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.

A&e health care assistant here......
My trust isn't huge, and doesn't accept major trauma (that goes to the closest city hospital)
Through front door : booked in via receptionist. If they feel the need, they alert nursing staff. Ie: chest pain.
Health care does initial observations within mins of arriving. Escalates if needed.
Seen by triage, pain relied offered if necessary
Seen by other nurses in majors. Then Dr's in order of arrival unless deemed urgent.

"Alerts" via ambulance tend to be seen straight away as paramedics feel they are an urgent case
Other ambulance arrivals are booked in, assessed and treated as required. Unless urgent/sepsis/breathing issues/cardiac issues etc, ambulance arrivals are not prioritised over front door arrivals.

Minor injuries unit separate to majors

And no, not all admissions need to be there!! 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️

I was once triaged by my GP with sepsis and told to go to A&E immediately. The GP phoned the hospital and told them I was on my way and to expect me 'soon'.
The A&E staff were waiting for me and I was triaged there straightaway and admitted to ICU.
I was impressed with that, although I wonder if that would happen now post-covid.

If you're dying from a trauma injury or heart attack etc you'll be rushed in an ambulance to resus. They will basically do emergency care on you immediately to see if there's anything life threatening. If there is they might operate immediately. If not then they do what they need to establish you're not dying imminently then leave you there for ages.
Then you'll then be put onto a ward, either major trauma, orthopedic trauma, cardiac or whatever.
And stay there for as long as it takes to get sufficiently well to leave.

When I have been rushed in (by ambulance) you just get taken straight through and seen immediately, however I have taken my sons with varying degrees of spilt open heads etc and that’s normal triage, apart from once when DS1 was having a very severe asthma attack and I ran into a&e with him and the receptionist could see he was turning blue so she buzzed through and a consultant came running through and grabbed him from me and ran him through to paediatric resuscitation. I have presented at A&E after speaking to 111, whilst on chemo and have been immediately offered a private room to wait in (you get a red card during chemo to show at the desk in case you have to go to a&e).

My father had a serious accident at home and died the next day. We met the ambulance there and was ushered into a private family room on A&E. That’s when you know you’re in the shit.

I had to take my dc in for a massive overdose and just marched up to the desk saying I need help now and they were fantastic and saw her immediately. She had Anorexia and we had to go to A&E countless times. They were great whoever sent her(GP, ambulance,CAMHs or us)and she was admitted straight away every time. Sometimes we’d have to wait for a bed but they would prep her with cannula and monitor obs whilst waiting in the waiting area when she became an adult, as a child she went straight up to paeds. They even contacted her Ed nurse to alert her admission each time. No complaints re A&E. We’ve had to do 4 hour waits for less urgent stuff but having been in that position I get it. Others need to go first!

She’s in recovery now and I embrace waiting. 😊

In 2022 I went in because of a sudden severe headache with vomiting. My husband spoke for me at reception and then had to leave due to covid restrictions. I was seen within 7 minutes and was having CAT scans within 12 minutes for a suspected subarachnoid haemorrhage. My BP was 229 over 169 so there was lots of rushing about. Other than that I've never been to A&E.

It certainly wasn’t one of my better days, but the hospital was amazing. I couldn’t have expected better treatment.
Thsnks for your comments xx

That makes all the difference knowing someone you love has received the best possible treatment, even if its a sad outcome. Sending un-mumsnetty love.

People bursting through the doors and greeted by all the team... they know they are coming.

What if there are no ambulances - aren't people told to get a loved one to hospital under their own steam now if they can?

When I was moving into sepsis (as it turned out) and my partner insisted we went to a and e much against my will, she went up to the counter, told them what was going on and they whisked me away into a wheelchair. I think it didn't take much time at all, although I could be wrong because I was already a bit out of it.

@TrayBakers I've went on several occasions with severe breathing difficulties. (Should have rang and ambulance but was only 5 mins away). Anyway, I've been triaged pretty fast. On one occasion a passing nurse took me straight through to the cubicles.

Hopefully the new government will start funding the NHS better than the last lot and things improve.

I was once waiting when 2 men came running in, once had spilled some kind of acid on his stomach they said go through now and made the other guy wait to take their details. That’s about as emergency as I’ve actually seen.

See the title of the thread. We don't take DD to A & E via an ambulance with blue lights, because she has fainted or is wheezing.

It is on her notes now "WHEN THIS HIGH RISK PATIENT IS BROUGHT IN...."

@IDontHateRainbows definitely they would say to do so if possible. But some serious injury the person literally cannot move. If they can be helped into a taxi or car then ideally of course take them. I waited for 7.5 hours lying on the floor with a broken hip and shoulder once! So yeah, ambulances can take a long time. But if it's life threatening they will send one. Or just make you wait ages.

One mistake is that many go to a&e thinking it will speed up the referral process to the specialist they have been referred to. Let me tell u it doesn’t.
When your GP refers you it creates a UBRN number and is tracked so has to be actioned and dealt by the trust and speciality and appointment given within a specified time.
A referral from a&e doesn’t.

We've been in a lot for the last 8 years and never noticed any issues really, other than people not being happy with the wait times for things like needing stitching up/xrays or wanting pain relief.

Maybe it varies at other hospitals though as that is only between 2.
But I can't imagine a way anyone could faint and be missed with how crowded they are, or that any of the staff passing by who are extremely responsive would ignore someone having fainted. Even when we drew attention to an elderly lady becoming distressed and crying a few months ago a cleaner went and fetched a nurse who took her through to a triage room and then into the bays after.

I didn’t realise how ill I was a couple months back ( just had been sleeping it off). Family called ambulance, it arrived within 15 minutes- I was blue lighted. On arrival at the hospital I was taken straight to resus in A&E ( suspect septicaemia). I was there for 13 hrs, put on high dependency ward for a day then to the wards for a couple of weeks.
I was blown aware with the care I received, the amount of testing and monitoring I was given. It wasn’t septicaemia in the end.
I felt at the time very angry the ambulance had been called, I felt it was overkill but I guess the family could see my situation better than I could. I’m grateful they did now.

I was waiting in A and E once, when a family ran in with a teenage boy who was convulsing. The sibling started screaming help, help. Looked quite scary.
The staff took ran out and took him straight in.
After about 15 mins, the mum came back to actually sign him in.

I've never seen anyone "blue lighted" in like in films.

Even when I had severed a finger it took forever. I was panicking because I had saved the finger with sone ice cubes, but I knew it was time sensitive. They just weren't interested. I said but can you not reattach the finger, and they just said they don't usually do that.

Strangely enough I remember back in the 1980s, they did reattach the finger, so presumably it's either that they've learned it doesn't work, or they have no capacity these days to actually do it - therefore don't bother. 😥

I mean this was only a finger. It was bleeding a lot but not fatal.

But lat time I was in A&E it was like a horror film, with old people groaning in agony, or dying in the corridor while they wait.

And this makes it very hard for me to listen to people moaning about losing the WFA which they spend on Christmas presents or cruises. Also the bitching about VAT on school fees.

I want us to live in a country again where you are severely, urgently ill and that's an emergency. 😳

Very much depends on what is “wrong” and how you arrive.
one instance I remember going with someone who was having an asthma attack.. man got taken in on a big wheelchair by ambulance. He was v vocal, doubled in pain and what I would describe as very ill. Person I was with got called before patient writhing in pain so refused and said you can’t have this get him through to be seen. The nurse huffed and eventually came back for the patient.
when through in resus on nebuliser(s) we heard emergency button pushed, screaming and shouting - the patient writhing in pain (and ignored initially) had a ruptured bowel !!!! And was rushed away for surgery! Parents with him thanked my friend for pushing for him to be seen as if it’d have happened in the waiting room they may have been too late to save him 😭

this was all before pandemic so I dread dread dread ever having to attend any time soon because the horror stories are awful!

i do think nurses and doctors try their very best but they can’t all get it right 100% of the time and they have to prioritise the most serious (presenting at the time)

I've never seen anyone "blue lighted" in like in films

We didn't go through the A&E waiting room, but from the ambulance bay straight through to paediatrics.

I got admitted via ambulance and so it was very quick, but when I presented to a and e with complications a week later, I was triaged very quickly and then told I would be taken straight in. I’m not sure if any details I gave to reception flagged a need for urgent triage, as I’ve waited longer at other times.

I ran into casualty with my baby, shouted “I think it’s meningitis” and had two doctors treating her in seconds, and was in an ambulance with a blue flashing light to A&E a few minutes later. Our NHS is bloody amazing.

Very fortunate in the times myself and DD have needed urgent help both in our local hospital and in major teaching hospitals in London over last few years and I'm so grateful.

DD (underlying complex medical and physical disability) had a choking episode which I had initially managed at home and she seemed ok. I drove to local hospital because I felt she needed reviewing but by the time I got her out of the car she was floppy and struggling to breathe. I ran in with her in my arms, receptionist took 1 look, hit a button and Dr's came rushing to greet us and took us straight through to resus. After being stabilised there we were then ambulanced to major hospital with paediatric ICU within 2 hours.

Last year I had an anaphylactic reaction but wasn't sure if it was or not and so drove myself to A+E (stupid!) When I started to describe symptoms at desk but was struggling to get my words out and visibly swelling, I was taken straight through and treated very promptly.

Happened again this year whilst we were down in London, ironically attending hospital for DD and had just left. I'd eaten a quick sandwich, got back to car and don't remember too much therafter. Fortunately DH was with us as the driver as anaphylaxis came on so quickly, he jabbed me with an epi pen and called 999. Ambulance came, gave me further treatment & then blue lighted to UCL. I did try & apologise for being a bother when I came round and told them I didn't think I needed to go but given I couldn't actually speak (or breath properly 😂) the paramedics ignored me and I was met at the ambulance bay and taken straight to resus. When I was eventually stepped down to majors a few hours after to finish my IV and monitering, it was quite surreal. Everyone else in resus area had either been rushed off to other wards/specialists/surgery or died😔I was eventually allowed to leave hospital some 9 hours or so after admission with more epi pens and antihistamines, counting my blessings and knowing how lucky I was.