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.

When we went in with a peanut allergy reaction for our baby, the receptionist had a doctor out immediately. It wasn't anaphylaxis and was starting to subside so we were then OK to wait. That was 3 years ago so things probably worse now but it did reassure me.

The times I have been rushed through were:

1. 10 weeks pregnant, lots of bleeding from below and screaming/crawling, pain
2. Unable to stand properly, and 38 weeks pregnant, preeclampsia late stages, loss of all bodily fluids, I was in a disgusting state

the first time wasn’t actually an emergency in the end, I managed to keep the baby. The second time I was trolley-ed up and given all sort of drips and injections within about 30 mins. I stayed on the drips for a day, stabilised as best they could and then made to give birth the same day.

I also got semi rushed through when I went deaf suddenly and wasn’t making a fuss, just crying.

My son collapsed at home so we called.999 ,the ambulance arrived in minutes and they immediately suspected he was in DKA ( no history of diabetes) its a life threatening condition ,so he was rushed to A&E and straight through to resus within an hour he was in critical care.

In oct 2020 I had to take my son to paediatric a&e with a suspected testicular torsion - he was screaming in pain.10 minute wait for triage - that was all.

We arrived at 1pm and by 3.30pm he was in theatre.

I have to say I was impressed at how quickly they could assemble a surgical team on a Friday afternoon during covid.

When I was last at a&e was in dec 2022 at barnsley with my mother who was having chest pains (background - stage 4 heart failure). It was complete and utter carnage with lots of quite seriously ill people been waiting for hours. We were very lucky and on our way within 4 hours.

@VanilleFraise that is standard for suspected torsion. Straight to theatre from A&E.

Since elective surgery was cancelled during Covid. Paediatric surgeons had little to do. We had barely any patients!

When you take your partner there, be sure to leave some man stuff around. Move your ex stuff over.

Yes, petty but it will make you feel better, and it’s the only language these men understand

edit
thanks mumsnet, I’m in another thread completely. Sort your buggy mess of a site out

@toddlerteaplease well that explains it then.

I’ve generally had good treatment. Was seen immediately for a head injury. Twice my husband has had kidney stones and hasn’t waited more than 20 minutes for triage. We are in Scotland but even if it’s busy you are triaged fairly quickly. My mum did have a 3 hour wait in an ambulance at her local
hospital but she was taken in a non emergency ambulance due to mobility. They got her tea and a sandwich while she was waiting. The paramedics are amazing and wonderful people. I don’t blame NHS staff but poor management and chronic understaffing. Throwing money at it won’t work its time to completely re-model it and take advice from the actual staff on the ground.

When I brought my daughter in with severe breathing issues earlier this year, we skipped triage, she was taken straight to a bed, assessed quickly by a couple of Drs and then moved to resus. It wasn't like on TV in that everyone was very calm but the consultant told me (not in front of my daughter) that her condition was life threatening. Various people joined us in resus and they assembled a team ready to put her on a ventilator. Within a few hours, she was much better and returned to the main part of the ED. I found the whole experience reassuring in that it was good to know that when you are seriously ill, things can move quickly.

Also, when in the main part of A&E, on another occasion, when she deteriorated a Dr came quickly, even though they were very busy. I hadn't called them but a nurse attending to another patient had heard her getting worse.

A few Christmases ago I had to go to A&E with difficulty breathing. I was triaged within 5 minutes but had to wait an hour or so to be seen by a doctor.

If someone loses consciousness or is struggling to breath severely they'd be taken straight into the resus bays.

I insisted on taking my boyfriend to A & E. I got to the desk with him and then suddenly staff rushed out and wheeled him away. Seems he was on the point of death and they spotted him as we arrived. He had pneumonia and the doctor told me I'd saved his life by getting him there. I was amazed they'd noticed how ill he was so quickly.

That relies on someone to notice. Have you read the descriptions in here of chaotic waiting rooms and severely ill people falling through the cracks?

I was taken urgently ill with a bowel obstruction in wintery January the other end of the country, Dh rang an ambulance from the hotel where where we were staying.

they gave me morphine in the ambulance and my temp was low I think...they rang around to see if the local one was admitting as closing to new admissions due to how busy it was. Anyway they said they would take me and I was taken straight through to the majors bit.

had my surgery there on a Saturday morning, saved my life. I'm so grateful. And it was ultra busy, people were in corridors etc.

That really irritates me I have been the parent who has been rushed and triage straight away when he had suspected sepsis (was really bad scarlet fever) and needed a cannula in straight away and had a room and pretty much all the medical staff to begin with

I have also been ages in A&E ages with a broken leg, broken wrist and a cut that needed 12 stitches because although these needed care and I was in the right place they were not time sensitive and waiting an hour or two would not change the outcome - but when he needed the cannula 2 hours could have been life threatening

Personal experience. One hospital the reception staff will roll their eyes and ignore you and leave you to bang on the door to get a medics attention for the person. Another hospital will do the full Casualty/ER treatment and you'll be sat feeling like a poorly lemon while people rush round you shouting numbers out.

As a teenager I refused for gp to call an ambulance for me but I accepted for her to write me a letter and then I would take myself (with dm), to a&e. Stupid teen logic. I handed the letter to the receptionist and few minutes later a nurse came with a wheelchair.

I got diagnosed with dka and type 1 diabetes.

A different time in a&e a woman fainted while waiting to be triage. That causad a doctor and other medical professionals to come running.

Dsis got taken very seriously and had a lot scans very quickly when they needed to rule out meningitis. Then they calmed down a bit, till she finally got her diagnosis (few days later) and then acted very fast and she had a brain surgery planned the next day.

When ds2 was 12 he took 300mg amitriptyline (sleeping pills, most people would take 10 or 20mg as a standard dose). This was in lockdown so things will be different now but this is what happened.

Dh stopped the car in the bus stop outside a and e and there was someone stood outside (security or traffic warden, I think) who came over and started to say dh couldn't park there. Dh was getting ds2 out and he was having to half carry him so the man stopped talking, ran inside and came back with a nurse and a wheelchair. They bundled ds2 into the wheelchair and the nurse ran with him straight to resus.

I once turned up with a relative who was very unwell, parked outside A&E and blew the horn. Staff came running, fortunately and a consultant was dealing with my relative when I returned after parking the car. Was most impressed with their response. Unfortunately the relative passed shortly afterwards.

Not A&E but the walk in centre.
My husband walked in and went to reception. He had to lean on the counter to hold himself up.
Receptionist asked some questions and asked him to go to the waiting room.
Within 5 minutes he was seen by a doctor and 15 minutes later was up on an emergency ward.
He had sepsis (caused by blocked gall bladder) and was in hospital for 2 weeks. 1 night he almost died as kept going in to septic shock.
But those initial staff knew instantly it was serious just by the symptoms that presented themselves.

When I had a child going to A&E in an ambulance I was met at the entrance to A&E by a staff member who was waiting for me and who took me straight through to resus. I never even knew there was this emergency resus room hidden away in A&E. Obviously that was not a good day but thank goodness everything was OK in the end.

Husband walking into A&E during the pandemic, looking like the marshmallow man from Ghostbusters after having an allergic reaction. A nurse rushed up to him the moment he stepped through the door.

Me suffering from appendicitis with my appendix about to burst. Seen by triage after about 15 minutes and whisked away on a trolley rather than returned to the waiting room.

Most of our A&E visits are much less dramatic and thankfully not very frequent. Most involve injured limbs and lots of waiting around.

When we have needed urgent help though, it's been there for us. Thankfully.

I was sent to A&E with high blood pressure during a routine diabetes review,

Waited 6 hours to be triaged, then had a heart scan ecg and then sent home, no change in medication afterwards so it was kind of pointless

I was in A&E on Sunday. A man was sat in the waiting room for over an hour waiting to be triaged clutching his chest saying he was having a heart attack it was fucking horrific to be honest. I was pretty unwell myself but he should have been taken straight through. When I was triaged before him I said to the nurse there's a man out there having a heart attack and she said we have had two blue light patients we are dealing with and the police are here. That was it. He was taken through about half an hour after me and didn't come back to the waiting room.

My dh took me to A&E last August, as I was haemmorageing after lletz and biopsy on my cervix. Within 10 mins a nurse came and got me as I was bleeding everywhere, despite wearing a pad. Receptionist must have told her. In that situation when I literally could of bled to death they acted quickly, this was a different hospital from the one on Sunday.