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.

Multiple witnesses..

Thank you ❤️

completely agree with everything you've said

I mean wtf is wrong with people, showing concern and professional integrity like that? What’s the world coming to? 🙄

If it happens almost every time you eat (as you have said) then why not have a wheelchair hand so that whoever you are with can get you back to your room without causing a fuss? You seem ridiculously ungrateful and underprepared if you are so used to it happening. I can understand it was frustrating, but how many times do people say "oh I am fine" when they are actually very unwell and should be in hospital being treated. I assume that anyone with medical training would have thought that if you are so used to this happening every time you eat, then you would have been better prepared to get yourself back to your room.

Doesn't matter. You'd need a breathalyser test. Not subjective accounts from your family members. I'm not saying they weren't drunk, I'm saying you can't prove it.

I get you OP.
My condition is not like yours but I get very dizzy if I have to be in a standing position for a period of time. I know what I need. I just need to sit down, have a drink and be left alone for 20 minutes. Having people around me fussing when I have specifically told them not to makes it worse. And your experience sounds very OTT.

No of course.
I don't have any plans to do any reporting anyway so all good on that front.

did enough of that when I discovered I had asbestos cancer at 23 🤣

The nurses sound horrendous and I'd be really upset too, OP. Horrible experience and they should have listened.

I am not underprepared.
I have been dealing with my medical issues since 2017. I COULD have walked. Nothing would've happened apart from me feeling more uncomfortable. I don't need a wheelchair and would feel incredibly guilty about taking one from someone who needs it.

I need medication (which I took) and I need space and 10 minutes for it to pass. Please don't make assumptions that I am under prepared. You have no idea what I'm dealing with or how I'm dealing with it.

Professional integrity? Treating someone without their consent?

OP has explained that her heart condition is caused by chemotherapy for cancer. That comment was totally gratuitous and deliberately unpleasant.

Why would she ask for a taxi when the hotel offers free buggies?

Professional integrity, putting their hands on me without consent, not listening to the 'patient', shouting my medical history to the rest of the diners to make space, and being so drunk they were slurring and stumbling?

very professional.. very professional indeed 😂

I feel for you OP! I can see that is annoying when you have a condition that you feel you can manage. I have similar (not heart-related) but it can be very annoying. Just remember when you're in a resort they are really scared something will happen and they will be liable - so they go over the top and take all precautions.

If you want to go back to your room just don't mention anything, just "Can I have a buggy to my room please" or whatever. I once left a hotel restaurant (it was a special event) and the lady on the door said "oh! how come you're leaving early?" and I made the mistake of saying I had a migraine and wanted to lay down - similar to you I was then hassled by health care (on site nurse turned up, then a doctor, then a member of staff came to ask if my son was ok - he was 19 and used to me having a migraine so of course he was fine). I have never mentioned it since! I just say "I'm a bit tired" or "Long day in the sun ha ha" or "I'm just getting something from my room, back shortly". Then never return!

It's annoying isn't it! Lesson learnt, dodgy tummy will be my next excuse

(waits for an ambulance to be called for an intestinal impacting needing life saving surgery and an ICU admission)

🤣

Ugh...how annoying! So frustrating to have nobody listen, and to have to pay €300 for the pleasure...

Medical professional here.
I agree that no one who was inebriated should have stepped in ideally.

However you have a relatively rare condition that most people will not have heard of ( without being mean, I would not expect nurses who don't work in cardiology to be aware of long QT/ TdP), but they were aware that you had a significant heart condition and so were worried, as was the Dr (who I suspect was the equivalent of a GP. If you were assisted by a random GP in the UK, I can bet that they would feel twitchy too. They would recall from their previous training that long QT can result in fatal arrhythmia even with a device in place, and understandably would be anxious).
Personally if I had been there and assisting, I would have been comfortable with walking away once I was happy you had capacity to choose how to manage your symptoms, but that's with a couple of decades experience of working in frontline medical on calls including seeing patients with serious arrhythmias but I can completely see how your presentation would have sent less experienced or knowledgeable people into a bit of a flap.

Don't blame the hotel staff - they aren't medical, and faced with 2 healthcare professionals insisting that they call an ambulance, of course they will do that.

I think your take home here , as others have said, would be to find some less alarming phrases to use in the future if you just need transport somewhere when you are feeling unwell.

Either you or your brother really needed to be far more assertive. Stand up, tell them all very firmly to back off.

When you feel unwell and have a crowd of 200+ people gawping at you like they've just seen someone take a steaming dump in the middle of a church procession, it's not that easy. I did my best. It's not my fault drunk nurses don't want to listen to me.

my brother did an excellent job. He was the reason the ambulance was cancelled and he has (just now) been the reason we've received €200 out of the €300 euros back.

I would imagine their jobs would be at risk if you went back to your room alone and died, and then everyone with you started saying "she told them she had heart issues and they just took her to her room and left her alone there to die"
If you don't want drama in future maybe say something like "my legs really hurting I need a lift back to rest" and just make your family aware that it's your heart. As soon as you mention heart people are going to worry as they don't know the risk level. Especially when seizures are mentioned too.

Thank you for your educated response. Really helpful.

yes Prolonged QT is dangerous. It landed me in CCU many times than I could count! I'm grateful medical professionals get twitchy about it and every medical professional I've seen knows about it and is educated in what medication I can / can't have. Very grateful for that.

i take medication that makes my QT nearly normal. It sits usually on the longer side of normal and thankfully is very well controlled and responds well to medication. I don't have an ICD fitted, I have an ILR that keeps on top of arrhythmias. The plan is, that if for some reason my QT interval increases to then do the ICD but I've been stable since 2022 which I'm so thankful for!

I just wished the nurses listened to me. Of course the staff aren't in the wrong, I don't blame them at all and they were only taking instruction from 2 drunk nurses.

I appreciate your input, thank you!

I didn't mention the seizures.

the nurse mentioned the seizures first of all when I told her I had prolonged QT.
if they weren't drunk they probably worse listened to me. But yes, I'm partly to blame for saying my hearts a bit quick.

people can have a quick heart rate for a myriad of reasons and it's not as if the reason was unknown and this was a new problem. They should've respected my autonomy and not acted like they did without my consent.

if I was drunk or couldn't consent for some reason or another, then absolutely, their actions were justified.

@Eyebulb has been nothing but unpleasant, rude, obnoxious and wrong on every post of theirs. Not the brightest bulb in the chandelier, for sure. I think they must need attention.

@Manchildd classic example of patients never being listened too.
Id spring in to help hit if someone old me THEIR medical history I’d stop and listen as what’s is happening in that moment is only half a picture .

You are not wrong op . I’d have even telling the person who called the dr to pay his bill .

I means after all you are alive and well today , you know your body best.

I'd guess they assumed you had something else symptom wise signifying it to you and that was the concern?
My heart rate generally sits around 100 and goes to 130 easily, had investigations done as a teenager and since and no apparent cause or issue other than high blood pressure which is medicated, but I wouldn't be able to tell it was 120 or have reason to check it. The fact you raised it will have made them concerned that it's something you've been told to watch for and then be concerned about the outcome and why you have to monitor it.

Also worth remembering that whilst inconvenient everyone had your best interests in mind, it's better that they over react to some people than ignore someone who actually does need help (and there are lots of people who need help and brush it off as "I'm fine", especially in a situation like being on holiday)