March 13's Letters to the Editor

Dear Sir or Madam:

Yesterday, my wife and I experienced what I percieve to be OBAMACARE in action in that it will, in my opinion, cause a shortage of Doctors.

My wife has been suffering for the last several weeks with the affects and horrific pain of a kidney stone and yesterday, the pain became too much, even for a farm girl, and I took her to the Emergency room at our local Hospital.

We arrived at 5:25 pm and as of 8:00 pm were still in the outer waiting room. All of the cubicles in the Emergency Room were full, as there were a couple squads that came in while we were there. It was really kind of bizarre, as we saw no one come out and none of the folks waiting went in. We were told several times that there were two people ahead of us and then there was one person, but we kept seeing folks who had arrived after we did go in, while we still sat and waited, and waited and waited, which was another three hours, before we finally were ushered into a cubicle.

After the fellow who was the one person ahead of us, at one time, was bypassed by another later arrival, protested at the fact that he should have been next, finally got up and left, after waiting for at least the initial two hours, that we had waited, plus a couple more, All this time my wife was suffering with her terrible pain. To their benefit, several of the office personal did try to make her comfortable by giving her a couple of warmed blankets and myself a cup of coffee, which we were thankful for. After we got into the cubicle, it was another half-hour before she saw the Doctor. We finally were on our way home, at about 1:00 AM, over seven and a half hours, after arriving.

I realize that their policy is that the more severe medical problems are to be addressed first, which I fully understand and I don’t know what the problems of those who went before my wife were, however, whether it is because of Obamacare or just the shortsightedness of the Hospital in not preparing for such situations. It seems to me that the hospital’s Protocol regarding when to call in extra help should be rethought. I know they can’t control how many folks come to the ER at any one time, but I would think that when all of the cubicles are full and they start in putting people out in the waiting room for hours on end, it is time to call in extra help, if for no other reason than to cut down on the possibility that the ONE doctor on duty, might make a mistake in his or her efforts to treat so many people at a given time.

God forbid there should be some major disaster, whereby there would not be enough facilities in the area to handle them.

I guess if they were more efficient and got people in and out in a more timely manner, more folks would be availing themselves of the ER services, which, even with the time consuming proccess considering the shortcomings and unforseen problems of Obamacare, it will be getting much worse before it gets better.

I also realize that after writing this letter, I had better hope and pray that I don’t need their services, but I am 72 and am at a point that I believe, like a friend of mine use to say, “They can kill ya, but they can’t eat ya, cause that’s against the law.”

Thank you, Darl Mills, Mt. Gilead