pt. 1 Adam in the ER

Michelle really came through for me last night. I kind of hesitated to call her because it was kind of late, but she's always saying how she stays up too late... So I decided it wouldn't hurt to try. She was awake and immediatly said she would take me to the hospital after I told her what the deal was, without me even asking.

When we got there, Adam was still in the waiting room. He was very obviously in excrutiating pain. He couldn't lean back against the chair, or lay down, or lean forward much. He just had to sit straight up and be still. Any movement, the slightest cough, just killed him. He had been there since 9 pm. It was midnight. The nurse as triage had, of course, asked him if he had had anything to drink or done any drugs that night. He answered honestly, that yes he had taken 2 hits off a joint. He said that at that point, her entire demeanor changed, she went from being a concerned, helpful nurse, doing her job, to being a short, snippy bitch. She immediatly marked him as being non urgent.

So 3 hours later, he's still sitting there in pain so intense he can hardly breath, literally. I seriously considered barging into triage and screaming at the bitch that just because someone smokes pot doesn't make them immune to pain. Im usually not one to even bother trying to contain my anger, but I didn't want to get kicked out, so I made a concious effort to be calm.

Adam's mom showed up and decided to go tell the triage nurse that the situation was getting worse, almost by the minute. It was really getting to the point that he couldn't breath. He was extremely worried and mumbling about how much this was going to cost, etc. I'm sure that wasn't helping the situation. Well the triage nurse blew her off, as expected. It was now close to 4 hours after he walked in. There was a sign that said not to drink anything or go to the bathroom without asking if you were waiting to be seen by a doctor. What the fuck? There wasn't a nurse or hospital employee in sight 95% of the time. If someone had walked in with a severed hand or something, they wouldn't even have known.

Finally, right at 4 hours into it, they called his name. I didn't go in with him, but his parents did.

I need sleep. to be continued.

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