Your spouse is diabetic, so you and they are always careful about what they eat and mindfully monitor their blood sugar levels. You went to work and left your spouse at home, because they were feeling a little under the weather, but their diabetes didn’t seem to be involved.
You tried to call home on your break and see how they were, but they didn’t answer. You worked the remaining portion of your shift and returned home to see them playing a video game. When you asked what they were up to, they told you they were playing a game. Then, around four or five seconds later, they told you the exact same thing again.
That unusual repeated action triggered the thought that their sugar might be low, so you helped them test. The test said their sugar was too high to test, so you put them in the car and rushed to the emergency room. That’s when the worst situation you could imagine happened. They began to seize in the lobby, and the medical team kept asking you what drugs they were on. You insisted that it was a diabetic reaction, but the main nurse kept asking about drugs and refused to test. Your spouse coded on the table, and they later passed away.
Emergency room care providers who make mistakes may put patients’ lives at risk
If a nurse or medical provider won’t listen to a family member or friend who is trying to explain what medical condition a loved one is suffering from, then they could end up making serious errors in diagnosis or treatment. It is important that they do listen, even if they don’t necessarily agree with what you’re telling them. In the above case, it would take only seconds to take a new blood sugar test and identify a diabetes-related issue.
When emergency room errors lead to the death of a loved one, like a spouse, it can make you angry and distrustful of the medical system. The truth is that the kind of treatment you or your loved one received may be out of character for the field. Substandard care is a serious problem that does need to be addressed and dealt with. You have options, such as speaking with the medical director of the hospital, talking with your attorney and pursuing a claim against the hospital for failing to listen in a life-threatening emergency.