To hate the phrase 'rushed to hospital'.

[HMOD]

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?

We rushed the niece into hospital as she had an asthma attack and I remember running into reception with a blue tinged child draped across my arms as she was virtually unconscious, husband did a virtual handbrake turn in the entrance and i ran with her draped and going bluer. That was a cash of rushed to hospital as we were five mins from it and we got there faster than ringing 999. Stupid thing was I am asthmatic as well but at the time it was more important to get her in as she has brittle asthma.

On another thought I always thought blue lighted sounded wrong and it should have been blue lit but discovered that lighted and lit are both acceptable past forms of light.

Mrs DeVere, you obviously are an exponent of 'Take a Break bingo'. Every issue has a 'rushed to hospital' and I'd say that 80% of issues have 'slipped into a coma'.

The cliches tend to go in cycles though: it's ages since I've seen,"I knew it was wrong but it felt so right".

When I see an ambulance I always hope it's a woman in labour.

Thats what I always hope to or that it is someone with heartburn.

Finance what about the ones where there is a picture of what on first glance appears to be a bulldog with its face stuck in a grating, but turns out to be "the most good looking man I had ever met"?

Oh yes, the story author usually met him in the labour club and they move in together after two weeks. Nobody had ever made her feel that way before. And she calls him 'a gentle giant'.

I think it can take away from the seriousness. DD went in an ambulance, blue lighted, and died (having not regained consciousness) four days later, after being transferred.

So when I hear of anyone who has been rushed to hospital, I take it very seriously. Someone was rushed to hospital for breaking their leg (and not a messy break apparently). It just sounds more dramatic, I'd have given a lot of sympathy and 'hope you feel better, do you want some help?' But she wasn't 'rushed' to hospital, she was taken, not incredibly fast, to hospital.

So sorry about your DD Zombie :(

I totally agree that it implies certain things, that often are not the case at all, and can lessen the seriousness of truly horrifying situations. But some people love melodrama, they will always have a brain tumor to your headache

When I was 'rushed to hospital' in an ambulance I was seen immediately. Lots of drama

Sorry about your DD Zombie :( [flower]. Totally get what you are saying.

Oh and I was most definitely blue lighted!

Sorry Zombie. Phone posted too soon . Meant to say totally get what you are saying re people saying some things are serious when they actually really aren'.

Sorry zombie,I posted my flippant remark before I read your post x

When I see 'rushed to hospital' I expect they mean 'blue lighted' and that it is pretty dire.

Limited experience with own dc, absolutely no wait whatsoever on arrival, whole team was waiting. And it was dire.

Just a phrase, a bit hackneyed but still just a phrase. I think it's used for dramatic effect because the important bit is what happens at the hospital, not the mode of transport. If my child were in hospital I wouldn't care if the lights were on, whether we went in a taxi or by floo powder, probably like most people.

People just like drama... my mind boggled earlier at a thread for repairing windows with bullet holes... definitely for drama.

Believe me, if the clock is ticking you passionately care if the lights are on and what the mode of transport is as it literally can be the difference between life and death. I was actually told, if I had followed my gut instinct and taken my dc to the hospital myself in a car (ambulance couldn't find it and took a long time), dc would certainly have died as life saving treatment in ambulance was necessary.

What's wrong with 'blue lighted'? It's a term we actually use in hospital.

If we are transferring a patient out and we want them to get there quickly we ask for them to be blue lighted. It's not some made up term.

Sure LoveSewingBee but it IS an overused phrase that people use for dramatic effect more than those cases where it really is meant as stated.

Don't know, TBH I rarely hear of somebody rushed to hospital.

Hmmm. I rushed my dd into hospital twice when she was a baby - she was taken straight to resus both times. I probably should have called an ambulance. I don't use it lightly and don't actually know anyone who does.

I use "blue lighted" as my dh is a GP - I've heard him ask for 'blue light response' or (in previous area) "triple nine".

My blue light journey was because I had an unexplained fit (first and only) - was in status epilepticus and had bitten through my tongue. That's no sprained ankle!

It depends on the context for me. If the person was literally rushed/blue lighted I don't see the problem in saying so. Although I do agree it's annoying when used to describe a situation where someone has pootled along and waited to be seen. Like weegie's DH we request blue light responses at work occasionally.

The fracture/break thing does my head in. I wanted to bang my head against the desk when an acquaintance who is a dental nurse said it.

Sorry, Zombie. I feel the same as MrsDeVere. DD1 was 'sent by ambulance' to hospital; that's how I always thought of it. The bloods were drawn, we waited, the registrar came out, 'They are discussing who best to treat her,' and it never even registered to me. Senior cons came in to examine her, in a bay (children's hospital), whispered, 'Lots of non-defensive bruising.' I said, 'Well, she has dyspraxia. It should be in her records. She falls a lot.' Cancer never entered my mind, even when I asked him, 'She is sick?' 'Other than trauma and those in resus, she is the sickest in here.'

Still never thought.

I'm so sorry! My daughter died after days in PICU of respiratory failure (she was already in kidney failure and her liver was packing in, too).

I think that this thread is divided by people who have drama llamas on their FB and those that dont!

I rarely use FB, I would cheerfully delete it but its a good way to keep in touch with my (sensible!) cousins in Oz and Canada. But I have other family on there too, and two are just the sort that will post "OMG! Been rushed in. Terrified" and wait for the "Oh no, what happened hun?" replies. It always worries me as they both have young children and it makes me think something bad has happened.

If you have seen that then you do get why it is so fucking irritating when you find out later that it was wind and not appendicitis (again). And that the reason they said "Will PM you x" is because they dont want to post that they just needed a fucking great fart on their FB status.

If you have been in a genuinely life threatening situation with yourself or a loved one, then those kinds of posts can give you the rage. I cant delete them thanks to politics but I have hidden their newsfeeds.