PORDENONE – «He just has a bump on his elbow. Go home and take a painkiller for five days». This is how DV was “liquidated” the other evening from Pordenone who went to the emergency room of the Santa Maria degli Angeli hospital. The woman fell into the house and hit her elbow violently on the ground. Since the pain didn’t go away, she had decided to go and be seen in the emergency room. «At the end of the visit – she says – I was reassured, even if her elbow continued to hurt me a lot. In truth, I was left with a doubt since the doctor who examined me didn’t even let me have an x-ray, immediately excluding a possible fracture”. All well that ends well and for once even without a very long wait? Not even for a dream since the painkillers didn’t have any effect. Because? Because it wasn’t a hard blow to the elbow, but a real fracture: the radial head, the bone that allows the elbow joint, had broken.
THE DISCOVERY
But DV only discovered that she had a fracture a few days later as her elbow continued to hurt like hell with every little movement. “Since the pain didn’t go away with any painkiller – the story goes on – and in consideration of the fact that my general practitioner was on vacation, I decided to activate myself to do a paid ultrasound and x-ray. The surprise was great when I read on the report: fracture of the radial head». At that point he didn’t feel like going back to the Pordenone emergency room. «I went to the one in San Vito al Tagliamento where, after seeing the X-ray and having made an orthopedic visit, the fracture was confirmed and I was put in plaster. Commendable structure! They even contacted me to make an appointment to have the cast removed. I should have called them instead.” But the Pordenone hospital is back in the crosshairs. “But what I don’t understand – he goes on – is like a doctor in the emergency room, after a quick visit that I would define as summary, without any x-rays or ultrasounds, he discharges me with the certainty that nothing is broken and he prescribes painkillers for five days and then he recommends a muscle-tendon ultrasound afterwards. Does he have X-ray vision?”
THE MISADVENTURE
“The night I went to the emergency room, there were about fifteen people waiting. I had already put my heart at rest, thinking, in fact, that I would have to wait several hours. Instead, once I entered the triage and having received a green code, I was called inside after an hour at the latest. The fact remains – it goes on – that according to that doctor, I would not have had any fractures, but no in-depth checks had been done. I must also say that when I arrived I rang the bell for a long time to enter the emergency room, but no one answered. Luckily two CRI operators saw me and opened the door for me, otherwise I would still be there playing. Third world stuff.
THE SITUATION
«What happened to me – continues DV – is the umpteenth demonstration, if ever there was any need, of the nothing short of disastrous situation in the emergency room of the Pordenone hospital». It is no coincidence that for a long time, in addition to an exaggerated influx of people, the shortage of doctors and nurses has forced long waits and – as in this case – also risks for patients ». A situation to which the management of Asfo will have to address as soon as possible to give answers to patients in a decent time”.