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Hospital refuses to treat pain because my fiance is a heroin addict what can I do??

GbizzleMcGrizzle

GbizzleMcGrizzle

Bluelighter
Joined
Mar 16, 2008
Messages
139
Location
Brooklyn, New York
I am trying to find some answers and I don't know where to look i do know that people here are from all walks of life and are sympathetic to addiction so maybe someone can help me. This is her story.
She is in Thomas Jefferson Hospital in Philadelphia Pennsylvania her name is Aimee, and she was admitted after falling off a 3rd story fire escape. She broke her leg shattered her kneecap and broke her jaw in five places. When she was admitted they were giving her 1.5 mg of Morphine every 6 minutes with 3mg bolus every 2 hours. This was not enough due to her past problems with narcotic drug use. despite complaining about the pain they lowered her pan medication, switched her to oral because her IV fell out and the doctors didn't wan to bother putting a line into her neck (she has no good veins left in her arm). When the Anesthesiologist came in she convinced Aimee to tell them she had a narcotics abuse issue because they would give her more medication, instead they lowered her dose even farther, when her doctor came in to talk to me he pretty much told me he wasn't going to do anything for her because she has no insurance and has a history of drug abuse, and that he considers her his lowest priority. I at the time was her only advocate, and when (i'm assuming) some nurse screwed up on the dosage and gave her too much tey blamed it on me and have since banned me from the hospital. Now they are giving her even less pain medication to the point that she is in tears every time I speak to her. I don't know what we can do they seem very intent on not addressing her pain in any kind of responsible way, despite the fact that there is no way anyone would cause that kind of damage to one's self just to "get high". She was in recovery for her addiction when she was admitted, because as most of us know addiction is a disease and should be treated as such. These doctors don't want to help her and are treating her has and addict who just wants to get high, even though she is on less pain medication than the person next door who is eating solid food and walking around just fine. We are at a loss we are poor and young, and because of this treated unfairly due to our lack of resources. She is now on 2mg of dilauded every 6 hours.

what can we do help!
 
This is B.S.
If they are doing this get hold of the doctors supervisor.
There is someone called the patient ombudsman, tell him or her.
Get the anesthesiologist that you talked to to help.
Start SCREAMING (not literally, but you know).
Don’t take no for an answer, keep going up the ladder.
To say that she deserves LESS treatment then anybody else is just despicable.
Maybe call the news programs, explain that there seems to be a second level of treatment for poor folks, might get some traction there.

I hope she gets help, NO ONE should be in pain (if we can help it)...NO ONE!

Dave
 
If im not mistaken, there seems to be a possible lawsuit waiting to happen here. This treatment is definitely wrong if everything you are telling us is true & you should talk to someone high up at the hospital & if no one wants to talk to you, go see a lawyer.
 
If you're a narcotics abuser without insurance, you're pretty fucked in the American system.

There's not much you can do but switch doctors or try to get treatment elsewhere.
 
Something about this doesn't sound right - it sounds like you dropped her off at a hospital in 1950!

However, this is a very emotional time and I can understand this is very upsetting for both of you. But are you sure you understand the medical situation? Did the doctor really tell you that he would not treat her because of money? That is so illegal and such grounds for litigation that it's hard to imagine any doctor, even an enormous asshole, saying that because it could get him fired immediately.

I recommend that instead of getting more upset and to "start screaming" as recommended, you do the opposite. Try your best to be as calm as possible, because if what you have described is true, these people already have a pre-formed opinion of you and Aimee as young, unrealistic, non-compliant and essentially, trouble-makers. You need to calmly go above their heads and start talking to hospital administration and the social work department (all hospitals have social workers on staff for patient relations). Be as mature and thoughtful as you can be, and very calmly explain that your treatment has been barbaric, discriminatory and abusive.

As for the nurses blaming you for a mistake in her dosage, that sounds very odd. You would not have access to her medication. If you have been doing anything, even with the best intentions, to try to sneak her more pain medication or been dishonest to the nurses about her dosage or when she last received a dose, you are not helping the case. I'm very sorry that your situation is so miserable right now, but hopefully you can talk to some people who can help. Also, if you are both very young, please consider trying to get someone else to intervene on her behalf as well.
 
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I'm really sorry to hear about your situation, if they way they are treating your fiancee is in fact the truth, that sounds down right in-humane. :( I also suggest working your way up the ladder, getting in touch with the superiors of the doctors treating her. Also, get in touch with a social worker who can act on her behalf. If you have someone advocating for her, that has some pull in the tightly-knit medical community, you bet shit will get done with the quickness.

That being said, I feel as if I move your post to The Dark Side, you may get better responses, as this isn't really other drugs material. This is more of an issue on the personal level, and I feel the brilliant folks over yonder can offer you some quality suggestions and support.

Regardless, being a heroin addict, and going thru severe stage four cancer treatment over the past two years, I fully sympathize with you and know what it is like to be judged by doctors. Thankfully, 90 percent of my treatment staff are very understanding and supportive, but you still get a few bad apples with the bunch and it is surely a severe blow to your mental state, not to mention your physical recovery.

Best wishes, good luck !

*TDS Mods - If you feel this isn't appropriate for the dark side, my apologies. Please do what you see fit*
 
I had a nurse fired for something like this. She told my dad he was drug seeking because he refused a prescription for darvocet (he was prescribed 120mg of morphine per day already). They fired her in front of us to keep us from suing. This brings me to the answer to your problem. Legally, doctors have to treat pain as a vital sign. If you are in extreme pain, and they do nothing, its the same thing as having a heart attack and them doing nothing. I would inform them that should they not treat the existing pain, that whoever this is may just go talk to a lawyer and see if providing an accurate medical history is reason to not treat a vital sign. It's not. Other than that, NEVER tell medical staff you have a drug addiction, or past addiction unless it's very pertinent to the situation. Being that this person is stuck in the hostpital, I'd tell them to release me or transfer me, and that I was going to talk to a lawyer unless I was treated the same as the person in the bed beside me. Telling a patient that they are "low priority" because they don't have insurance is a big no-no. This DR won't want this to come out, just become the squeaky wheel. If a dr told me that, they would be making sure I had a damn nice buzz before it was over, because I *would* sue their ass off them.
 
I at the time was her only advocate, and when (i'm assuming) some nurse screwed up on the dosage and gave her too much tey blamed it on me and have since banned me from the hospital.

This doesn't make any sense to me. What exactly happened and why would they blame you?
 
As far as why i'm not allowed on the property I'm not entirely sure, they haven't specifically told me anything, and refuse to speak to me at all, this is just my assumption because what other reason could they have for removing me from the hospital except to save a job and it's not like they could accuse me of giving her extra antibiotics or something, and they don't seem to always know how to work the equipment as far as I can tell (they spent 3 hours trying to put another syringe of morphine in the machine before deciding that she suddenly didn't need it anymore). But now i can't even walk within a 4 block radius of the hospital (which is right in the middle of the city) without them threatening to arrest me I had 6 security guards chase me from down the block this morning while waiting for my friends who were with her. And i can'tr get anyone on the phone they just hang up on me.
The ultimate problem is that she doesn't have insurance and we don't have money so I can't transfer her and of course her leaving the hospital at this point is certainly not an option no matter how much pain she is in.
So it would seem she would have to deal with the situation, but she can't because they just give her the run around every time she asks for something, and the nurses say they can't understand her, because her jaw is wired shut, which is kinda bullshit, but it is really difficult to understand her especially when she is crying which she always is and when she's hallucinating from the Ketamine which they have her on for some reason. the whole thing i know sounds crazy and barbaric and far fetched but it's happening, and I don't have the money to pay a lawyer, so unless i ca find a pro-bono attorney or one that will work off commission we're fucked. And they know this so they aren't worried about any kind of legal recourse. And the doctor that told me that she wasn't a priority ad wasn't going to help her, he's the head of his department, so it's a situation of you have no money so we don't think you can do anything so fuck off.
i don't know i feel like all i can do is try and sneak bags of dope to her every day because more than anything she should be happy and comfortable.
i'm waiting for her mother who is a doctor to cal me back and let me know why i can't go in (officially) unfortunately her parents wont provide any support what so ever that they can't do over a phone.
 
This is a very complicated situation you've got.

As someone who worked for nearly a decade in one of New York City's largest and busiest hospitals, I can tell you that a city hospital does not ban people lightly, and enforcing an actual distance ban is nearly unheard of. And hospitals don't threaten to have people arrested without having a reason in mind that they would do so.

I think a lot of us here at Bluelight are sympathetic toward your situation and especially that of the young woman. But come on, you don't know why they chase you away? You have no idea why they are not helping her more with the pain?

Based on what you have written, they are aware that you have been bringing her heroin. And while I understand that you want her to be comfortable, do you really not see what that does to your side of things?

First of all, the hospital is bound by laws and contracts to treat patients in a certain way. But patients are also bound by rules of compliance. And if a patient is "non compliant", then the hospital loses some of its obligations as well. For example, if the staff is aware that you are bringing dope to your fiancee, that complicates their administration of pain medication. If you give her heroin and then they give her morphine, and she overdoses, they could be liable. That's just one of the basic problems. Of course, your credibility is shot in their eyes. And you've trashed your possibility of having a lawyer help you out, for the most part. If you're supplying your fiancee with illegal narcotics, you don't really have a legal leg to stand on. And the hospital is quite justified in kicking you out if you're bringing heroin to one of their patients. Can you really not see it from their side of things?

I'm not sure what you should do at this point, but I don't think you're helping her much by creating all this drama of being chased around by security and risking an arrest by running dope to her. You realize that your actions are creating and environment of distrust and suspicion that affects her care and treatment? I'm sorry that her parents aren't being more helpful to you, but if her mother is an M.D. then chances are she's appraised of the medical situation. And being told that her daughter's fiance is smuggling in dope and has been warned repeatedly to stay away is unlikely to win you much sympathy or assistance from her mom.

Have a look at the Patient-Hospital contract. It's usually posted on walls and available at the administrative offices. You will see that both providers and patients have legal obligations. If you want to get back on track, possibly have some legal recourse and gain back some credibility, make sure that you and your fiancee are following the guidelines for patient compliance and then you have absolutely every right to expect the hospital to do so as well.
 
ActiqAnnie said:
This is a very complicated situation you've got.

As someone who worked for nearly a decade in one of New York City's largest and busiest hospitals, I can tell you that a city hospital does not ban people lightly, and enforcing an actual distance ban is nearly unheard of. And hospitals don't threaten to have people arrested without having a reason in mind that they would do so.

I think a lot of us here at Bluelight are sympathetic toward your situation and especially that of the young woman. But come on, you don't know why they chase you away? You have no idea why they are not helping her more with the pain?

Based on what you have written, they are aware that you have been bringing her heroin. And while I understand that you want her to be comfortable, do you really not see what that does to your side of things?

First of all, the hospital is bound by laws and contracts to treat patients in a certain way. But patients are also bound by rules of compliance. And if a patient is "non compliant", then the hospital loses some of its obligations as well. For example, if the staff is aware that you are bringing dope to your fiancee, that complicates their administration of pain medication. If you give her heroin and then they give her morphine, and she overdoses, they could be liable. That's just one of the basic problems. Of course, your credibility is shot in their eyes. And you've trashed your possibility of having a lawyer help you out, for the most part. If you're supplying your fiancee with illegal narcotics, you don't really have a legal leg to stand on. And the hospital is quite justified in kicking you out if you're bringing heroin to one of their patients. Can you really not see it from their side of things?

I'm not sure what you should do at this point, but I don't think you're helping her much by creating all this drama of being chased around by security and risking an arrest by running dope to her. You realize that your actions are creating and environment of distrust and suspicion that affects her care and treatment? I'm sorry that her parents aren't being more helpful to you, but if her mother is an M.D. then chances are she's appraised of the medical situation. And being told that her daughter's fiance is smuggling in dope and has been warned repeatedly to stay away is unlikely to win you much sympathy or assistance from her mom.

Have a look at the Patient-Hospital contract. It's usually posted on walls and available at the administrative offices. You will see that both providers and patients have legal obligations. If you want to get back on track, possibly have some legal recourse and gain back some credibility, make sure that you and your fiancee are following the guidelines for patient compliance and then you have absolutely every right to expect the hospital to do so as well.
Click to expand...

OP, please read this a couple of times.

You do in fact seem to be more of a problem to your fiance's needs than a part of the solution. You must allow the staff to do their jobs
 
Honestly I dont think you have any case for a lawsuit they are giving her diluaded and ketamine for the pain. The best thing you can do for her is to stay out of jail and have her some bags ready when she gets out.Doctors hate junkys so they treat us like scum its just part of the game.
 
I would contact their supervisors, head doctors, whatever the fuck they have in the hospital. This is not fucking right. If all else fails, sue or call a news agency/network. This is just wrong.
 
If you brought in heroin your lucky they didn't call the police on you, regardless of when. Its very easy for them to say you were acting suspicious. Also, if they are givingg her ketamine it sounds like they are addressing her pain in a nonn opioid but still very, very serious manner (ketaminne is an extremely potent drugg)

I've suffered under medical abuse like this too, and let me remind you that being a junkie is not without its perks.
 
I had a hospital refuse to give me anything but ibuprofen after I told them I was a former addict. A year later, I came in and told the same exact hospital that I never had a problem with drugs and I got as much fentanyl as I needed. It sucks being treated like that, but there really isn't anything to do, other than deny opiate abuse.
 
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