Parkview Community Hospital ..Riverside, CA

[SoCalDem]

the back-story.

midnight:

My son (he's 17 at the time) wakes me up.. he's sweating, his heart is beating extremely fast ( I can SEE it ), he's nauseous dizzy.
This happened the same week that THREE high school football players had dropped DEAD during practice... all heart related.

Can;t blame me for freaking out.

We pile into the car and off we go to the ER.

Enter Parkview about 20 minutes later

It's standing room only..about 100 people there..

one nurse ( as far as I could tell at the time)

By now he's weak-kneed, and is leaning against the wall.

a guy gets up and lets him sit down.

a little boy is crying, across the room..bleeding profusely from a gash on his forehead. He's holding a rag to it, and the blood is dripping from his elbow, onto the floor by his chair. His mother is LIVID.

This is NOT a "happy place"..

The maintenance lady mopped the blood from the floor FOUR times before they were finally escorted to the back, where the doctors were.

I reported to the nurse as she came out to call people from time to time, and begged someone to at least look at my son before he died in the waiting room..she glanced at him and said " Some one will call you back in a few minutes".

At 4 AM he is finally seen, and judging from all the scurrying around and all the machinery they whisked into his curtained area, he should have been seen a lot sooner. They gave him a shot of something, and watched him for a while. I had to call work to tell them I would be late ( I had to be there at 5 AM).

My husband was working in Las Vegas, so I was a "single Mom" at that time, so there was no one else to handle these emergencies, and I was needed at two places at one time.

they released him at 7 AM, and we were told to see a cardiologist that afternoon..they made the appointment.

We drove home,... my neighbor came in to watch him, and I went to work for 5 hours, then came home, got him and we went to the cardiologist who fitted him with a Holter Monitor.

We never did find the cause of his problem, but that episode made him virtually uninsurable from that time on.


Our union insurance paid all the bills, but the ER experience was horrible.

[JuniperLea]

1. I'm shaking...

I hope your son will be well! How horrible!

How many people without insurance were sitting around to be seen for a runny nose?

I can't think right now... wow...

[SoCalDem]

3. He ended up fine.. (this happened years back)

but we never knew why it happened.. I was so afraid he had some weird heart problem, but they ran all kinds of tests and he checked out ok.. Since he was a varsity athlete, I was worried when those other football players died, and they were talking about undiagnosed heart problems
but the insurance thing is with him still..as a grown up

Most of his post-teen years (he's nearly 29) have been with NO insurance.
Same for his bride. once she aged-out of her parent's coverage she has had none (she's also 29).

Luckily, when my son needed back surgery, he had union coverage, but when he was unable to work afterward, he lost it..and went 4 years post-op without check ups. His latest job does have coverage, and his ortho surgeon said "Where ya been, Steve?", when he finally went for a check up.. My son said.. "Uninsured" :(

[Cleita]

7. I thought this just happened, but it's no less emotional and frightening. n/t

[SoCalDem]

8. For my son it still IS going on , in a way

because unless he works for someone else, he's uninsurable.. He has his own lucrative side-business, but he cannot do it full time, because he could never get insurance. he actually makes more money from the side business (custom tile-work & painting), but he has to have a 9-5 job with benefits, or he has no medical..and now that he;s a married man, he needs to have it for his wife and any kids they will have..

[SidneyCarton]

2. What a nightmare.

I've never had the "pleasure" of going to Parkview, I have Kaiser, so I end up at La Sierra.

[SoCalDem]

4. We go to RMC, so Riverside Community is where we go now..

I HATED Parkview..

The La Sierra Kaiser is quite nice.. for a while we had Kaiser and went there a few times

[Cleita]

5. I'm so sorry you are going through this.

I know what you are talking about as far as the ER experience is. I've been through the same several times in no less prestigious of institutions like UCLA Medical Center Emergency, not for myself but accompanying someone who needed care. Of course the several hours wait let's you observe everyone else there and how they are made to wait no matter how urgent their need is. I've never had to go to the County Hospital but I did Kaiser Permanente and the VA and UCLA isn't much better. I don't blame the doctors or other caregivers who have to work there. It's the system and it sucks.

:hug:

[SoCalDem]

6. This happened a long time ago, but I'm sure it has not gotten better

The ER is no place for sick people:eyes:

[Cleita]

9. Yes, so I read up thread but more people should know just what

going to the ER is especially in a heavily populated area. In my tiny town now, my DH got admitted in the ER immediately for his heart attacks and other failures, but maybe that's because he arrived by ambulance.

I think anyone who wants to research this should just hang around an ER waiting room for a few hours a day or night. It's an eye-opener.

[crispini]

10. A friend of mine once went to the county hospital for a broken arm

She fell off a bike and broke her arm in Florida. A doctor friend of hers there confirmed that it was broken, but she had no insurance, so she flew home here to Dallas as she was scheduled to do, and went to Parkland. Where she waited for 12 hours. Eventually she got the arm taken care of and even had a very good surgeon to put the pins in, but there's nothing quite like the waiting period in a county ER.