could have a private door for me for as many times as ive been into the emergency room. Ive been shot, stabbed, multiple car accudents, skateboard incidents and a few paintball related injuries.

PLAY HARD OR GO HOME !!

[edlphotographics]

I was hit by a car and did the jerkin chicken on the roadside so I got an ambulance ride too. The only things I remember were looking down at my body (first and hopefully only OBE) and then waking up in the emergency room be moved from one bed to the other and then seeing the guy who hit me stop in the hospital room. The next day I went home.

Just a thought though.
Here in the States we have to remember that the hospital is a business, and make sure we research our options.

[HeadlessBill]

When I was 16 I had one of my fingers split open by a lawn mower. (I was being stupid.) My mother freaked out and drove me to the hospital. I was pretty calm and had a really cute nurse take care of me while I waited for the doctor. I was taken care of really fast and rather well, which is a surprise considering it was an Army hospital. I think the only thing I thought was odd was that they only used two stiches to close the wound on my finger going from just below the first joint to the tip.

[StolenName]

1) got punched whilst helping a girl being roughed up by people, I was drunk and pissing blood out of my face from a 2 inch gash
2) got hit in the throat with a hockey ball at high speed, suffering a crushed windpipe
3) glandular fever, running a ridiculous temperature and completely dehydrated, couldn't breath or swallow cause my tonsils were so swollen - in the end I ended up coughing up ONE WHOLE TONSIL .. crazy
4) suffered a crazy infection in my left leg, ended up in ER, then ended up in a hospital bed on IV antibiotics for 2 weeks .. got real good at Wipeout Fusion on PSP

In all ciurcumstances, the treatment was awesome and the doctors helpful. I have private insurance however, so I visit good hospitals. If I'd have gone to a regular hospital, I'd probably have died 2-4 of the answers above.

[Black Spiral Dancer]

Last time I was in the Emergency Room? About 10 years ago, after having been playing a rather physical game of "Lase Quest" (Laser Tag, whatever you want to call it) where we were basically had a story to follow, instead of just going around shooting everyone. We had Aliens, Predators, Terminators, you name it. Anyway, I was running away from an Alien, and being off-balance, instead of running straight down a corridor, I ran into a piece of wall that was sticking out and put a 2 inch cut in my forehead! I still have the scar from it.
Try explaining that to someone trying to stitch you up.

Well, you see. There was this Alien coming towards me, and a Predator stalking me from another direction, so I tried to run away and ran into a wall.

They're going to think I'm as pissed as a newt and not give me any painkillers and sew me up while trying to keep their hysteria in control.

[Amelia G]

My local hospital could have a private door for me for as many times as ive been into the emergency room. Ive been shot, stabbed, multiple car accudents, skateboard incidents and a few paintball related injuries.

PLAY HARD OR GO HOME !!

You really might want to chill with the paint guns

[Evilbink]

You really might want to chill with the paint guns

Ack! no way, not untill someone discovers a new way to shoot your friends and not go to jail.

[TheQuietPlace]

Theres AirSoft

[ScarlettSin]

myself i've only been five times. once with a PID whcih is hte most uncomfortable thing a girl can suffer through. once a sinus infection and again a week later with a middle ear infection. I don't like to count the 2 really where it turned out to be really nasty food poisoning. ex maybe in court i'll own up to hteone time because the stupid dr thought i was having a miscarriage. *argh* and the effing nurse in encino the a) didn't speak english and b) butchered me for case #1 i srsly kicked her in the mouth.

when i broke my arm i didn't go to the ER. I passed out with my arm propped up on a pillow and went to the drs the next day.

i've been dozens of times whit my honey (who suffers from general anxiety hypochondria) and three times with my brother who's severed the end of his finger off, nearly cracked his spine falling out of the same tree i broke my arm falling out of and being set on fire on a really bad camping trip.

really though in every instance ex the one where my honey broke his ankle and it was swollen to about as big as my head and the one where I had the ear infection - I've had ONLY bad experiences. The only reason my ear infection trip was tolerable was because i was the ONLY person in the ER and the nurse was funny and bored. (9 am Sunday morning is the ideal time to go).

I could tell you horror stories of 7 hr waits in waiting rooms where ppl were accepted on age or race or how cute they were instead of on actual symptoms. but i really don't want to type that much.

S

[Amelia G]

myself i've only been five times. once with a PID whcih is hte most uncomfortable thing a girl can suffer through. once a sinus infection and again a week later with a middle ear infection. I don't like to count the 2 really where it turned out to be really nasty food poisoning. ex maybe in court i'll own up to hteone time because the stupid dr thought i was having a miscarriage. *argh* and the effing nurse in encino the a) didn't speak english and b) butchered me for case #1 i srsly kicked her in the mouth.

when i broke my arm i didn't go to the ER. I passed out with my arm propped up on a pillow and went to the drs the next day.

i've been dozens of times whit my honey (who suffers from general anxiety hypochondria) and three times with my brother who's severed the end of his finger off, nearly cracked his spine falling out of the same tree i broke my arm falling out of and being set on fire on a really bad camping trip.

really though in every instance ex the one where my honey broke his ankle and it was swollen to about as big as my head and the one where I had the ear infection - I've had ONLY bad experiences. The only reason my ear infection trip was tolerable was because i was the ONLY person in the ER and the nurse was funny and bored. (9 am Sunday morning is the ideal time to go).

I could tell you horror stories of 7 hr waits in waiting rooms where ppl were accepted on age or race or how cute they were instead of on actual symptoms. but i really don't want to type that much.

S

The weird waiting room selection process is a lot of why I'm on the same page with you on waiting until the next day and going to the non-ER doctor.

You should kick that tree's ass with one of its own branches

[ScarlettSin]

The weird waiting room selection process is a lot of why I'm on the same page with you on waiting until the next day and going to the non-ER doctor.

You should kick that tree's ass with one of its own branches

that tree was bull dozed last year. mostly cause the mistletoe was killing it and because it was in the way of the power lines. but yeah kharma's a bitch huh?

S

[evilstonermonkey]

as a kid, i split my head open eleventy gazillion times. seriously. ive had more stitches in my head than hairs. i was a stupid child - i used to walk along the back of the couch, fall off and hit the back of my head on the window sill. id cry, mum would rush me to the doctors, they would say "hello mrs ___, back again? itll be a jillion stitches today, by the looks of things." unfortunately, since i got the blows to the head because of it, i cant blame my stupidity on all the knocks :P

a friend once threw what he thought was a disc of dried paint out of an empty paint can like a frisbee at me. turned out it was a paint-covered lid off the can, whihc was one of the ones you have to cut off instead of just popping the top on and off. flying jagged metal rarely interacts pleasantly with 7 year old foreheads. i still have the scar from that.

while cutting rhubarb in the garden, i got distracted by somebody calling and looked up mid-swing. whoops, there goes a knuckle. cut a big chunk out of my left ring finger over the top knuckle, right down to the bone. chunk of whitish scar tissue there now.

all of them were while i was in new zealand, and i got really quick help. either they have a better system than here in asstralia, or they rush kids through quick fast and in a hurry. my only incident since coming to australia didnt go so well.

i was playing union and managed to get a try, but ended up with about 5-10 people on top of me. after digging my way out, i was having some serious trouble breathing, and saw the field medic who diagnosed me with a partially collapsed lung and reccomended i go to hospital. arriving at hospital, i ended up sitting in a waiting room for 4 hours. by this time, of course, the lung had reinflated itself and i was breathing fine, but my dad was understandably concerned and insisted we stick around until a nurse could see me. finally an unfriendly nurse looked me over and diagnosed me as suffering nothing more than a stupid medic. to be sure, i was then instructed to wait a short while for the doctor to give me a proper looking at (short wait roughly equating to another half hour) who could find nothing wrong with me.
ended up getting home from the mornign game in time for dinner.