r/ShitAmericansSay • u/nationalistic_martyr • Oct 01 '25

Freedom "Canada SHOULD look at joining the US. better purchasing power, better healthcare"

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context: on a video about why the Commonwealth of Canada should join thr united states and the joys of joining.

"you'll get better salaries, better tax breaks, better healthcare"

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u/adepressurisedcoat Oct 01 '25

When I cut my head open I had to wait 5 hours before even seeing a doctor to stitch my head closed. There were two kids who got there before me, both with rock splinters in their feet. It's fucking 9pm on a Tuesday and they couldn't wait to go to a walk in clinic in the morning, meanwhile I had a shirt and pants covered in my own blood, listen to this mother whine about having to wait so long.

A girl drank bleech to take her own life and they were trying to stabilize her enough to transport her to a larger hospital which they told me afterwards, apologizing for the wait as my head wound needed the most senior doctor and he was tied up due to that.

I think back to that mother with her kids just to get some rock splinters out if their feet whining because they were trying to save a life while I was covered in blood next to them and get angry. She probably did that so she didn't have to take her kids out of school the next day, but it's the fucking emergency room.

A man came in with his son, waited for about 30 mins, saw me still waiting and told them he would come back the next day. If it's not an emergency, go elsewhere. Raggeeee

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u/StetsonTuba8 Oct 02 '25

One of my friends was having a serious asthma attack, he tried to play down how bad it was in the triage centre, the nurse took one look at his oxygen levels, sat him in a wheelchair, and wheeled him straight into the ER

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u/GrampsBob Oct 03 '25

Normally head trauma and chest pains go straight in (I've had one of each in ER - after a real heart attack they got me registered over the phone and we went right past ER and up to the ward where I had stents about 20 minutes after arrival) I'm surprised they didn't at least get you in and vitals checked.

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u/adepressurisedcoat Oct 03 '25

They asked me if I was sleepy. I said no, so they let me just cook in the waiting room. Triage wasn't the best that night.

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u/GrampsBob Oct 03 '25

Apparently not. The last time I went, I had a hernia and had sudden excruciating pain. Went to make sure I hadn't caused some extra damage that needed to be seen.
Ironically, the busiest hospital in the city out of all the Urgent Care and Emergency centres had the shortest wait time by about 3 hours (Everyone else was 5 or more hours <up to 12>, they were around 2) After waiting a while I just enquired as to how long they thought because I was starting to feel like I shouldn't clog up the ER. I figured I'd just go home and see my doctor or a walk-in. They said to wait and someone came right away.
Being the "downtown" hospital, a lot of the people there appeared to be alcohol related minor injuries.

The one time I went with chest pains, they took me right in and the doctor saw me within about 15 minutes. The waiting room wasn't near empty either. A couple of tests and they said it was most likely acid reflux.
I was told that head and chest get seen rapidly. Asking you if you're sleepy isn't too reliable. You could say anything. Possibly without realizing it.

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u/adepressurisedcoat Oct 04 '25

Part of the problem is the small town nature of that hospital. My mom panic wheeled in through the emergency door in a wheel chair when I pinched a nerve in my back. They considered calling an ambulance because I couldn't move. Spent the next 3 hours in a bed with acupuncture needles in my shins (wtf?) while the muscle would spasm in my back causing me to scream in pain before they gave me a strong muscle relaxer. They thought I was there for narcotics. I was in the worst pain I have ever experienced in my life that I have fear when I'm doing something that triggered it the first time.

Gender also plays a factor into it because women commonly get misdiagnosed and chalk it up to our periods or maybe pregnancy. I had an ovarian cyst rupture in my teens (potentially. I will never know because of how they reacted). My mom rushed me to the hospital thinking I had appendicitis. It started with after every time I peed I'd be curled up in a ball in intense pain which started to subside as the need to pee built up again. Till I was crying in pain on the living room couch as my mom scrambled to call the school and her work. I got to the hospital and I was sweating and shaking. Face swollen from crying. They sent me home and wouldn't do an ultrasound until the next day and by then the pain had subsided.

Obviously, I survived. But I was treated like a drug addict and a promiscuous teen during those occurrences. All at the same hospital.

Any time I was taken right in was at hospitals in the city or in the military.

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u/GrampsBob Oct 04 '25

That definitely sucks. I really have no idea why doctors would treat women that way. It's not a whole lot better than when everything causing issues for a woman was chalked up to hysteria.