New Patient Story
50008- Author: Sarah Hoepfinger.
- Date Submitted: Aug 16, 2024
A Dr. from Lafayette Family Medical told me that I needed to go Boulder Community Emergency Room because I had bilateral pheumonia. I begged him to just prescribe me antibiotics, he said no that people die from this. So my husband drove me to the e.r. in Boulder. When I checked in I was seen by the nurse who took my oxygen level, etc and she said this, "so antibiotics." This comment made me believe that my condition wasn't that bad. My husband and I went and sat in the waiting room, right in front of the people that check you in and the nurse. We did call the on-call Dr from my Dr.s office asking for them to prescribe me antibiotics and sharing that the nurse didn't make it sound like it was that bad. They said no that I needed to stay in the e.r. and get the antibiotics. I was so fatigued that I had not driven myself alone anywhere for the last 3 days. So we waited. I was hearing everything that was being said by the people working there and they were saying that they were slammed. I heard one women come in with a bee sting and after about 45 minutes to an hour she just ended up leaving. Another women said that her husband was on oxygen and they had been waiting for 3 or more hours to be seen.
After about an hour to an hour and a half, I needed to go to the bathroom and I was so fatigued that I knew that I wouldn't be able to walk the 40 to 50 feet to the bathroom. I let my husband know that I needed a wheelchair. The security guard came and pushed me to the bathroom. When I got back from the bathroom I was so tired. Not one person from the front staff or nurse came to check on me. I asked my husband to get a blanket and he did and he spread it out on the floor. He helped me up from the wheelchair and I laid down on the floor. I just kept getting weaker. I couldn't move, my limbs felt so heavy. My husband told the nurse that I was fading and I heard the nurse say that I was the next person to be seen and it would only be about 30 more minutes. We both knew that was not the truth but what were we going to do. When the nurse came out to call me back to the e.r. she was calling the wrong name. She had my wrist bands in her hand and she called out the wrong name 3 times before my husband said, do you mean Sarah. I couldn't get up off the floor. Two people had to lift me up and get me on the stretcher.
When I got back to room 9, in the ER, they took my blood and wondered why I was catatonic. They did a nasal swab and gave me antibiotics. The fatigue in my limbs was decreasing but still so heavy. I was coughing, because you know...pneumonia and the Dr. said we need you to cover your cough and I coughed again and he said "or not." and left the room. I was lying there barely able to move or talk and thought are you kidding me, I don't need these comments. Then the nurse came in and I started coughing and he said "we need you to cover and I said, mask and he left the room and came back with a mask and when he put it on me, he had to remove the mask that was hanging off my right ear.
Then the Dr. came back and said that I tested positive for the flu and that is why I wasn't able to move and was so fatigued. I would like to know what we could have done to let the nurse know that I was deteriorating so quickly and have gotten seen quicker. Or what we needed to do to have someone come check on me, after being pushed to the bathroom in a wheelchair or when I was laying on the floor.