Gulf Coast Medical Center

Reviews 3

KA

Katherine Harbord

A long read but if you have children... you should prob read this.. if you ever have the choice to go to Healthpark Hospital or Gulf Coast Hospital, you should read this. My ordeal today. It takes about a minute and a half to read this. Tonight was hands down, THE MOST PAINFUL day of my life. Started with an ear pain overnight, chills and fever. An obvious result from the flu I had acquired. A comedy of errors ensues, in the morning (today) I reach out quite desperately to both of my doctors. Thinking Im being proactive.. In the end, to make the story short, I never really get a call back from the main doctor until its too late and hes long left his office. Big mistake. My obgyn does what she can to try to save the day. Its not enough, I do not know that this night I will suffer a pain worse than when I nearly died as I delivered my 1st born daughter 20 years ago.. which, she almost died as well-but thats yet another reckless neglect story from Healthpark Hospital. Here I was, 9 months pregnant...A pain so severe, I couldnt see, I couldnt talk, I couldnt take a step forward. Never in my life could I have ever imagined an ear pain could be the moment I would be begging for my life to end. My boyfriend rushes me to Healthpark. I was treated in the WORST possible way. The red-headed girl in triage flippantly tells me if I cant sign anything, she cant help me. Im in agony. I want to tell ask why shes treating me this way but my words cannot make it out of my mouth. There were about 5 people in the office, they rudely shove my boyfriend out, rolling their eyes and giving eachother impatient glares and snickering as if Im so blind I cant see this happening. The red-head girl makes more impatient toned remarks at me and I realize then no one cares in that room. My tears, my agony, my absolute obvious pain throughout my whole body is of no importance or concern to anyone in that room. Not one compassionate soul. They put me in a room. The doctor is in a consult, we are going to check your baby they say. I start begging please, please get someone here. Im working with one of the women that was in that office one of the women that was smirking at the beginning probably thinking to herself this girl is exaggerating. After 20 minutes, I decide to leave. I tell my boyfriend to drive me to Gulfcoast.. he isnt happy. We rush to Gulfcoast hospital. I am in so much pain, I start praying for a car accident to take me out. I wasnt thinking straight. I call a friend of mine, then another. They are both trying to help. I get to gulfcoast. No smirks, no sarcasm. Just compassion. The nurses come to get me right away. More compassion. In the moment I needed it the most, the act of human kindness seems like a miracle. The doctor comes in, thanks to a caring nurse, Im given stronger meds, the eardrum ruptures on the way home. Blood oozing from my ear, a climactic ending to a pain so overwhelming.. which sadly, had the girl at 10 am in the morning at my Primary care doctors office done her due diligance, I would not have found myself in this predicament. I thank the staff at Gulfcoast so much. Thank you Steven. A true angel working the vocation God must have given you himself. Thank you Victoria and Ryan for trying to help me. PleAse, take your childrens ear infection seriously. To the people who mistreated me today at Healthpark: I hope you find a new job and Soon. There are True compassionate, caring people that could do wonders with your job or maybe even someone out there with just an ounce more of kindness than what you had for me today couId fill your spot. I dont ever want to go back to Healthpark hospital. I pray that none of you heartless women and the completely invisible doctor at Healthpark have to go through what I went through today. I wouldnt wish it on my worst enemy.

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L Morris

My husband was taken to Gulf Coast ED tonight by ambulance with horrible abdominal and back pain. He was put in a wheelchair to wait in the waiting room with people with the sniffles. When the triage nurse called him back, his pain was getting bad again as the meds from the medics was wearing off. He asked her when he may be able to get more pain meds and was told very rudely not until a doctor saw him. I said to her "You may have to pick him up off the floor at that point" and she shrugged her shoulders. When he got back to a room, the nurse and his Tech were goofing off the whole time. They even mixed up his and another patients urine and were joking about it. All of this time, he is hooked up to NO fluids and he is dehydrated from vomiting at least 25 times before arriving at the ED. The doctor came in a said they were going to do a CAT scan. The scan showed he had a kidney stone for the first time ever. He was told to drink fluids, but asked for them numerous times. Finally after I had to ask, the nurse brought him ONE small cup of water to swallow his pain meds with. They never put him on fluids to help flush the stone and they never got him anything else to drink. Now that hes home, he is running fever. I just called to ask if it was normal and they said to have him drink and take Tylenol. They DO NOT care. We asked them if he could stay one night because of the pain and they refused. Now we will probably end up having to go to the ED again and pay yet another copay because they cant do their job right the first time. This time it will be at Health Park. We have always had wonderful care there.

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Ann Forrester

I have a history of angioedema and urticaria. I take three medicines a day to limit the frequency of developing this. Yesterday I developed hives, went to this ED, checked in with a CC of "hives". 10 " later I spoke to a volunteer as I went to the front desk again, he asked what he could do. I said my throat is swelling more and I needed IV Benadryl and Epi. He spoke to a nurse who came out and spent 10 seconds with me. I took a seat as my throat became more swollen and hives occupied 50% of my body. 35 minutes later I was triaged. I was told to let her know if things became worse. I said they were already progressing. I was told I "looked fine" and to go to the waiting room. I know myself and left the ED to inject myself with my own Epi pen. It helped of course. Why didnt I just take my epi pen in the 1st place? Because I am on vacation and have only one. Now I have none and hope my prednisone (I carry this with me) will stave off another recrudescence of my condition. I know the doctors and head nurse knew nothing about me and were not involved in this. However, when someone OBJECTIVELY has a significant amount of urticaria and has a globus sensation (deeper down the posterior pharynx where you cannot see with your light source, I suggest these pts in the future be triaged a higher level of ESI than I was. I did not have globus hystericus. I am board certified and residency trained in Emergency Medicine and have been practicing the same for 15 years. just thought the Chief of the ED might want to be aware of their current triage patterns and might want to change them. Grant L Forrester, MD