I used to work for Floyd Memorial 2 years ago and in that time the amount of disregard that would occur to the patients was astonishing. I saw a patient that came in via EMS and the staff (including the doctors!) rolled their eyes when they heard the patient was having non stop seizures. He was put down the hallway where no one could see him or hear him. 30 minutes later no nurse or tech went into the room to check on this patient. The father of the patient came out and said that for 30 minutes he sat watching his son have seizures one after another and the last one has not stopped and has been unresponsive for ten minutes. One nurse out of the 5 standing there offered to follow the father into the room to check on the man's son. As the father walked with the nurse to the room, the rest of the small crowd and yes (the one doctor sitting there) rolled their eyes. The nurse shortly after came running out and said to call respiratory. They had to ventilate the boy. I am not sure what happened to him because the doctor had the boy transferred to ICU right after that.
This situation had only gave me an uneasy feeling, but its true affect did not hit me until 2 years later catching you up to 2010 with my current reason for placing this complaint. I am not sure if I have the right website or if it would make a difference, but even if one person receives this information and stears clear of Floyd Memorial in New Albany Indiana, then I can say that I have saved a life.
This summer I started having black out spells in which case I would lose my balance and fall. This did not concern me too greatly because I was trying to finish my summer class and didn't have much time to be worrying about my health. But after I wrecked my car and "came to" in the passenger's seat of my car I thought "ok this is getting dangerous" So I decided to go to the ER at Floyd Memorial. I was seen about 2 hours after waiting in the lobby. My vitals were normal. A CAT scan was done an MRI and MRA was done and on each test there was an abnormal-normal cluster of blood vessels in my right cerebellum. The doctor said it is nothing and told me that I wrecked my car on purpose and to go home and see a neurologist if I thought I needed to. (Really doc! not many people want to spend $1000 dollars just for fun!) A week after the fun ER trip, I saw a neurologist and told him my story and in 2 minutes he looked up at me and said he was 90% sure I was having seizures. 3 weeks after that the doctor did an EEG and confirmed that I indeed had epileptic seizures in my right temporal lobe of my brain. 3 months later I was under stress due to bad family news and 24 hours later started having nonstop blackouts and difficulty breathing with chest pain. My best friend rushed me to Floyd Memorial Hospital. After waiting 45 minutes to be seen by anyone (yes even my vitals were not taken) I begged my best friend to take me to another hospital. On the way out of the hospital I blacked out and found myself on the floor with all of my belongings on the floor and my daughter screaming. I had had another seizure, I was sure of it. before I could get up I fell again and blacked out. My friend said that I was shaking and stiff. I came to again and begged my best friend to get me out of there. She tried picking me up and I fell a third time and she said that the triage nurse and a man came out and picked me up in mid seizure and my legs spasmed and shook crazily and my body looked stiff according to my friend. I came to as the hospital staff were putting me in a chair. I told my friend to take my baby home. My vitals were checked and please note, I am only 29, and my vitals were B/P 140/90 and pulse was 144. I was unable to communicate clearly and confused trying to understand the triage nurse's questions. She seemed annoyed and she walked out of the room leaving me by myself for a good length of time. I was then registered and put back out into the waiting room. I was embarrassed and stressed. after about an hour of waiting I was wheeled back into the same hallway that boy was put in. I thought "I'm going to die" the monitors were beeping from my vitals. The doctor came in and to my surprise (or bad luck) the same doctor as before walked in. He checked my extremities to check the strength and all seemed normal to him. I told him I was seeing darkness as I was talking to him and no matter how hard I tried I could not speak clearly or understand him clearly. He seemed annoyed which only made me more stressed. Then when I told him that I was seeing blackness some more and he told me "No you are not" I was shocked! I said "excuse me?" He said "No you are not seeing black" I asked him "sir, do you see anything wrong with me?" without even running a test he said "no you are fine" and crossed his arms and stood at the end of the bed. I said "ok then I will go home now" the doctor left the room and the nurse came in and I told her what was said and how the 24 hour nurse line from my insurance told me to go to the ER and I never expected to be a nusance. I started to walk out of the ER and blacked out but did not fall. (thank God!) I asked the triage nurse that came to my rescue when seizing in the lobby if she thought she saw me having a seizure and to my shock she said "no!, you did not have a seizure, only people who lose their bowels are having seizures." I said "Dear God!, I hope that doesn't happen to me! but I am only having tonic clonic and partial complex seizures so I don't believe that would happen to me." and then she shocked me again! she said "look lady, I don't know who has been lying to you but, there is only 1 kind of seizure and its Grand Mal or "clinical" seizures and they always lose their bowels." I left the hospital in shock by such information. While sitting and waiting from my ride on a bench outside the hospital, I asked 2 ICU nurses (their badges said ICU, RN) what they knew about epilepsy. The only thing that came out of their mouths was "I don't know" (REALLY!) How are they able to work in ICU and not be able to come up with something better than "I don't know!" How is it that many people who are medically trained not educated to save our lives? How is it that we as epileptics are unspecial. When is it that we became the annoyance of hospital care?