Too long to wait for treatment

To the Editor:

I was in the emergency room at the Rumford Hospital waiting to pick someone up to take them home and what I witnessed was inexcusable.

When I walked in there was a woman in the waiting room holding her stomach and in obvious pain. After five minutes I went to the sign in desk and told the lady that the woman in the waiting room was in agony. Her reply was: “I’ve already signed her in and we’re waiting for a nurse.”

It seems that she had been in the emergency room for at least five minutes before I got there and other five minutes after I arrived and when I left ten minutes later she was still waiting. What if she was having a heart attack? Twenty minutes delay in treatment can make a huge difference in the outcome of that woman’s life.

I knew that woman when she was a little girl. One Christmas, I bought dolls for her and her sister, so this incident became personal because I knew her.

After leaving the hospital I began to wonder if the emergency room had written standard operating procedures [SOP].

When an ambulance drives to the hospital, the emergency room personnel probably will be waiting, know what condition the patient is in and what type of treatment will be needed need. What if I walk in, or I’m carried in, how long will it be before I receive medical attention? I hope it isn’t 20 minutes.

The attention that woman received was unacceptable and changes should be made. Who knows, you or I might be going there tomorrow.

Donald Horne,

Dixfield