Everyone being so over the top / pushy doctor?

[Manchildd]

Hi everyone.
currently on holiday in Cyprus. I have 2 heart conditions, prolonged QT and SVT. Just to paint a picture a few years ago I discovered the two. I started having seizures and it wasn't a good time. I had to stop driving and spent a long time in hospital. Fast forward 3 years I'm driving again, living a normal life on medication etc.

i do get heart spikes, most days in fact. Due to these two conditions my heart sits at about 110 and eating is a trigger. All I need to do is chill out, take my medication and it'll pass.
last night at dinner with everyone around me my heart spiked to about 124 (this is nothing, it can go to 200s)

the protocol from my cardio team is that if I have a seizure / if my heart spikes to 160+ for 10 minutes or more then I go to hospital.

when I'd finished my food we left to go back to the room. I went up to a staff member and kindly asked if someone could collect us as I don't feel very well. There were a couple of nurses in earshot that then started ordering chairs, asking to give me space and asked what's the matter. I said to them my heart is a little quick but this happens ALL THE TIME and I just need to get back to the room. They wouldn't let me and quite literally blocked me from going. They were taking my pulse and it was 124. They then instructed staff for an ambulance. This was working me up by this point as nobody was listening. I didn't need an ambulance I just needed to go back and chill out. Ambulance was called.

my brother at this point told everyone to calm down and cancel the ambulance. They did.

instead they had asked the staff to call a doctor.
doctor game and immediately said I need to go to hospital (without doing a single check.) I know my body. Nobody was listening to me. When everyone realised that I'm not going, I had to sign a waiver saying I was refusing treatment. The doctor was very pushy for me to go, he demanded my passport details, address, GP details etc.

eventually my heart rate settled (as it always does) and the doctor saw that I was fine. But I felt so pressured he even got a cardiologist on the phone to me on his phone saying you have to come in and have bloods and be admitted. Saying that I could die. All of this hyperbole over something that happens to me most days. Nobody was listening.

the doctor then said I need to pay him €150 for the visit. I questioned this as I never called a doctor. A lot of people at dinner were drunk (I don't drink) and it was so dramatic. Realising I wasn't getting out of the €150 I paid it. Realising he has charged be twice x2 €150!!!! He then started being super nice saying everyone was being dramatic and that he will call me tomorrow (today) to refund the €150.

do I ask for the full €300 back? AIBU to think this is ridiculous? I felt so cornered and claustrophobic. These nurses were telling me to breathe into paper bags, to clear space, shouting 'SHES GOING TO HAVE A SEIZURE' - I haven't had a seizure in 3 years. I have my license back and cleared for driving. At no point was I worried. I have a device in my chest that alerts me if I'm in arrhythmia and it didn't go off. I tried to explain this. It happens nearly every time I eat an evening meal. I wasn't in SVT and medication corrects my prolonged QT.

just feel so shit about it all today. I just feel like there was lots of hyperbole and people wanting to be the hero / medical professional out of work times. Perhaps im being harsh but the 2 nurses weren't even listening to me. They kept telling me I need to do this I need to do that. I know what I need to do, I have protocol from my team and I wasn't panicking. I was just getting pissed off no one was listening to me and now I've ended up being charged $300 for the experience!

thanks for reading so sorry it's long.

Absolutely, lesson learned 🤣

Rule number one as a medical professional: Don not get involved in any Good Samaritan Acts if you've been drinking!!

These nurses really shouldn't have put their hands up if they were drunk. Very silly

Also just back on this point, the doctor didn't do a single check on me for my heart. Didn't do an ecg or listen to my chest.

just took my blood pressure (which was normal)

It's clear from your post OP that the medical professionals weren't listening to you & in fact crowded you and stressed you out more. If anything one person should have taken you into a quiet room where you could have had a quiet calm discussion about how you were feeling etc. The £300 is very unfair when you didn't call or ask for a Dr.

I'm not medically qualified at all but I would agree with this.
I just felt like everyone needed to come back down to earth for a moment and just listen to me

I did thank them though, I wasn't rude at all and thanked them for their efforts.

YANBU.

Oh OP I feel for you, no idea why they stepped in or over reacted, CONSENT is a pretty big thing in medicine which they didnt get so YANBU. Also is everyone missing that they were drunk, nurses shouldnt be assessing people when they're drunk, yes the probably meant well but were totally out of order. Unfortunately you are unlikely to get money back but I think this was all very unfair on you

Thank you. I agree, they literally plonked me on a table to lay down on a booth with a table of about 20 next to me. Everyone was looking at me and I just felt so embarrassed.

Don't think I can face going back to dinner this evening there and will probably call for room service 😔

I'm with you OP, I think it's outrageous that you were charged for a doctor you didn't want and I think the whole episode sounds awful.
The nurses certainly should not have got involved whilst drunk.

Thank you for seeing it from my pov. Much appreciated :)

Did you miss the bit where I was charged twice? That was an error.

so you're saying I should just forget that too?

This

I've got to say @Manchildd I do feel for you with your conditions. I don't mean to be condescending but it must rule your life.

I agree with pp that perhaps you could have avoided it by saying to staff ‘can we have a buggy, quite quickly please, we need to return to our room urgently’ but you’ve been manhandled and ignored and that isn’t nice at all.

Re the charges, I’d perhaps ask the hotel what their protocol is as you didn’t request the doctor or ambulance, and actively said no. If that was their staff then they should perhaps foot the bill. Are you in a place with EHIC or can claim it on your travel insurance?

I hope you put it behind you and crack on with a lovely holiday.

Thank you ❤️

im pretty used to it now! My heart was previously fine. I have an incurable cancer (which is stable thankfully) and long may that continue.

the chemos I had doxirubicin and cisplatin are known for messing hearts up. I last had chemo in 2017. Felt a bit off on a hot day in 2021 was putting a chicken in the oven and had a seizure which then all this was diagnosed.

took me a long time to get to a point where everything was stable and responding to meds and to get back to work etc. but i lead a pretty normal life now, I just can't overdo it :)

Yeah I probably should've said that. Would avoided a lot I guess.

I have travel insurance, the excess is £250 on it and the fee for the doctor was only meant to be €150 so it was cheaper for me to just pay it.

that's until I got charged twice in error 🤣

I think you're a legend. Best of luck moving forward x

And if they had left you to it and you had a heart attack you would be moaning at their careless. Assuming you were alive to moan.

Also @AbzMozIt was the nurses that called the ambulance. Which was then cancelled.
the nurses then ordered the staff to call the doctor.

the staff were listening to me to an extent and saying 'she says she doesn't need a doctor' so they called the duty manager down instead first of all. The two nurses then hounded the poor bloke and demanded a doctor to be called.

What makes you think I would be having a heart attack with a heart rate of 124bpm?

have you read my posts? My heart conditions have nothing to do with a blockage in my veins or arteries. Thanks tho for your uneducated input.

I can't believe there are some people ignoring OP's comment that the nurses were drunk and stumbling, or that OP specially did not give consent to be put on to a table in front of the dinners in the restaurant?

@Smallsalt you're clearly not a medical professional if you think SVT would cause a heart attack so not sure why you're so salty

I agree these nurses should not have got involved while under the influence of alcohol.
silly when they risk their registration if something goes wrong.
You shouldn’t be held accountable for £300 when you didn’t request the doctor.

but the hotel were hounded into making the call, and ultimately did so. or, the hotel could state that the guests who requested a service (the nurses) be on the hook for those costs and refund you / change their room.

If getting the money back is important to you I think you’ll have more chance from the hotel than the doctor as he was called, and attended. But you should absolutely get the half refund for the double charge from him.

Maybe next time just go quietly to your room and not say other than not feeling well. I think you drew attenntion to this yourself.

Next time just say you've got a dicky stomach or a headache. Hearing it was your heart would have made them think it was possibly serious. If you know it’s nothing for other people to be worried about best to play it down. I am impressed though by the efficient medical attention even if you felt it wasn’t needed.

And yes try for a refund as you didn’t want the ambulance/dr and told them so.