The experience I had in the ER yesterday was Inexcusable. My doctor came initially came in for my exam and instantly asked me if I “wanted a narcotic” for the pain. (Those were his exact words.) When I asked him to clarify he referred to morphine. I declined. But was appalled by the way he asked me and the terms he used. We are in an opioid epidemic crisis in the state of New Jersey and there should be regulations and other pain medications offered before that. Let alone protocol for the terms being used by doctors. Then my nurse came in to set up IV fluids. She proceeded to insert the IV and somehow got blood all over the place. She laughed and said “well if you see blood anywhere, don’t worry it’s yours.” Later I noticed the blood droplets that were still on the floor after hours of the IV being inserted and my fiancé almost slipped on an alcohol gauze pad which also was drenched in my blood. Several nurses came in and out of my room and failed to clean up the mess. I also noticed that my sheets were covered with blood and were never changed in the 8 hours I was in the emergency room. During my time in the emergency room, I told 4 different nurses that I thought there was something wrong with my fluid rate and the drip. Every time I mentioned it, they said that I had to keep my arm a certain way and dismissed my claims without actually checking arm. The fluid given to me in the full 8 hours I was there, hardly moved and the drip was extremely slow. After 8 hours of waiting, I finally asked if they knew where my doctor was. No one had any idea WHO my doctor was and asked me to describe him. When he finally came in, I asked for an update on my results from a test that had been taken 4 hours ago... he said very casually that my results were normal. I then requested to be discharged and he agreed. A nurse I had never seen before came to remove my IV and said that the way the line was inserted in my arm had been kinked (not one nurse bothered to check my arm when I told them about my fluids). When she finally pulled out the IV I was bleeding very heavily. She put some gauze and a bandaid over my vein and told me I was clear to leave. There was fresh blood all over my arm that was not cleaned by the nurse before I left. I would never recommend this hospital to anyone in the future. The neglect I received yesterday was appalling and shameful.
