One night I was at uni and started having an asthma attack and my inhaler wasn't helping
so my mate took me to A&E in a taxi since we figured it would be quicker than waiting for an ambulance. By the time I got to the reception desk I could barely talk and literally had to hold onto the desk to stop myself collapsing. The receptionist then proceeded to play 20 questions with me asking if my contact and next of kin details were still valid etc all the time it was getting more and more difficult to talk. I then got left sitting in the waiting room for a full hour with my breathing getting worse and worse watching people who looked like they didn't have a thing wrong with them going to see the triage nurse and being sent back to the waiting room. In this time my mate must have gone over to the receptionist half a dozen times telling them I couldn't breath. When the triage nurse did eventually see me I'm pretty sure the first thing that went through his head was "holy fucking shit - they left her in the waiting room for an hour in that state?". I've ended up in hospital many a time with asthma and I think this was the first time I've ever seen a nurse or doctor actually panic. About 30 seconds later I was hooked up to a nebuliser, so they were pretty damn good once I actually got seen by someone with any medical knowledge. So I'm not complaining about the medical staff who were pretty damn good, I'm complaining about the receptionist who really should have used her common sense and put me to the front of the queue to see the nurse - who leaves someone who can't breath sitting in a waiting room for an hour? Do the NHS not have guidelines for who gets seen as a priority? Asthma attacks are pretty high up the list of emergencies and most asthmatics will only go to A&E when they actually think they're going to die if they don't. I consider myself very lucky that I was in Dublin a couple of weeks later when I had an asthma attack that put me in intensive care despite the fact that it cost me about £300 that I could ill afford at the time - if it had happened here I probably would have died in the waiting room.

If I ever have another asthma attack in this country I'll be calling an ambulance despite the fact that I live less than five minutes drive from the hospital and have two housemates that could drive me there.
(mmm....beer, Fri 12 Mar 2010, 11:14, 7 replies)

Happened to me
a few years ago, I woke up at 4am really wheezy, so reached for inhaler and took a puff. Didn't work. Then another. Didn't work. Then another... SHIT. Got up and phoned surgery's out of hours number, who advised me to call an ambulance. By now I was panicking, hardly able to breathe, the wait for the ambulance was terrifying, I thought I was going to die. Ambulance arrived after 15 mins, thank God, and they gave me oxygen and ventolin from a massive cylinder via a face mask. They were nice blokes, looked through my record collection and picked out (of all things!), Rumours by Fleetwood Mac (not even mine - belongs to my Dad - honest!) and made me put it on.

Sitting up breathing through a facemask at fuck o' clock in the morning with two strangers as 'Second Hand News' issued from my speakers was a slightly surreal experience it has to be said.

After half an hour I was OK and they left, I apologised for calling them out, but they waved away my apologies and said that if it ever happened again call an ambulance, it's what they're there for.

My asthma is normally under control and never bothers me, dunno why it flared up then, it hasn't since. Cross fingers.

Dktr S
(Dr Skagra glorious glargzhem, Fri 12 Mar 2010, 12:21, closed)

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This illustrates my point nicely about asthmatics not going to A&E until they think they're going to die if they don't. Since I've had asthma since I was 18 months I just don't take it as seriously as I should and feel like it's something I should just get over so I always feel like a bit of a hypochondriac when I do go to hospital with it. My sister also has asthma but wasn't in and out of hospital as a child like I was. One day when she was about 16 and I was about 14, I came home to find her breathing really badly and had been like that pretty much all day. I could tell straight away that she needed to go to hospital but she'd needed someone to tell her to go to the hospital because she thought she was overreacting, as it was she was in hospital for almost a week. The time that I ended up in intensive care I'd actually sat in bed for about an hour debating as to whether or not I was bad enough to warrant wasting the hospital's time. When I did eventually decide to get dressed and go to the hospital I'd been planning to go outside and flad a taxi rather than taking an ambulance out of circulation for half an hour. By the time I got dressed and got downstairs my breathing was so bad that my mother who was passed out on the sofa (it was Christmas Eve) was woken up by the sound of my breathing and immediately sobered up and called an ambulance. I went from debating with myself about whether I needed to go to the hospital to doctors thinking they might have to put me on a respirator in the space of about an hour. So any asthmatics out there, don't do the typical asthmatic thing of thinking you're probably not that bad and worrying about wasting their time in That night I actually had one of the doctors say that it was a nice change to be looking after someone who was actually sick rather than someone who had drunk themselves into oblivion and needed to have their stomach pumped or had injured themselves.
(mmm....beer, Fri 12 Mar 2010, 22:32, closed)

I was under the impression asthma attacks were high priority. Surely anyone would realise that a patient with major breathing difficulties should be seen as soon as?

I've been very fortunate with my trips to A+E. The receptionists are fab, and the number of trips I've made has become something of a joke. I've achieved frequent flier status...

I keep thinking I should prepare a card with my details, so if I'm ever at the "cannot talk" stage, I can just hand that over so they don't have to talk to me.
(ToysForBigBoys would spread her legs for Nick Clegg., Fri 12 Mar 2010, 12:38, closed)

Yeah
Every other time I've been to A&E with my asthma it's been high priority but that's been in Ireland. It might just be that the receptionist on that night was just completely lacking in anything resembling a clue. I'm hoping that she was a temp and had been trained in checking people in but just wasn't paying attention when they got to the bit about people who can't breath should be seen before the people who didn't really have anything wrong with them. I did just get the impression that they thought that anyone who had made it to A&E without the aid of an ambulance probably wasn't all that sick and should be seen by the triage nurse on a first come, first served basis. I was bad enough to deserve an ambulance but since I knew it would be difficult for an ambulance to find me and I was right next to a main road full of taxis I just went and got a taxi since I figured I'd get to the hospital in a taxi before an ambulance would manage to find me.
(mmm....beer, Fri 12 Mar 2010, 22:10, closed)

A good few years ago
I had a very bad asthma attack, it came on fairly suddenly. After being driven at high speeds to A & E by a friend I went straight to the desk. Once I had wheezed that it was my asthma, the lady behind the window at reception got straight off her chair and helped me through to the doctors. Which is of course the way it should be, it would have been dreadful to wait it out like yourself.

p.s. On a side note about seeing the doctors and nurses panicking, many many years ago my GP visited me at home because of my asthma. It must have been fairly bad because he called an ambulance sharpish. After waiting for 5 minutes the doctor became anxious and kept checking the window, becoming more frantic by the minute. He kept saying to my dad 'Its not here yet, it should be here.'
(muzzvsworld, Sun 14 Mar 2010, 2:25, closed)

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I'm glad that you had a better A&E experience than me! The receptionist must have been a temp or something the night I went in. Sitting there in the waiting room was one of the scariest experiences of my life, I was just convinced I was going to die before they saw me. Normally my asthma attacks ease a little once I see the blue flashing lights of the ambulance or once I get to the hospital because I know they're going to sort me out and I stop panicking (for those of you who don't have asthma, panicking just makes it so much worse but it's bloody hard not to panic when you can't breath). When I was sat there in the waiting room I just got more and more panicky once it became apparent that I wasn't going to see the triage nurse until everyone else in the waiting room had their turn first
(mmm....beer, Sun 14 Mar 2010, 12:51, closed)

Damn right about the panic
However the more you think about the effects of it the more you are likely to panic! Glad you got through it, here's hoping that mistake wasn't made another time.
(muzzvsworld, Mon 15 Mar 2010, 23:12, closed)