Especially when you have no insurance and neither do your loved ones.
There is no reason ANYONE should have to wait 5+ hours in a shitty emergency waiting room
waiting to hear how someone is doing.
I've seen how hospitals treat people with no insurance and it is in a word FUCKED.
An emergency waiting room, particularly the one at Adventist Hospital in PDX, is like
an especially foetid little slice of hell served on a cold, dirty plate.
I saw a woman, 30 yrs old, crying and puking into a blue bag that was presumably full of piss or vomit.
She waited almost as long as I did to get seen, and walked to and fro, crying and carrying her bag of waste with her.
I asked her " do you want me to get someone?" "No, they won't do anything, thank you tho.."
There was a 50-something woman with some kind of head injury who had been there 6 or more hours.
When people are in emergency waiting rooms, they are especially vulnerable. A heightened sense of empathy
and sympathy occur, and people begin to share stories.
I was grateful that I was healthy, but I was worried sick for my girlfriend and worried for everyone else there as well.
I've always hated hospitals. As soon as I enter one, I start aching. I can feel the tangible mist of pain emanating from
the patients and it makes me feel very fragile and ill.
Anyhow, had to get it out.
I hope everyone who reads this or those that I know fare well and don't have to
enter an emergency room as a patient or a loved one any time soon.
I'm not the most religious person on earth, but I must admit I've prayed more in the last
month than I've probably ever prayed in my life.
