For Poles, HEDs are associated with gigantic queues, several hours of waiting for admission, and the despair of patients. Sometimes there are dramas there. Such as the recent death of a 39-year-old in the emergency room of the City Hospital in Sosnowiec. Piotr Piotrowski founded the “Foundation on June 1”, which fights for the rights of patients. Now he wrote the guide “How to survive the emergency department”.
- Piotr Piotrowski: I have been contacted by people who think that they need to print my guide and keep it in a drawer with medicines
- At the HED, a person without support is perceived by the medical staff as less problematic and may be classified as a less urgent group. When her condition worsens, she is doomed to personally alert staff that something bad is happening to her
- SOR employees agreed with me. They talked about specific cases of pathology. Their problem is that they are afraid to talk about them out loud for fear of losing their job.
Edyta Brzozowska: The case of a patient from Silesia was a direct impulse for the fact that you wrote the guide “How to survive the HED”?
Piotr Piotrowski, head of the Foundation June 1: Not only. I was shocked by the story of a pregnant Paulina from Zawiercie: a 20-year-old with symptoms of a stroke waited several hours at the Emergency Room. Today she only blinks, is in serious condition, and her family accuses the staff of neglect and risking her life. If help came at the right time, she would probably have had a baby and would have lived normally. A recording from the emergency department in Dąbrowa Górnicza, where a woman fainted, also hit the network. The paramedic did not respond, other patients intervened. Another man from Częstochowa had a ruptured aneurysm, he was detained for 10 hours at the Emergency Room. His daughter took him by taxi to another hospital. It was only there that he had the appropriate examinations done, but it was too late for rescue and surgery. He died.
Do you think that a visit to hospital emergency departments requires special survival skills, is it a kind of survival skill?
People go to the HED or are taken there with the hope that they will end up in a well-organized system where medical services will take care of them. Like in the hospital in Leśna Góra, which we know from the series “For good and for bad”. However, for many reasons, the reality of the film has nothing to do with what the average patient in emergency departments deals with. My 10-point guide is also the result of conversations with friends who have gone through the HED. I gave it to them for consultation. They stated that I had described everything on point, and that if they had read it earlier, they would probably have done better.
Of course, have you ever been an ED patient?
I was quite overweight, I suffered from venous thrombosis. I was preparing my wife for the fact that one day I might end up in a hospital emergency department. I kept telling her that she would have to go with me to the hospital, and necessarily with my brother-in-law. I was sure that she would not be able to deal with the emergency department on her own. In fact, I ended up there. First diagnosis: heart attack, although I did not complain of chest pains at all. I emphasized that I had a thrombosis and strongly asked to be tested for pulmonary embolism. Fortunately, I was heard. I experienced a pulmonary embolism with cardiac and respiratory arrest because I knew how emergency rooms work, but also because on the other side there was a man who wanted to listen to me
Why do you think it is important not to be alone in a hospital emergency department?
Usually, patients at ED are given wristbands. Their color determines the order in which the doctor will take care of them. Patients with red have priority, it means the sick person’s serious condition. Those with yellow are second in line. And patients with green have to wait the longest. From conversations with paramedics, I know that at the HED a person without support is perceived by the medical staff as less problematic, which can be classified as a less urgent group. When her condition worsens, she is doomed to personally pay attention to the staff that something bad is happening to her. And yet a sick person often does not have the strength to do so. When a patient is with someone close to him, he not only feels safer, but also has someone to “stand up” for him. Unfortunately, a patient who is lonely compared to that with his family at the HED is in a worse situation.
Paramedics told you that?
My son has been suffering from idiopathic arthritis since he was 3 years old. Today he is almost 17, so I have been in constant contact with the health service for 14 years. I know what its realities are, how it works. And what problems paramedics are struggling with. They asked me to find a way to report irregularities they deal with in crisis situations in hospitals where they work. Maybe on the basis of such “whistleblowers” as in corruption cases?
How did medical service employees adopt your guide?
Some of them took offense at me for negatively assessing the work of emergency services in HED departments. Others called – and asked for complete discretion – agreed with me. They talked about specific cases of pathology. Their problem is that they are afraid to talk about them out loud for fear of losing their job.
These ten tips you wrote down will be useful for us patients?
I wrote a general tutorial intended for everyone. Will he save someone’s life? I do not know. There are no specific tips there, I have described in turn what can happen to us at the HED. I’m not saying that everyone is equally bad. But people wrote to me who think that they have to print my guide and keep it in a drawer with medicines. They thanked for the facts, because now they would know what to expect and what could happen to them.
The entire guide by Piotr Piotrowski can be found at: http: //www.1czerwca.pl/blog-fundacji-1-czerwca/jak-przezyc-na-poczatek-sor-szpitalny-oddzial-ratunkowy/
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