Have you ever spent 5 hours in the emergency room at night and been told that they can't help you?

No. I’ve been to the ER only a few times in my life. My initial wait was never over an hour. I think my longest wait was when I broke my toe. But my longest ER stay was when i brought my father in for what my Mom and I thought might have been a mild stroke, and turned out to be full blown stage 4 metastatic kidney cancer that had migrated to his brain. We were there a looong time. Obviously.

But we got inital attention quite quickly. Maybe…. 20 minutes. But then, between each test and move there was a long wait. This was just before covid hit.

The worst medical wait was bringing my father for a simple blood draw. The place had evidently had a couple workers who couldn’t come in b/c they were trapped on the other side of the bridge due to an accident. So they were massively understaffed. But rather than be HONEST with the people waiting they kept telling everyone it would just be 10 more minutes.

Because we so desperately wanted to get my father the blood test he needed (same context as above…we were very scared for him and didn’t want to just punt on the blood test) we ended up sitting there for….I think close to 3 or 4 hours. I don’t remember exactly. In uncomfortable chairs. With an elderly man who wasn’t mentally sharp. It was infuriating. Again…not angry at them for being slow. I’m angry that they LIED ABOUT IT. Because if we’d known, we could have scheduled at a different lab very easily.

Yup.
Went to the ER with chest pains. I suspected, and was told I was correct, that it was problems with gall stones. I expected surgery, but they told me my heart rhythm wouldn’t allow it.
I was there all night, and ended up going home without being helped immediately.
HOWEVER, this caused me to see a cardiologist, who eventually 4 major blockages, and about 6 weeks after the ER visit, I had quadruple bypass surgery. If they hadn’t done this, I would certainly be dead by now.
My gall bladder was removed 6 weeks after that.

I’m allergic to Codeine. Back around 1975–1976, my doctor had given me prescription meds for a terrible cold I was experiencing. Without warning me, he decided that I needed some Codeine to kick out my illness. It didn’t kick it out as fast as he had anticipated & I ended up breaking out in Hives all over my face & neck. Not realizing what was happening, I took off for the nearest hospital. I arrived about 7 pm. Of course, it happened on a Friday night & I anticipated it being busy. Turned out my Hives were the least serious of the cases that they were dealing with, so they kept pushing me back. By the time they called me back to see the doctor about 7 hours later, I didn’t have even one Hive left; so, my body had cured itself. Fortunately a nurse had been watching me just in case my problem escalated & she verified to the doctor that I had indeed been covered in Hives. After what seemed like a million questions, the ER doc figured out that he medical doc had prescribed a cough syrup complete with Codeine & I had had a reaction to it!!! He gave me a shot to make sure they didn’t come back & told me to pour the cough syrup down the drain. He gave me a script for a different cough syrup WITHOUT Codeine & sent me home.

I didn’t sit there for 7 hours only to be told they couldn’t see me; however, I did sit there for 7 hours & NO longer needed their services!!!

Oh yeah. Many times. And at exorbitant cost, lots of tests, and hours spent there. Then they send us home. ”Golly, we know something happened, we’re just not sure what!”

One time my 11 year old daughter had tonsillitis. Her throat was so swollen that there was a hole the diameter of a pencil for her to breathe through, and we lived more than a half hour away from the hospital. I begged them to just keep her overnight, because if her tonsils swelled anymore, she would need an immediate tracheotomy. Nope!

When I was in the military, I went to the ER 3 times, the last time in an ambulance. The first 2 times, they insisted I was faking. The last time they admitted me, and the next day they said,“We weren’t sure if you’d survive the night!”

Oh yeah. Good times!

Nope. I’ve spent plenty of hours in hospital waiting rooms while some acquaintance or another was treated (or ignored) in an emergency room. Not once have I heard the verdict “we can’t help you” or anything close to it announced aloud. And I’m not surprised. It would be just too tempting an opportunity for a very hefty lawsuit.

I spent hours in an emergency, being ignored while I was dying.

I’d had an ectopic pregnancy that ruptured. Husband rushed me to the hospital. I explained that I was pregnant and had just experienced the worst pain of my life, in my abdomen. I was taken to an E.R. bed. A snooty nurse placed an i.D. band on my wrist and refused to talk to me; when I said “hello” and asked a question, she pretended not to hear me and didn’t reply.

A few hours later, I said, to some orderly or CNA, that I needed to use the bathroom. I was told to go ahead. When I got up to walk, the room spun as I passed out and fell.

That was when I got some attention. The OB/GYN on-call assessed the situation and rushed me to emergency surgery. He said that I’d been very close to death from massive internal bleeding.

No.

My daughter got her finger lightly smashed by the hinge of a cabinet. Seemed like it might need stitches, so we went to the ER (since the doctor’s office had already closed). She got surpassed by more urgent cases for 12 hours before the doctor finally took her in. Doctor closed the wound with superglue and sent her home. I could have done that at home 12 hours earlier if I had known.

Now ya know @RocketGuy! But they make medical grade superglue now.