Emergency room?

I am trying to collect anecdotal stories about what happens after someone is taken to the emergency room because of a drug overdose.
If you or someone you know has ever ended up in the hospital because of drugs, what happened after you recovered? Did the police press charges? Were you fired from your job? Were you required to undergo rehab treatment?
What were the consequences of being taken to the hospital for an overdose?
(Yes, I know the legal and medical rules....I am just asking for first-hand stories.)

I've had friends end up there twice. Once for GBL, once for a bad trip.
I'm in Oz, and there were never any police charges (police don't chase ambulances) and no one lost jobs etc, as it was treated totally confidentially (as required by law).
Both times have been really straight forward, and the most recent time (GBL OD) the hospital staff were really friendly and supportive. In both cases the person was in and out within three hours, without any trouble at all.
I'm wondering if its against the law (somwhere) to go to hospital for something drug related?

I remember in Requiem For a Dream the dude got narced out by the doctor....i know here in Canada they are nice and unless they find you passed out somewhere with drugs on your person that they wont call the cops....i cant speak for the US, but im sure that George W. Bush, with his vast and infinite wisdom, has, or is trying to, outlaw confidential medical treatment.....

I had to call the Paramedics after going to my freinds house at 5am and finding him with an empty bottle of Vicodin. I think he swallowed something like 40 10mg's. Basically what happend was the ambulance came, while I was waiting in my car the cops came and asked me to step out of the car (I was currently high as hell on opiates as well). I then entered his house with the cops and went to his room where they conducted a quick search authorized by my friends mom. They didn't find anything because I got rid of the bottle so that they couldn't trace it back to the source.
Upon arrival to the hospitol one cop stayed with him, and they pumped his stomach. Basically he said that he just wanted to get really high and over did, he told the cops that he wanted to get really high because a certain negative event happend earlier that evening. The cop stayed with us the whole time and joked around with us even after he was off duty. No charges were ever brought, he did however get a $600 bill for the ambulance and hospital....
[Edit] He was not fired from his job becase his job didn't find out. He did tell his job later though and they asked him to go to AA which he did.
[ 29 January 2003: Message edited by: Partykid12 ]

I overdosed on Heroin and turned blue, at which point my friend called 911. All I remember is waking up in the hospital bed with tubes in my throat (They were supposed to keep air flowing directly to the lungs), and like 10 people hovering around the bed asking me all sorts of questions, "Who gave it to you?" etc. 2 cops were there. they were looking in my wallet probably for any to lay a possession charge.
They injected me with Narcan and took me down to Intensive Care Unit where I spent 2 days as a vegetable. They put a cathiter SP. in me for my urine. They didn't feed me or anything. They were very nice.
After that I was sent to the psych ward because I had a history with the hospital (Previous LSD Psychosis) and they thought that I intentionally wanted to kill myself (I had a note in my wallet that said "Heroin Overdose" for the purpose of warning anyone incase I Overdosed. They thought it was a "Suicide" Note and kept me locked up for 4 days after. I guess I deserved it. Now that I look back, 2 grams is a lot to IV.

It sound like most of the hospital journey's were OK.... Man, it's nice to know that you will be taken car of in the event of an overdose, bad trip, whatever. Sometimes we do stupid shit on purpose, but fuck, if I am ever in that situation, I would want someone there to help me out... better than leavin' you in a dark alley or back seat of a car. (hint hint).....

Well here is my horror story:
I accidentally overdosed on Ambiens. We figured out I took about 25 over about 6 hours, not sure of the mg. It was a while ago. But anyway, I dont remember much, they tried to force me to drink some charchol (sp?) then since I puked on it, they shoved a tube down my nose. After I was in intensive care for a few hours for observation, I somehow signed a paper committing myself for attempted suicide. I dont remember doing that, but it was my signature. So I was still under the effects of the drugs as they drove me to the psych hospital to be admitted. When I woke up a few hours later, I had no clue where I was. After I figured it out, I went to the desk and asked if I had signed myself in, they told me yes, so I told them I wanted to sign myself out then. They threatened to have me legally committed, so I shut up and played their game. When I finally met with the Dr they realized it was NOT a suicide attempt but an accident, (good thing I do my reserach on drugs and knew that amnesia was a side effect of this drug) they sent me home with a prescription of a different kind of sleeping pill. Thank god my insurance covered it all. But I was put on disability leave from work for periods of not being able to remember anything, i'm talking days I couldnt remember(good thing for short term disability coverage). That lasted 5 weeks, then the dr agreed for me to go back. My supervisor told me not to worry about getting the last week certified so I didnt because I was resigning from the job because I was going to move, but I didnt move and when I went for my job back, I was placed on a do not rehire list for job abondanment for that week of no call no show.
I fogot to add, I was employed by a health insurance company, who also paid the bills, but for some reason they didnt get the doctors notes of the days I was to stay out of work.
[ 02 February 2003: Message edited by: Raver_Forever ]

Ok i overdoesd, and i was under 18 , so i went to the psyco ward cus i used the drugs for sucide, plus school put me threw explosion hearing, cus i took the drugs at school. I was transferd to the hospital and they gave me this carcole stuff to get the drugs outta my system. They transferd me to nother hospital and i was in intesive day care for about 1 or 2 days. Then they made me go to the 8th floor where was the psyco ward. N i went thru..7 or 8 days of therpy n they gave me anit depressants. I quite takin them, cus they don't help. Its been like a month or 2 since that occured.

I think there was a similar post to this in the Darkside forum, where I posted this story before, but I'll just shorten it
I hadn't overdosed, (as I've taken a lot more than that night), but one night I had to go to the hospital for exhaustion and drinking too much water. I just remember dancing my ass off then feeling really dizzy and puking up water before I passed out near the toilet.
The hospital (in Russia) pumped me full of all sorts of fucked up shit, and I woke up around 8 am saturday, completely tripped out. My friends and I pulled together our money and bribed the hospital to keep everything off record. ( I'd say in Russia, they don't actively go around looking for drugs as much as they do in the US, but if you're caught with anything or related in anyway to something to do with drugs, you can get REALLY screwed) I somehow got home and slept for the next day or two and never touched meth again

I posted a story here about abad trip that I had once that landed me in the emergency room.
Basically, I took acid, freaked out, got naked in public and ran around. I was picked up by the police and taken to the emergency room. I was let out the next day. Some detectives talked to me and a friend of mine while we were in the ER still, but nothing legal came of it.

I was just there last week. Some friends of my roomies came to stay at our house and they brought quite a bit of pot and brownies. So we deside to break the ice and smoke up, and smoke up, and smoke up, then eat some brownies.
After some sitting around we deside to go outside and walk around the city. Im having a wonderful walk and getting higher and higher off the two brownies I ate.
We then got to our destination, the largest record store in town. I start walking around and looking at music, but Im too stoned to really look for anything. The lights were pissing me off and Im thinking I was seeing people I know everywhere.
I was even freaked out and having a panic atack over posting on bluelight of all things. I made it back to a friend who was in the electronic/house section. Shortly after that another friend showed up and said a few words to me I could not understand.
Soon white noise started and pressure started to build up in my body, my vision started to fade. I felt a strange since of an epic event unfolding before me as I went under and my head had become the baseball being thrown from the pitchers met being hit by the bat as my head hit the counter.
I awoke a second later to find one of my friends standing over me asking if I was ok, and telling me I was bleeding. He said we would have to go to the hospital.
At this point I am compleatly out of it. I have no idea what is going on. I am ushered outside the store by my friend, I then rember that I had only eaten couscous that day for breakfast. So my friend goes and gets me some water and a brownie (Not a pot brownie) I eat and drink and soon feal a little more together. Although I cant even begin to finish the brownie so I drink more water.
I soon gather a small crowd of on lookers watching me and my bleeding head. I guy comes out of the store and asks if Im ok. He then tells me I sould go to the hospital. I got pretty confused by this since at the time I did not think I was bleeding that much and every body said, go to the hospital!
So my friend flags down a taxi and we say goodbye to the others still at the store. The taxi driver is a moron and in just driving around the streets talking nonsince when my friend is trying to give him derections.
Eventually we get there, his happy ass lets us out and I stumble into the ER. The staff sits me into a chair asks me some questions I cant respond to and then has my friend sign my papers for me. The only thing I can think of is bills.
However I was in no state to argue with them so I let um have me. They sat me in a room for a long time then a doctor with a british acent came in, asked me a few questions and used me as an example of how to do a running stich.
I was still amazingly high as this was going on and could feal the upper left side of my face going numb from the anastic the gave me. The whole time someplace in the back of my head I was thinking what fate may befall me in the hands of western medicine and there "tune ups". But I was stuck on that table and had to except whatever they might stick up, in, or take out of me.
Afterwords I rested for a bit, then I signed some papers, was told I have high blood sugar and my be diabetic, and sent on my marry way. I almost fainted again at the bus stop but I sit down and the symptoms resolved.
The bus ride back was clouded by memories of sitting in a stiff bus seat with people staring at some guy with 10 stiches in his head and big ass bandge.
After I got back I just whent to sleep and called in sick to work. Im glad I recently got insurance and have some sick pay because that could have turned out much worse. Actually alot of people at work have been giving me advice on how to live better and eat healthy.
The doctor gave me some vicodin so I had some fun with that as my stiches healed. Then acouple days later I went and got them out as the Irish nurse swooned over me.
I cant help but wonder if I really damaged my head at all, but I feal fine for the most part. I know passing out is not to good for the mind eather. I really hope I am not in the begining stages of becoming a diabetic, as I already have some other deastic health problems.
But theres been some good to come out of it. I would have probably been late for work because I forgot that I had to work in the morning and may have gotten fired because Ive been late alot recently. Ive also learned alot about eating well and how important a healthy diet really is. But what I know is only the tip of the iceburg hopefully I can gain more knowage on how to eat and live healthy and turn this negitive experiance into a positive one.

well, i don't have a personal story, but i did work late shift ems (this is in miami, so you can be sure we had our share of od's)for years while i was in med school, plus i've done a couple of er rotations.

i can tell you that almost all the time, there was no legal action taken b/c of an od. we were far more interested in saving the life than whatever law they might have broken. for a minor, we were required to contact the family, and i have seen several parents give the police consent to search their house so the kid could go to jail for possesion. there was never any crap where the police would ask the person where they got the drugs, most of the time they stayed out of it. even when the cops were first to respond to the scene, they would only ride along to make sure the person was alright. i've seen plenty of cops give the od a ride home if he was treat-and-release. the biggest reason for this i think was the police didn't want people to be scared to call 911 if a friend overdosed. sure, maybe they gave up some easy busts, but in the long run they saved lives.

at the hospital, we kept everything confidential of course, and i never remember anyone's boss calling us about what happened. if they had, we would not have commented. we would never force someone into a treatment plan, but the offer was always made. i remember giving one of my areas more notorious junkies a lift to a rehab b/c he didn't have cabfare. he's doing good now, actually has a job and a place to live.

I have five such experiences but i only remember one of them. When I had an od on coke I went to the e-room where the nurses (male nurses) were downright mean to me and were just real assholes, I was acting all cool about it considering it was my first time, but they were REALLY mean (Something about throwing my life away kept coming up) They also kept asking me where I got "it", luckily I wasn't totally out of it and had the good sense to just say some street corner. No cops were every involved, but security guards sometimes were. The doctors were cool, but then they sent in a social worker who told my parents (18 at the time) that they could have me committed for od'ing. It was the next day, but I was still pretty out of it and the conversation ended with me laughing in the social worker's face and suggesting they commit her.
The other 4 times were all alcohol+benzos and I was so out of it that I really could have been committed considering the way I was acting and i have been told that i put up quite a fight with the e-room personnel each time, directing every bad word imaginable at them, some apparently understood that I was fucked up out of my gourd, but who knows what they did to me when I was out of it. I knew I was ripping needles out of my arms so much that they had to tie me down and cathadors sp? are no fun the next day either. as to reprecussions, never arrested or anything(I never had anything on me either though), just at the bottom of every discharge form (I have a collection) they wrote in all caps GET COUNCILING!!!!!
The only thing I got in trouble for was (I was in college for the other 4) disobeying an RA's orders and I was charged with vandalism for vomiting on the floor of a bathroom.
An OD is a horrible experience b/c A. you could die
B. you are so out of it you could hurt yourself some other way
C. It really hurts your friends/family/ girlfriend that you would allow that to happen or maybe that you hurt yourself intentionally (I never did it intentionally, I was just a drugged up idiot kid who would get really fucked up and then take even more drugs)
D. It is the most humiliating experience you will probably ever have unless you are a freak who thinks things like that are cool

GBL

I overdosed awhile ago and fell while shacing,,,,,hit my head (chin) on the sink and bled profusly....called my mom....who else, we're real tight like that.

Went to the emergency room for stches and told the doc exactly what had happened (DR-Patiant confideneiality,,,,right)

He called the poison ctrl center who gave him a big buncha bs

He came in with his Qs like blablabla....I told him who invented GHB what year and what for etc,.....made him feel stoopid and he signed me over to detox which didn't help at all......

Sat in the same chair, sweating my balls off and more nervous than EVER...no drugs.....then they let me go back home to my BIG :D GBL bottle.....

Moral is.......sometimes ER isn't the answer

i was in for overdosing but not on illegal drugs or anything.
I had to drink charcoal and have blood drawn. later i had to drink potassium.

but i told them i smoked weed a lot and had used adderoll and vicodin and drank, and they didnt do anything.
spent 10 days in a psych ward though heh...
just got home 2 weeks ago

I heard of a fairly bad hospital experience recently in Australia.

A young guy apparently had his drink spiked with what sounded like ketamine. He totally freaked out and was unable to walk, didn't know what had happend to him etc.

He was found by some harm reduction outreach workers, who took him to the nearest emergency department. The guy was really paranoid, and refused to lay on the trolly thing to be wheeled into the ward. He thought if he lay down he would be trapped and die. He was happy to sit on the trolly, or go in a wheelchair, but emergency department policy was that the patient must lay on the trolly before being taken into ward for treatment.

There was some higher level intervention through health department workers, but the hospital was adamant, and refused to admit the guy. He was forced to wait with the outreach workers who were trying to sort out the situation, until he eventually came down a few hours later.

Here's my story about one of my oh so enjoyable OD expieriences.

Well, there I am, it's winter break, two days before Xmas and I actually have money for once. Well, what to do, I think. Having been clean from dope (H) for about a year that was out of the question, however some friends of mine were still on Methadone maintenance and, well, any port in a storm you know?

So I head over to their houses. We relax and smoke a bit, then I bring up the question...(and how I wish I hadn't.) "Got any extra bottles?" (She gets the liquid in 80 mg dosage bottles.) "Sure," she says. Happily I hand over the cash, $10 for 160 mg, plus some of my extra herb. Happy about the great deal I got I made a bit of small talk and hurried out.

Having been clean for so long I was quite nervous about the whole deal, But I couldn't wait since it had been so long since I felt really good (damn junk, just likes to ruin my sense of novelty.) I invited my friends M and J over to my parent's house (I was staying there that week for Xmas) and we commence to enjoy ourselves with a movie and popcorn. During this I drank one of the bottles.

As the movie ended I was feeling quite lovely. I was nodding a bit and we (read: I) decided we should go outside and play in the snow. We did this for a bit until my friends decided they had had enough. By this point I had drunk another 10 mg bring my total to 90 mg. I was in heaven and didn't want to come back. Upon drying off and warming up we went and watched another movie. I nodded off during this one for about an hour. FInally I went upstairs to my room leaving my friends in the basement on the foutons.

Here's where my big misake came in. Not all of the methadone had hit me yet, and like a junkie I drank the last of the methadone bringing my total to 160 mg, and this was my only opiate experience for a year. Like most people know junkies tend to overdose when they've been off for awhile and go back, no tolerance don't you know.

I pass out, and awaken at the hospital attempting to pull a NG (Nasal-Gastric) tube out of my nose. Apparently my job had called my house trying to get me to work early. My mum went to wake me and found me passed out. I had vomitted all over myself, and the bed, and was completely unconcious. The paramedics and police were called (well not the police, but they apparently showed up) and they arrived rather quickly (thank god.) They ransacked my room to try to find out what I was on. Thankfully my friends were courageous enough to tell them. I was transpo'd to the hospital after recieving two injection of Narcan to help relieve the OD effects.

There I was given fluids and NaCo3 (Sodium Bi-Carb) to help detox my system. I didn't realize what was going on until about two hours after I was at the hospital. Finally I calmed down and the situation was explained to me. I had gotten a condition called rhabdomyolysis which is explained here-http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000473.htm
due to the fact I had been lying in one place without moving for so many hours. This caused the muscles on the side of my body to become crushed. Luckily it was not severe enough to cause kidney failure.

About the same time I regained concious conciousness the police arrived to take my statement. They asked me some questions about where i got it, why I took it, whether I was trying to kill myself, if I had anything else at home. That kind of stuff. I told them there was nothing else there (there wasn't) and that I was tired and worn out, and wanted them to leave. They did, and I was never questioned by them again.

I was moved up to a monitered bed for 3 days, so they could keep an eye on my kidney function (hooray, Xmas in the hospital) and I was talked to by several different psychologists who wanted to find out why I had done it. They all seemed quite mollified by my response that it was an accident. One seemed intent on making it out to be a suicide attempt, but they others seemed to understand, and they were very helpful in helping me deal with the guilt of ruining Xmas.

That was about all that happened. My parents were glad I made it, and I haven't done any serious opiates again to this day.

Wow, that was long, sorry, just had to get it off my chest.

M

Like quite a few people on here I've managed to put myself in A&E with GBL too. My wife woke up to me making a strange noise and not really breathing properly, she then made me wake up but I couldnt and kept passing out and stopping breathing, well anyway she phone for an ambulance and they turned up and by this point I was able to tell them what had happened. They then proceeded to give me a big lecture about what I was doing. Strangely I had realised that what I had done wasnt the brightest thing, I was on my way to hospital!
When in A&E most of the nurses seemed to be just curius as to what GBL was and I had to correct one when she said, "oh GHB thats liquid xtc isnt it" I explained to her the difference, while drawling my words and retching every now and then.
No police were called, as its not illegal they wouldnt have been able to do anything anyway.
I dont have a job so that wasnt a problem either and they wouldnt have found out even if I had one.

A friend of mine put himself in A&E on 2-ct-7 too, he did 70mg and said to me after the time;
"well everything went a bit like a 3D computer game, then I was in a game, and then it got wierder, and then I woke up in hospital"

alright i swear i posted this somwhere but whatever. it was last monday took about 5 mg of benzos and 5 shots or so of whiskey. i was fine but parents thought i was OD so go in the car and next thing i know i come too and i am talking with a guy and have been for 15 min or so but have no memory of it and i have an IV and am striped and dont rember shit. it was freaky not knowing what happend. i told my parents alot of shit i guess and i dont rember any of it relly. kind wired.

alright i'm not proud of it but i got two expirences-

first one gbl od don' remember any of it so no comments

second one i went on a big bender with mda pills and for no ryhme or reason shit went downhill really quickly. ended up not being able to breathe, whole body went numb really scary shit. the doctors are working on me and dickhead cop shows up. without reading me my rights with me kinda fading in and out he's grilling me. telling how much trouble i'm in and how i'm looking at 5 years for what i've done. now i know that this is all bullshit because i do know that just being on e is not against the law in ill and the cop is completly full of shit. really annoying even the doctors are giving him dirty looks. finanly i look at him and say "do you mind letting them do the jobs then we can talk" still he keeps coming at me asking whos my dealer ad how am i gonn help myself out to the point i actually say " either read me my rights, arrest me or get me a lawyer cause i ain't saying shit" a nurse actually laughed at my coment. cop trys to be a dick and says give this scum a catheter. and this is when i knew i was real fucked up because i said "please do i've been trying to pee for the last 17 hours" doctors eyes light in that i just found out whats wrong look got the cathater peed out ungodly amounts and was fine after that.

in both my expirences unless you have drugs on you the doctors and nurses for the most part are on your side. they really don't want people to be afraid of going to the hospital when needed. they will try to get you help when you check out though.