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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

in wanting to do bad things to this selfish cow?

43 replies

RageRageRageAndRageAgain · 30/12/2013 23:36

My poor little PFB managed to pull a metal pizza tray down on top of himself earlier. It has sharp edges and the corner has cut his beautiful little face :( I took him to the Acute Clinic (not in the UK) which is like the out of hours/minor injuries clinic in the UK. There's no triage as it's not A&E, that's down the road at the main hospital. You take a number and wait your turn.

There were 5 people ahead of us when we got there. The first was called in just as we arrived. The second asked if anyone minded, nobody did, so he swapped his ticket with mine so that the very distressed baby covered in blood could be seen quicker. Then another woman arrives with her mother and takes a ticket. We get called in and as I go to enter the treatment room, with my little one crying in my arms, she pushes past me and insists that her mother needs to be seen first as she's feeling very unwell and shouldn't have to wait as she's elderly, it's late and she needs to get home.

The nurse was so stunned she just closed the door with this woman and her mother in the room and then treated my little one in the corridor. How can someone be so completely up their own arse. If it were life and death I could understand, but then she wouldn't be at the acute clinic, she'd be at A&E down the road.

OP posts:
Original poster
RageRageRageAndRageAgain · 30/12/2013 23:38

Sorry I need some of these Angry Angry Angry Angry Angry

Feel better now. As you were.

OP posts:
ShylaMcCall · 30/12/2013 23:44

Is DC okay now?

I remember being in A&E and the entire room of people with poorly hands and ankles rebelling because the little golden-haired toddler had a dark red snake of blood oozing from the crown of her head and down her back.

Times have changed.

AwfulMaureen · 30/12/2013 23:45

I'm so sorry you've had such a bad time of it and for your poor little DS too. But.....sometimes the elderly are in a life or death situation...it may not at first be apparent...she may have had a bad heart or any number of invisible conditions which needed speedy treatment. I hope you got seen straight after...and that DS is ok now.

Original poster
RageRageRageAndRageAgain · 30/12/2013 23:48

He's sleeping now. They've taped it up. Under what seemed like way too much blood it was small but quite deep. We had to wait for a doctor because it's so close to his eye, but she said he'll be fine. Although I have to take him back in a few days so she can check it again once the swelling has gone down. Poor little munchin looks like he's been in a boxing ring. He's going to have a black eye tomorrow :(

OP posts:
AwfulMaureen · 30/12/2013 23:55

Aah....how old is he poor little thing. I hate it when they get hurt.

RhondaJean · 30/12/2013 23:55

I do understand but you know yourself your child's injury wasn't life threatening and this woman was obviously really concerned that her elderly mother was very unwell.

YAbu, understandably, but I would do the same for one of my elderly parents I am afraid, just as I would insist my child was seen before an older person with bruising if I thought they were having severe problems. And if the unit was nearer than the a and e I would go there too.

PresidentServalan · 30/12/2013 23:57

YABU - your DS only had a cut, it wasn't life threatening and perhaps the other person was in need of help before your DS was.

Original poster
RageRageRageAndRageAgain · 31/12/2013 00:03

He's 8 months old. God knows how he managed to get the tray bit on the side of the cooker open. He can't even crawl yet.

Rhonda this wasn't the clinic you take people to if you think they are having severe problems. If there was any cause for concern which would warrant pushing in, she would have been sent to the A&E clinic.

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MatureUniStudent · 31/12/2013 00:11

I was at a NHS walk in clinic. Lots of poor little dots really quite Ill with horrid coughs. Usually I'd let the poor exhausted mums go first even though it was my turn, as I am an adult and perfectly able to wait. This time I took my turn as unbeknown to the rest of those poor parents waiting there, my son was in hospital awaiting an operation later that day and I NEEDED those anti biotics so I could get well to support my strapping baby! That might be why that other woman was so pushy, not that it excuses it. I do hope your little one is ok now. It is so frightening when they are so little and hurt.

RhondaJean · 31/12/2013 00:12

Would you really feel comfortable with yourself insisting yours sons cut was seen to before an old lady who may have had something serious wrong or who may have been made more ill by waiting?

I do understand your concern for your child but no additional harm would have come to him from waiting a little longer. If it would have you would be oerfectly entitled to be so angry but honestly, you aren't.

Original poster
RageRageRageAndRageAgain · 31/12/2013 00:20

I didn't insist on anything. The others, who were all elderly, wanted me to go first. The nurse treated my son first too without me saying anything. She obviously thought the baby needed her attention more.

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MinnesotaNice · 31/12/2013 00:24

YANBU. This was not an A&E. The protocol is entirely different to an A&E. It's generally first come, first served.

If its anything like the Urgent Cares I've been to, they are basically businesses run by a qualified doctor. You can get near-instant access to medical care for less serious issues. Usually at a lower cost.

If this older women needed immediate medical attention, she should have been at an A&E. Otherwise you wait your turn. At the very least, she could have politely requested to go ahead of those who had been waiting longer!

Secondopinions · 31/12/2013 00:25

YANBU! If the old lady was so sick she should have gone to a+e or her daugher call an ambulance

Original poster
RageRageRageAndRageAgain · 31/12/2013 00:31

Poor little mite is up and crying again. His cheek and lower eyelid is so swollen he can't open his eye properly and it's not clotting because he keeps rubbing it :(

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SarahAndFuckTheResolutions · 31/12/2013 00:32

She was possibly frightened OP, and might be feeling guilty now about pushing in passed you.

I once arrived at my GP fifteen minutes before they closed, with a waiting room still quite full, in agony with a severe UTI and was seen before all of them because of the state I was in. I could hardly walk but at the same time, was unable to sit down or keep still because of the pain.

The staff are quite good at judging who needs immediate attention.

However when I needed to go to A&E at 1am on a Saturday morning it took four hours for me to be seen. I saw a lot of people come and go in that time and I was the only person to be admitted. I was also the quietest person there as all the others were quite vocal about how their illness or injury was worse than anyone else's. I was kept in for several days with cellulitis that they were concerned could lead to septicaemia.

They do what they can when they were busy.

The good thing is, your DS was seen quickly, everyone else was kind and the nurse used her judgement in your favour. I hope your DS recovers quickly Smile

tracypenisbeaker · 31/12/2013 00:40

Cant believe people on here banging on saying that the woman 'could have been more ill' and for some reason was within her rights to barge in! RTFT! It wasnt A and E!! I swear some people are just looking for threads to disagree with Angry

tracypenisbeaker · 31/12/2013 00:44

To me, this is like taking a number at the deli counter and snatching someone else's breaded ham, but obviously a bit more dickish.

BlingBang · 31/12/2013 00:44

You don't always know the full story or background. Maybe she was under a lot of stress and pressure. Hope your little one is ok.

BlingBang · 31/12/2013 00:57

When my mum was dying I had to leave her (not knowing if she would be alive when I got back) and go get an emergency prescription at the chemist. There was a queue in front of me, all I wanted to do was scream and push them out of the way to get back to my mum with her Medicine. I also nearly had a panic attack and screamed the receptionist out at the doctors when she said the doctor was busy and I'd have to come back later. it wasn't A&E or anything but you just never know what might be going on with folk.

Original poster
RageRageRageAndRageAgain · 31/12/2013 00:57

I wasn't having a particularly jolly time myself either. Got to take him back in now, just waiting for a taxi. It's going to be a long night.

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AwfulMaureen · 31/12/2013 00:59

Tracy if the clinic was the closest medical place then the woman could indeed have been "more ill" as you say....people are not always obviously unwell and can sometimes even talk and walk whilst on the verge of dangerous illness.

AwfulMaureen · 31/12/2013 01:01

I think that a cut face on a toddler, whilst awful is not to be compared to a dying parent....your DS is hurt and that's awful....but as a few people have explained, being in charge of an elderly, vulnerable and much loved parent can make people rude. If his eye is bleeding because he is rubbing it, I wonder if it needed a stitch?

Original poster
RageRageRageAndRageAgain · 31/12/2013 01:04

The hospitals are side by side. When the current construction work is complete it will be just one hospital. The entrance to A&E is closer to the carpark. They had to walk past it to get to the Acute Clinic.

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MusicalEndorphins · 31/12/2013 01:06

I'm gad your little one didn't get his eye injured, and hope his discomfort is eased soon.
Hopefully the daughter of the elderly woman was over reacting, but without knowing the background story, I'd be lenient. Could be they didn't know where various types of medical places are in the area, and just went to the first one they found.

BuffyxSummers · 31/12/2013 01:07

Yanbu to be annoyed. I think the nurse should have said something too. Why should your ds have had to be treated in the corridor?