What happens when rush into A&E with a life threatening illness?

[TrayBakers]

It seems silly to ask the question because presumably most people presenting at A&E are there because they feel they might have a life threatening problem, hence the word 'emergency' in the name of the department.

But I've always wondered how the reception staff deal with or spot genuinely time sensitive emergencies. I know it's not their job and that's what triage is for. But triage in my local hospital can take an hour, by which time anyone who is suffering a genuine medical emergency could be beyond help.

If someone were to run inside the department with a loved one and start calling out for help, would the reception staff immediately call for the doctors?

I remember one particular night that I found myself in A&E, a gentleman arrived crying out because of severe chest pain. They just asked him to wait in the waiting room. He continued crying out loudly whilst waiting to be triaged. He could've been in the throes of a heart attack.

Incidentally that same hospital has been named recently because someone died whilst waiting to be seen.

Does the TV version of bursting through the doors and being greeted by doctors thing ever happen? Or does that only really happen if you've called an ambulance to get there?

It's just something I've always wondered.

Blue light ambulance trip straight to resus for elderly Mum. Dad and I taken to relatives room. Echoing previous poster in saying when you're taken to the relatives room, someone you love is seriously in the shit. She survived, but far from unscathed.

What’s easy about sitting on a uncomfortable hard, plastic, chair for 7hrs?

@Mt61 when people have to wait 10-24 hours for an ambulance, 2-3 weeks for a GP appointment, 2 week for a cancer referral, 2 weeks for a CT scan, 6 - 18 weeks for a MRI scan, plus how ever weeks to be referred to a specialist walking into your A&E department is the easier option for people who are concerned about their health. A&E is for accidents and emergencies. However with today's healthcare system being how it is it's the easiest place for people to go and know they will be seen by a healthcare professional, even if their conditions do not fit into the accident and emergency criteria.

Seems to be random depending on the hospital, staff on duty and capacity. Have been in with relative in ambulance and seen immediately ( admission and surgery needed) but also with DC who was very poorly ( early teen) with breathing issues and waited ages. Young doctor who saw her twice was nearly in tears apologising re there being no bed available. Waited A&E with fairly basic ( but possibly life saving) treatment ( fluids and meds on a drip) for nearly 22 hours before proper admission and a bed. Really stressful for all concerned including staff - a poor nurse had collapsed on duty and even SHE had to wait to be seen !!

A couple of years ago my husband drove me to our local A&E because I was extremely unwell, and he was very concerned, I genuinely don’t remember this but as he went to book me in, the reception asked him to wait a minute while she went through the back and in seconds a doctor came out and they took me straight to a cubicle. Apparently my husband was told that if he had waited another few hours, I would have died. I was diagnosed with sepsis and was in ICU for a couple of weeks and then moved to another ward and finally was allowed to go home after a month. Hubby still insists that if the receptionist hadn’t been on the ball that day, then he doesn’t know what would have happened.

I suppose on where you live- I had pain around my abdomen, phoned gp, scan 2 weeks later, saw a specialist 2 weeks later at a private hosp but on the nhs, (gall bladder inflammation) booked in to have it removed.
Husband collapsed with pain-ambulance at the door 20 mins later- given morphine in the ambulance & taken to urgent care where we waited 7 hrs to see a doctor, we both ended up with backache sat on those hard chairs.

I have heard some horror stories (my dad for one, Alzheimer’s & covid, left in a hospital corridor for 3 days, pissed up to the eye balls & because we had Covid too, thought it best too avoid going, I wish I’d said nowt & risked going to sort him out.

I do think that gps are recommending patients go to urgent care to be treated (I rang for antibiotics for bladder infection, I catheterise, because pain it wasn’t a stinging/ burning pain, they wouldn’t give me any. I was crying because I felt ill & said you wouldn’t leave an animal to suffer. That night I ended up at urgent came, had temperature & diagnosed strep b infection.
listening to a pod cast yesterday, people had life changing injuries due to long waiting times at A & E (stokes/ haemorrhages) So I guess I do have to agree with you

It does need to change. Stopping being organised and managed as if it was a business with internal competition would help a lot - and save money, I suspect.

They prioritise I don't know how but when my 16 year old son collapsed suddenly ,we had a ambulance in minutes as I said he was in DKA ( with no history of diabetes ,) but it's not normal for a typical 16 to suddenly collapse.

I didn't see my late DH brought in and surrounded by doctors, but that is what I presume happened as I followed the ambulance in a paramedic car - I needed to secure and lock our house before I left so could not go in the ambulance (and I think it would have been devastatingly upsetting for me since he arrested in the ambulance). When I arrived about 15 minutes later he was already in theatre. I had to wait for hours in a sterile waiting room until called up to the ward. I was there when the family arrived having all travelled 150 miles to get to us. I cannot fault the treatment my DH had - in one of the best cardiac units in the country, according to a relative who is a GP - but they could not save him. He had a cardiac arrest whilst I was out of the room for a few minutes. It took 18 days for his heart to stop, days in which the NHS treated us with care and compassion and also organised a private ambulance to take DH home to our local hospice, where he died.
The NHS has been monstrously underfunded and also purposefully run-down (IMHO) whilst private medical insurance is advertised all over the media as if it could replace the NHS - most of those insurance companies have pre-existing condition clauses and the hospitals send you to the NHS if anything goes badly wrong.

Miscarriage at 13 weeks - husband ran in as was bleeding heavily, nurse rushed out with wheelchair and straight in and on a bed - depends what’s happening I guess!

DH was admitted with a serious infection a few months ago. I took him to A&E, booked him in at the reception and supported him to the waiting room. He was triaged by a nurse who couldn’t do his blood pressure as he was unable to stand long enough and they wouldn’t let him sit. He was then taken for a blood test and ECG, from there to a doctors room then straight to a bed where a gang of nurses got him on IV antibiotics and fluids very quickly. We then sat there for about two hours until a pair of doctors turned up, asked pretty much the same questions as the nurse, hmmmed a bit, decided it was definitely an infection, ordered x rays and an MRI then left. Five hours later he was admitted to a ward in the hospital and stayed there for almost three weeks.

So you made up a reason to get an ambulance because your 16 year old fainted?! That's disgusting. They triage and divert ambulances based on medical need. And you made your need up.

I think you've misunderstood what @x2boys meant. She's just saying she's already explained upthread he was in DKA, not that she randomly made it up to get an ambulance.

Thanks, finally found the first post. Sorry @x2boys , it read as if you'd just told the call handler that your son had DKA even though you knew he didn't have diabetes because you knew it would get an ambulance out to you quickly.

I had to take my poorly baby to a&e but the out of hours gp had phoned ahead so they were expecting him and pretty much whisked us straight through and started sorting him out.
More recently I’ve taken my dad in following a 999 call but the ambulance wait was too long. Again they were expecting him so it was straight through. The most recent time, dad again, arrived by ambulance via the gp on oxygen which again bypasses part of the system. So in my experience when people have been very unwell they’ve known beforehand.

Jesus! Where is this? We live in the North East and I’ve never seen any NHS facility in that state. Due to Covid (but not during during the period when lots of people were being admitted), at separate times, both DH and I had to go to A&E with neurological symptoms. We were seen pretty quickly and all staff were caring. Of course it wasn’t a Friday/Saturday night when they were fielding drunks.

My 10 month old son had been ill for a few days - he was much more illness-prone than my other kida and often spiked very high temperatures. Had a GP appointment and they called to ask for him to be admitted. I drove him in, about a half hour drive and he declined quite a bit on the way. A HCA saw me at the door, escalated to other staff and the crash team was with us in minutes. (I didn't know it was the crash team at the time.) We had had several previous admissions to children's ward so I knew how long the process took.
They bleeped the consultant and a couple of minutes later DH got there. He was wearing a suit and a lanyard and one of the staff assumed he was the consultant and gave him a brief that was very much intended for a medic rather than a dad.
It was utterly terrifying, but also deeply reassuring how quickly they identified him as needing attention. Son has just turned 18, so this is a few years ago though.

I knew of a teenage girl that died from meningitis in a/e. She went in with her parents and was put in a side room because of her crying and screaming (in pain). A nurse came into the room at some point and told her to try and be quiet and insinuated she was a being a drama queen. She died a couple of hours later.

Yeah sorry I worded it badly ,my son unexpectedly collapsed at home I called 999 telling them this they ,theyn turned up in minutes. And diagnosed DKA,we had no history of diabetes

I think it’s luck of the draw as to how good or bad your local A&E is. Unfortunately mine is awful. Since 2019 I personally don’t know anyone who has had even an alright experience there. I dread the day I ever have to go back there. Unless I had an injury, I’d be very very worried.

A friend of mine drove to A&E (husband driving) with her one year old fitting. Ran straight in A&E screaming for help, child still fitting, a nurse ran over grabbed baby and took straight into resus. My friend said that within 30 seconds of arriving she had six people working on her baby.

Another friend was told by GP to take her baby straight to hospital, don't go home first, go straight there. When she arrived there was a team waiting for her at A&E to see her straight away.

Both times the baby had meningitis.

In my experience they're very quick with little ones. I took a very poorly 6 month old in and told the person checking in I was concerned that they may have sepsis. We were in a cubicle seeing a doctor within 5 mins.

This reminds me of a routine midwife appointment I went to once. I was wanting in the GP waiting room coming up to one hour after my appointment time, getting more and more annoyed. Then the midwife came out with her last appointment, who had clearly been crying, and was being sent straight to hospital. I felt really bad for getting annoyed because my appointment was late. The woman before me very clearly needed all that time.

I think it depends on the hospital and staff tbh. When the place near me was an A+E my husband was helping me walk in but I was barely conscious, he said as soon as the receptionist saw me they got a doctor straight away so I must have looked bad. Since then it’s turned into an Urgent care and it’s the most pointless thing ever, I went in for back pain and they weren’t even allowed to prescribe me anything useful!
I recently had to bring my baby there to check his hernia and they had no idea what to do so transferred us to Manchester A+E where we waited hours, even though they suspected it was trapped, which is life-threatening. (At the time we didn’t know anything like this). The doctor said in the future if we have any concerns it is trapped then ring an ambulance even if we might be wrong.

Is she ok now? Was there any damage to her heart from the blood clots?