I was admitted though I had no identification. I had told the ambulance driver to take me to MH as SLMH did not accept my medicare advantage hospital plan. She did drive me there. I told the receptionst that I had just had a treatment done there and gave her the date and time. She informed me that the ER computers do not talk to the hospital computers and she could not verify my ID that way. I gave her my SS number and I was admitted to the ER.
I was triaged and kept on hold after that. After a time someone came and told me I would have to have an X-Ray taken of my right arm. Soon a man came and rolled me into an X-Ray room. Then the trouble began. He wanted me to hold my arm in a certain position. But my elbow had frozen by then and it was a mass of pain. I could not follow his instructions. We went back and forth. He asking and I telling him I could not do what he was asking, Well, I was straddled on the gruney sitting up with my legs straight out. He accused me of being a diffcult patient, and proceeded to physically position my arm the way he wanted it for the X-Ray. He grabbed my arm and turned it forcefully the way he wanted it, and; my legs involuntarily swung out in reaction to the pain he caused me, hitting him in a place men don't like to be hit. But, it was not hard enough to cause him more than a little discomfort, because he took off and came back and took me back to the holding room. He caused his own trouble himself for not believing me when I told him I was in pain and could not move my elbow. At the time I did not know that what I had was a frozen elbow which comes with this type of fracture.
In the holding room a woman doctor came in with an, 'I can handle granma, just leave let me at her,' attitude. She comes in saying, "We will have to send you home without a diagnosis because you are a very uncooperative patient. You refused to do as the X-Ray technican asked and he was unable to get the image he needed" This was a threat aimed at terrifying me into submission, but I am too old for this type of lame tricks.
LORD, what is the fate of the disenfranished, those unable to speak the language, the shy soul the timid one, or the disabled, without an advocate in place in this hospitals? An advocate who looks out for you, not one provided by a hospital. A friendly face.
So, I go into an explantion of the reason I could not do as the technician wanted. "I cannot move my arm because it will not obey my command to move.. I am telling it what to do and it will not budge at all." She examed me and calmed down, so; she must have had some common sense along with her training. She sent in another type of X-Ray machine which was rolled into the holding room. It moved in different directions, so my arm remained in place. Then she came back in and told me I had a radius head fracture of the elbow. She did not tell me that my elbow was frozen and therefore the reason for my elbow not responding as the tech wanted.. Many professionals do not apologize or express regret for making mistakes even minor ones. She also told me that this fracture would have to be taken care off by doctors other than the ER ones. So that was that. They put a sling on my arm, gave the names of some doctors and prescription for pain and I was free to go. It was around 4 AM.