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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To hate the phrase 'rushed to hospital'.

199 replies

HMOD · 09/12/2013 20:20

Whenever I see it, I can't help but think 'Yeah but only to sit in the A&E waiting room for three hours with a cut finger/split lip'...hardly the stuff of gripping Casualty episodes.

Seems like people say it to make a situation sound more dramatic than it actually is! And as for checking in on Facebook at 'Local Hospital'...do not get me started.

Am I being unreasonable?

OP posts:
moondog · 09/12/2013 20:23

No. It is buttock clenchingly dreadful.

Sirzy · 09/12/2013 20:23

I hate the phrase rushed to hospital when it is in relation to minor things.

There have been times when we have rushed relatives to hospital though when it is literally life or death situations.

But at the end of the day its peoples coping mechanism, may not be what you would do or say but not something worth judging.

formerbabe · 09/12/2013 20:24

YANBU...

It's like when tabloids say a celebrity 'jetted in' to make it sound more glamorous!

Or

Food is described as 'pan fried'. What else would you fry it in.

I agree with you

BohemianGirl · 09/12/2013 20:25

Dunno. Only time I've used it was in blue light situations. I tend not to broadcast my business to the world.

What do you think constitutes 'rushed to hospital'? Air ambulance? Stranger performing roadside tracheotomy with a Swiss army knife and a straw?

shouldnthavesaid · 09/12/2013 20:27

Have only used that phrase twice - once when NHS rang and told me I needed to go to A&E, I said I'd head up after tea and the nurse said 'No, right now. Go.' and once when I was blue lighted as a child

Surely most sensible people wouldn't say rushed unless in a similar scenario??

BIWI · 09/12/2013 20:27

Pan-fried is a specific culinary term though. It means something that has been shallow fried as opposed to deep fried.

MelanieRavenswood · 09/12/2013 20:27

Every time my mother has said someone she knows was "rushed to hospital", it turns out they went into a drop-in clinic there Hmm She does enjoy a bit of drama.

I probably would use it in a genuine emergency though

IhaveNoOpinion · 09/12/2013 20:28

Oh no. I am one of those annoying checkers in. I was literally rushed into hospital in ambulance (blue lights and everything) but still found the time to post on FB.

In my defence, although I was very very poorly, I didn't actually feel it and had a nice laugh and joke with the paramedics.

Marrow · 09/12/2013 20:28

Well I've been "rushed to hospital" three times. Blue lighted there and very quickly into theatre for emergency surgery. Not sure how else you want me to say it?!

limitedperiodonly · 09/12/2013 20:28

I hate 'blue-lighted' more.

BohemianGirl · 09/12/2013 20:30

for the 'I hate blue -lighted' ... sent off in the nee-naw nee-naw van

Original poster
HMOD · 09/12/2013 20:32

"Taken to hospital" works, no?

OP posts:
shouldnthavesaid · 09/12/2013 20:33

What's wrong with blue lighted if that's what happened? 'I was sent in an ambulance at rapid speed with sirens on' sounds daft..

OHforDUCKSchristmasCake · 09/12/2013 20:33

When someone is 'blue lighted' to hospital then they are genuinely rushed to hospital.

Buy so, so many times have I read about dramatics mums saying "We saw the GP at 9.30am and she rushed us to hospital."

Well no, she did no such thing. She advised you to go to hospital and everything turned out ok anyway.

ShoeSmacking · 09/12/2013 20:34

Yabu.

jacks365 · 09/12/2013 20:35

I hate having to be hurried to hospital in the nee-naw van. I hate the fact that its been necessary. I don't like that a friends son was conveyed there rapidly the other day, we are still hoping he'll pull through.

shouldnthavesaid · 09/12/2013 20:36

Must admit when I was in once, with bladder failure and urine retention I felt fine, just a bit pissed off at my new catheter palm and still had time to post on Facebook. 'Twas a 'rush job' and it was serious, but serious doesn't have to mean unconscious. I did check in , so that my flatmates knew where I was etc..

KateShmate · 09/12/2013 20:36

I agree that I hate the phrase for minor, silly things - 'Darling child grazed her knee so we had to rush her straight to hospital'.

BUT, we really have had to rush one of our DD's to hospital when she was very poorly. Dr's then rushed her to theatre, then rushed her to a bigger hospital where she was rushed to Paed intensive care and put on a vent. (Sorry Grin )
When you re-tell that story, saying that we just 'popped' to the hospital doesn't really cut it; but I totally agree about that phrase in general!

IslaValargeone · 09/12/2013 20:36

'blue lighted' is far worse than rushed to hospital.

shouldnthavesaid · 09/12/2013 20:38

But why? A couple of you have said its worse and no one has explained why?

Bowlersarm · 09/12/2013 20:40

YABU

What's wrong with established sayings?

NCISaddict · 09/12/2013 20:40

I work for the ambulance service and the number of times I sit in the back with a patient who is on the phone to their friends saying 'I'm being rushed to hospital' I want to shout 'no we're pootling in no sign of rushing at all'. It is astonishingly rare to go in using lights and sirens.

OddFodd · 09/12/2013 20:40

Blue lighted is what NHS paramedics say but it literally means if the neenaw is going. My DS was taken to hospital in an ambulance. He wasn't blue lighted. Very few people actually get blue lighted.

He was taken in an ambulance because that was the fastest way to get treatment. If you make your own way there and sit in reception for 2 hours, there's no rush about it.

hazeyjane · 09/12/2013 20:42

I don't understand what is so wrong with any of the phrases?if you have to get to hospital quickly, then what's wrong with saying you are 'rushed to hospital'? 'Taken to hospital by an ambulance with lights flashing' is more of a mouthful than 'blue lighted'.

MoreThanChristmasCrackers · 09/12/2013 20:43

rushed to hospital is when sirens are going. I hate the term blue lighted and have only ever heard it on here. It sounds really posh and uncaring, where as rushed has a kind of panic to it, which you feel in an emergency.