Wentworth-Douglass Hospital

Reviews 4

AC

Ace Pierce

I went into the urgent care because earlier in that day I had experienced two separate episodes of extreme stomach discomfort followed by a feeling that someothing was wrong. I can only describe it as a gut feeling that something is going to happen. About half the time this feeling is followed by convulsions ranging from a gentle shake to a muscle tensed, violent jerk and twitch. I have seen several specialist for this and nobody has been able to tell me whats wrong. But it has been about 13 months of tests and having doctor after doctor not take me and my fiance seriously because we are in our early adulthood. I was rushed in when I explained what was going on. I got a room emedietly. Natural my fiance was very confused and scared so she was teary. The nurse who came into the room and saw me and my fiance hand in hand obviously very frightened. she asked what was going on and when i tried to explain she kept making jokes at the way i was speaking. I found this esspeccually offrensive because i already have a stutter to start and the seizure earlier had made it difficult to speak. She then asked my fiance about my symptoms and my fiance began to tear up. She interrupted my fiance several times telling her not to cry anymore. The entire time the nurse was very inappropriately grinning from ear to ear as if we were children acting beyond reason. She left the room for about 15 minutes. My fiance pointed out to me that my heart rate became abnormal and arithmetic for a few seconds. I started to have nausea at this point followed by the gut feeling i have before an episode. with everything going on didnt want to risk missing anything that may help to get a step closer to finding out whats wrong. When we asked the nurse if anything was wrong she swiftly entered the room and said to my fiance: "well if youre going to sit here and watch the monitor Im just going to unhook him." She then without even a second thought unhooked me from the monitors I was on. I then informed her that i thought i was about to have a seizure and she smiled at me and once more told me to focus on something else and i would be fine. She then wheeled the monitors out into the hall and closed the door behind her. Leaving my fiance and I without medical supervision despite already being made aware that i thought I might have another episode. A few minutes later I did start to tense uo and quiver for a few seconds. Followed by unresponsivness involuntary moaning and light muscles twitches and spasms. As it was happening by coincidence a different nurse came in and took one look at me and said out loud with confidence that I wasnt having a seizure and I just needed to calm down. He adjusted me into bed because I had slipped about half way out of bed during the episode. He then told my fiance to not let me slip out of the bed then he walked out of the room and once again my fiance and I were left completely unattended and this time while I was mid seizure. I was now in my phase of being very incoherent and unresponsive. At this point I black out for several minutes and try to talk but I cannot get out more than gibberish from what I have been told by those whove seen me in my episodes. Because I am blacked out at this point I dont remember what happened during the next few minutes. When I became coherent the male nurse from earlier was next to my finance helping me out if the episode. He came back with pills that he without hesitation unpackaged and told me to take because theyd help. Hed just given me adivan. Adivan is a depression and anxiety medicine that they give also to people with seizures to relax their muscles. This did help me to relax after my episode. When i could speak again i talked to one of the hospitals social workers and I told her about what happened. People go to the ER because we need help. Not judgement. I only hope that nobody else had to experience the poor health care service I did at Wentworth-Douglass. And I hope the nurses responsible are reprimanded.

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TR

Tracy Pearson

Horrific ER. Horrific. The ER experience on 8/19 was like the last day before a store closes. The place was vacant. The nurses were nowhere to be found. When they were they were incompetent and harmful. The first time I saw a nurse she drilled down into a vein and it blew. She ran away. The second time was when her younger colleague came in, not with any urgency, because 6 hours after arriving I decided to leave, and I had removed the tape (just tape & gauze) and I was now actively bleeding from the gaping wound in my arm, all over my gown. She accused me of removing an IV that I never received. Nursing staff would have known that had I actually had a nurse. She was more concerned with her feelings than actually helping me. As my husband went through drawers to find something to stop the bleeding, the doctor and a nurse came in - oh "weve seen worse" regarding the blood stain on the gown, and couldnt answer questions. I left without paperwork or options. The doctors were not nice. One was trying to do the least amount of work possible. He didnt inform me of a plan, had no willingness to communicate, and frankly treated me like he wished I wasnt there. The other, sent in to placate me from the hospitalist staff, wanted to opine on how my physician at MGH who is the Clinical Director of Research, actually wrote the book on protocols in a particular area, and was on faculty at Harvard, was wrong and knew nothing. Heres the best part: I wasnt there for that issue. Take away: If I were bleeding from my abdomen with all of my organs hanging out, I would drive myself to MGH. I would drive myself to a healer. I would go anywhere but this hospital. I left without treatment and with physical injury after I was assaulted. If I could post a photo here I would.

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PA

Paul Buzzell

My father has a chronic condition and has been brought in by ambulance twice in recent months. He is 85 and in a wheelchair. His condition presents itself as fevers and leaves him weak, requiring intravenous antibiotics. The hospital file is thick and they are well aware of his condition. Both times in the last ER visits they have discharged him back to the care of my 86 year-old mother and then the hospital has called her back to bring him in, now weaker than even before, because they then realized the treatment he needs. Most recently Dr Ortiz discharged him at 3:00 in the morning after my mother and her 88 year-old sister had gone home. My mother cannot drive at night and did not want to wake her sister, so the hospital agreed to ALLOW him to stay until 5:00 AM. She brings him home so weak he barely has control over himself and he was back at the hospital that same day, once again worse than the initial visit, and once again admitted for the intravenous antibiotics his condition requires.

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A

A Private User

On 8/27 it took me three hours to get to the hospital after the injury because of the situation I was in.. Probably should have called an ambulance but whatever, they would have taken me to the Portsmouth hospital, where I would most likely still be waiting right now.. I was in the room and receiving care within 20 minutes of arriving. When they realized the amount of pain I was in, there was no waiting around an hour, the doc was pulled in and morphine was approved. My total time there was under three hours, with top notch care. The Nurse knew exactly what was going on and worked with me on testing the pain instead of just prodding and tweaking like so many other places. The Doc had xrays in case any bone was pulled out with the shoulder tear and seriously I was just amazed by the attention given on a personal level. Thank you so much WD hospital, the staff did a fantastic job.

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