Reply #52: As a former doctor's wife, I call b.s.

[knitter4democracy]

Coughing up blood can be any number of things. Just because she's getting hormone therapy doesn't mean the other possibilities don't need to be ruled out. Chest x-ray is a given, blood tests, all sorts of things to get a baseline to rule out anything scary, plus an overnight admit to make sure that the patient is stabilized and ready for the specialist the next morning would not be out of the realm of possibility.

Doctors have to rule out the usual suspects as well as the rare ones. Coughing up blood could be so many things that an ER resident should be able to run several tests to rule those out (and then give the specialist more information) and make sure the patient is stable. The patient wasn't stable, and the tests weren't performed. I'm betting that her specialist hasn't treated lung cancer or TB or GERD since med school or residency but the ER resident has (until another specialist in those areas has taken over).