The Emergency Room!

The emergency room is someplace you don't want to frequent, despite the current regime's claim that everyone there is an "illegal". Unfortunately, due to a drug reaction, Max's Mom and I were "advised" to head for the ER immediately. What we saw was eye opening on the state of "the greatest health care system in the world". Spoiler alert: It's not.

We arrived at the UNMC Emergency Room around 4pm. Checked in, triaged, and fitted with a blood pressure cuff, we took our seats in the crowded waiting room. The people in the ER were packed in like sardines. Many were complaining they hadn't been seen in 4 or 5 hours. I scoffed. Spoiler alert: they were right.

Over in the corner a young man and a girl sat. The young man was in obvious pain. He gyrated, he stood, he groaned, he put his head under a blanket and he was ignored. A woman in a wheelchair without a fuck to give loudly complained on her phone that she also hadn't been seen in hours. A woman who spoke no English in a wheelchair looked lost. Translators were nonexistent. A young man behind us slept in the chair also ignored. 

As the hours dragged on, we were also ignored. So much for white privilege at least in any inner-city ER. People wandered in, obviously in pain, An older man with a nonstop nosebleed sat in a chair and bled and bled. A family with a father who'd had a stroke sat in the corner. A man in a wheelchair sat in it dropping his phone over and over. A young woman wailed in pain. Max's Mom had blood work done and the results came in but nothing happened. We sat. 

Many of the people got up and left. They'd been there too long, Shit, we'll just go home and die I guess.

Then came the night. We'd been there 3 hours when the cops began showing up with injured people. The ambulances began arriving en masse. A poor old man in a wheelchair in a gown sat there with no idea where he was. The nurses tried to communicate with him. He had no answers for them. He wanted his phone. Turns out a nursing home had driven him there and dumped him. Just fucking dumped him as garbage that was now somebody else's problem. 

A young man brought in by the police was having a mental health issue screaming for his mom and alleging "They" were out to kill him. The police waited as they processed him to be committed as non-voluntary hold. He sat in the corner crying for his mother as police stood by.to protect him from himself. 

More people came in with injuries and illnesses, some with police escorts. The chaos was rampant. Many more people got up and left. 

This was a life lesson for us. The health care system in this country is a goddamned disgrace. Yet as bad as it is, the current regime wants to make it worse. I'm not sure how they can. Desperate people, mostly black or Hispanic and definitely poor can't get help. It really is a sad state of affairs. 

Then came 9 pm. We'd been there over 5 hours. And this time it was us who got up and left, going home to die. Spoiler: Max's Mom is better.

There is no way I am blaming the fine folks who work in the ER. They are underfunded, understaffed, overworked and underappreciated, taking the abuse from people frustrated with the wait time and the perceived apathy. They do the best they can with the resources from the state and feds. But it's not enough to even put a dent in this nonsensical system that has permeated the nation over the last 40 years. Congress and the executive branch have the gold plan. They get seen immediately. They don't have to sit with the great unwashed in emergency rooms overwhelmed with the sick and poor. And thus, they do nothing to fix this disgusting system because they don't have to. They got theirs so fuck you. 

In the meantime, a madman and his handlers declassify nursing as a profession thus cutting into loans to help these saints become health care professionals. It makes no sense unless you think the agenda is to devalue a woman dominated profession. Of course it is.

The UNMC is a great resource. But it needs further funding. Lots more. Will it happen? Not as long as the main priority of a university is paying $3 million for a freakin quarterback.

Hut Hut.