Head injury - day two, hospital debriefing

Things are worse this morning, but that's always how things go with injuries. Look a bit like a horror movie right now, stitches above my eye, a black eye, swollen up. Noticing other bumps and bruises here and there from the fall. Hip must have hit the side of the bath on the way down.

Noticed my scalp is a bit numb on the right side. According to the medical sites online that I've read that is a "bruised nerve" above the skull and nothing to worry about. I do feel a bit wobbly, but then I feel wobbly at times these days anyway so I'm not concerned about it.

David has concerns about the trip to Emergency Wednesday night however. He's even emailed off a long complaint last night to the hospital about it. I was a bit concussed I guess as the time in there is a bit of a blur. David though was with me the whole time and as a nurse was angered by some of the things that happened. I dunno, I'm just glad I got stitched up and fixed. It's not often I turn up at that place with something actually fixable :) 

Anyway with a head injury, apparently "neuro OBS" are supposed to be taken at regular intervals from the patient. Me however, after being bought in by ambulance, they put me in a waiting room. I dunno how long I was there as I was closing my eyes and trying to rest, but it was about 2-3 hours it turns out. This despite a bleeding head injury and I thought possibly a cracked eye socket by the feel of it (but I'm no doctor and it turned out it wasn't). Nobody came and took OBS, and the triage nurse the only thing she did when I got there was take my blood pressure and no OBS even, before sending me off to the waiting room.

On realising the amount of time it'd taken, I myself went to the front reception for Emergency to see what was going on, that I had a serious head wound, and could I at least lie down on a bed? At which point David joined me on his way back inside from smoking a cigarette. He being the professional I let him take over. He wasn't happy. One of the nurses came to the counter and lied to him, saying I'd "been assessed by two doctors". I hadn't. It was just that triage nurse who did all of taking my blood pressure. He told this nurse straight out that she was lying to his face.

One thing about having HIV, I guess you learn not to take shit off incompetent medicos.

I was seen promptly after that. Not before another incident however. We had gone back to the waiting room again, David went to smoke a cigarette outside for a minute to calm down a bit. Upon returning to the waiting room he heard the two nurses talking behind the Emergency reception counter unknown to them, in particular a comment from the nurse who lied to him:

"I'm not going near him. He's infectious."

She has no idea he heard that. BTW, the bitch didn't come near me. Very soon after I was taken in and seen by other more professional nurses while she I guess cowered in fear of my HIV in the corner. The doctor was lovely as I said previously. 

The nurse thing well yes, why was I treated so poorly? It's a legitimate question to ask. Was it because of HIV stigma? Whatever the reason, they failed in their duty of care. What if the head injury included brain damage and my brain started swelling? How would they have known with me abandoned in the waiting room for three hours? This is not something to be taken lightly. My life was put in danger by their incompetence, it's as simple as that.