Kevin H.
Yelp
I had a bad injury to my abdomen, abdominal wall and chest wall December 3, 2021. I could barely breath and speak, and couldn't eat, drink or go to the bathroom for 3 days. It left me in howling pain. My first visit here was December 6, 2021. The triage nurse I saw did not note concerns of damage to my chest and abdominal walls. I would mention this every visit to the ER, and each time it was minimized to just abdomen pain. They scheduled me a 6 hour wait for a CT.
They denied me water because of the CT, but in the state of California you aren't supposed to drink or eat 3-4 hours before a CT, not 6. By the time I was admitted to a bed in the crowded hallway, I was delirious from dehydration and pain. When I saw the Dr she chuckled while I gasped on my words trying to explain my injury. I discharged myself because of brain fog and confusion. I had asked them for an MRI because of soft tissue damage and was denied being told they don't do MRI's at the ER.
I returned to the ER again, February 8, 2022, still trying to get my primary to recognize my injury and direct me. I was back in the crowded hallway and this time listened to nurses belittle a woman in pain vomiting on herself laying next to me. I again asked for an MRI and was again denied being told they don't do MRI's at the ER.
I returned February 14, 2022, and this time had a room. I finally got a CT, that showed one of the 2 organs that had herniated, and a moderate amount of stool. Dr. Whiteman condescendingly told me "You have poo, go home." I had again asked for an MRI, was denied, but as I was laying in bed I heard the nurses outside my room wheeling a patient to get an MRI. It wasn't an emergency, they were chit chatting like it was no big deal.
The injury I had caused trauma to my nervous system, trauma and defects to my diaphragm, multiple herniations, damage and defect to my rectus muscle, and a moderate rectus diastasis that tore a chunk of connective tissue off my chest wall. This amount of trauma allowed my median arcuate ligament to compress my celiac artery effectively shutting down my GI. It took me over a year and a half to get those diagnoses. The MALs component alone is a debilitatingly painful condition.
Without help, the injury worsened, and by the end of 2022 the trunk muscles of my waist had completely shut down making it difficult to stand and walk. I would also feel the effects of trauma to my skin into late 2023 that took a very long time to get diagnosed, and finally did at USC Keck medicine. This would go on for over a year and affect my skin globally. Being left in horrible pain to suffer without appropriate pain management has negative effects on your genetics.
We pay a lot for insurance, for health care service. To be denied that and our conditions marginalized or dismissed is not right. It's clear from my medical notes that commentary about my mental health created a domino effect as Dr. after Dr. reviewed those notes and concluded my pain was fictitious. Depression, anxiety or panic, are not mutually exclusive to injury or pain. Denying patients treatments and evaluations based on realized or perceived mental health problems is sanism/ mentalism. It's discrimination.
I have suffered in howling pain for years now, dropped a lot of weight from inability to nourish myself, and have permanent injuries from lack of care. My head has been so scrambled from pain and brain fog I'm only now starting to realize how badly I was treated. I will never be the same or have baseline health again. Shame on Cedars Sinai.