Quote:
Originally Posted by AKA_Monet
You are right. The measurement of pain and distress is hard to gage in patients when they suffer. The key for patients and their loved ones is to give immediate metrics when they are in pain. It is very hard for people who suffer though.
Usually, you state when the pain started, how long you have been having the pain, what if feels like and where it is. They staff undergoes several tests then send you on your way...
This is the key: maybe they should have not sent her on her way...
|
Agreed. After my bowel resection surgery, I was telling the nurse that the pain was a 10 and I needed more pain meds. She called my surgeon who said "Those Crohn's patients always think they are in pain, she's ok". THEN she called my gastro, who knew me well and had been treating me for a long time who told the nurse "This woman is a rock and refuses pain meds all the time, if she says she needs more, she needs more" and gave an order for a different med. It's important to have *someone* who knows your situation going to bat for you! But, my gastro knew the level of pain I'd been living with on a daily basis too.
It does sound like they didn't do quite enough to seek out what was causing the pain for this woman. I'm probably feeling more sympathetic toward her because I could see something like that happening to me before I was diagnosed with the Crohn's. Now, I think just saying "Crohn's" would cause them to check out more stuff if I went to ER with abdominal pain.
Realistically, if she died from being septic that quickly, she probably would have died anyway. She probably would still be undergoing diagnostics after a few hours and it's not easy to find a bowel perforation.