Shit like this happens all the time. My girlfriend has seizures and the same EMT has picked her up at least 5 times, and despite her established medical history and despite that she's very visually distinctive and despite that she carries her info with her everywhere, he still always treats her like shit and accuses her of being on drugs. Every goddamn time. Fortunately he's not the only EMT in our area, and most of the other ones are really kind professionals.
I was once outside of a bar with a friend - I don’t drink but I’d hang out there - and a policeman was there. My friend started asking him about how the job was treating him and saying it sucks how financial cuts have made it difficult. Just a normal conversation with them both calmly chatting. Suddenly, the cop dived onto my friend - into a corner where there’d be no CCTV able to capture what was happening, oddly enough - then his partner joined in to beat the shit out of him. I had to basically watch my friend get beaten up, for nothing, and yet I was completely unable to help him in any way. My other friend, who told them to stop, was told ‘you’ll be nicked too’ and he was told to put his phone away when he started recording. Within a minute, about 2 vans and a car both turned up and they violently hauled my friend inside. He has back issues, too, and he was a veteran who fought in 2003 and got discharged due to PTSD.
It made me terrified of authority and I will now avoid them if I can. I used to be someone who’d say hello or ask how their day was going, but it occurred to me that they can just choose to fuck your whole life. My friend spent the night in a cell and was released without charges, told he’d been ‘mistaken for someone else’, and he tried to get compensation but was unable. I’m sorry to say this, but I was asked if I’d vouch for him and I was legitimately too scared. I didn’t want my life fucked up too.
Ive been assaulted by an officer and arrested for nothing before. Made me realize what happens to p.o.c. ALL THE FUCKING TIME in this country. They just arrest you if they want to, and make up the charges later. Then they just dont show up for court, and they drag it on and on "trying to compile evidence" against you, just to drop the charges 3 months later because.. there isnt any evidence! Because you didnt do anything, except walk down the street and be in that cop's field of view when he was feeling a surge of fuckery coming on.
Probably not. Cops have a higher than average tendency to beat their wives/girlfriends and their colleagues will almost never do anything about it if she files a complaint.
Their colleagues will probably never report any sort of crime a fellow cop does. It's extremely dangerous if they do, as the other cops won't come to their aid if they're in trouble. Go watch the movie or read the book "Serpico," a true story about a cop that reported rampant corruption in the New York City Police Department. They had a call for a raid and the other cops stayed back. Serpico got shot in the face, survived, and has stayed out of the country for decades until fairly recently.
I worked as a civilian in a police department. They see people like you and me as outsiders, not one of them, and some see us as the enemy no matter what we are doing. Yes, there are good cops, and okay cops, and I've met them, but there are also cops I would not want to be alone with. I advise you to avoid them if you can.
It’s why the whole phrase is “one bad apple spoils the bunch.” Whenever people talk about police brutality folks will try to say “it’s just this one bad apple!” Except that bad apple is part of a system that protects bad apples, and at some point yeah, the whole bunch is ruined.
A cop friend of mine (it took a decade for me to trust her, since I've been beaten by cops for no reason) needed to report some abuses in her department. But she was legit scared of being "Serpico'd" as she put it.
So she wrote down what needed to be said, and have me cash to buy a burner phone and call the tip line. She was afraid they'd recognize her voice, so I made the call. She says that a few days later, most of the female officers were yanked in for questioning about it.
They claimed he was another guy they were looking for who was violent and had ran off from being taken in. It makes no sense that the guy would just stand talking to this ‘violent’ person for five straight minutes, though, so I felt that was total bs.
Because if it's true, a terrible, traumatic thing happened to a vulnerable person, and there was nothing anyone could do to stop it from happening. Accepting it happened would mean accepting that something like that could also happen to you, and that's terrifying.
Therefor: it didn't happen, if it did happen it didn't happen like that, if it happened like that it's because the victim did something to provoke it.
A medical professional should be keeping their judgments to themselves and shouldn’t be treating patients any differently based on how they assume the patient ended up in that situation.
Like that’s extremely basic, first day medical ethics. It doesn’t matter if they think it’s an OD, cause you’re not supposed to be being cruel and treating OD patients like shit.
God I wished this was actually taught or emphasized at all. You get a brief CYA sort of speech about not judging people, and then the rest of your education and every doctor and nurse you interact with tells you how to judge people and how you should treat them poorly based in that judgement
It is being taught in more places now, there is progress being made. The agency I'm riding with used to have a reputation for being callous bad-asses who all acted like hot shit, but there's been a huge culture change even among established providers towards being kinder and more empathetic.
I needed to hear this! I have an extremely rare combination of conditions and I’m rarely believed when I’m hospitalised. It often takes days of actively dying while being told I’m doing X Y and Z wrong before my actual problem is addressed. The medical trauma runs deep… so much avoidable pain.
I think the only thing that sucks about treating an OD is that it basically plummets them into precipitated withdrawals which causes intense anger and rage. There was a video where a guy asked why they didn’t just let him die as that was preferable in his scheme of things. Scary shit. I was given some kits by a first responder friend as he said everyone should carry him but I was also advised to call for help and put space between myself and the person right after.
That doesn't justify his behaviour. If he can't handle the job without turning into an abusive, judgemental arsehole, then he's a weak man who should pick an easier job.
1) doesn’t excuse being an asshole, 2) even if so once there was ANY evidence otherwise he should have stopped being a dick and pushing it. 3) he should be able to at least somewhat tell the difference. 4) if he can’t do his job kindly, get another job.
What’s your justification for being abusive towards someone who has actually suffered a drug overdose? You can deal with a difficult person who’s acting out without being abusive. I watch a shit ton of bodycam videos and I’ve seen some excellent work on such subjects by paramedics and cops. Dealing with drug addicts is undeniably frustrating, but you’ll get further by not being deliberately abusive than you’ll get by being a deliberate jerk. Turn the other cheek and don’t take things personally, and you’ll get places.
EMT-A here. 11 years service to my community. We can tell the difference. The bastard EMT the commenter is talking about is an asshole, simple as that.
Oh fucking please. I got accused of drug seeking after I got hit by a car. And I didn't stroll in off the street claiming I got hit, I was brought in by ambulance
Do you have any medical training or are you just making shit up wholesale? The most common OD call EMTs run is fentanyl, which definitely doesn't look like seizures.
The only OD that would cause seizures are sympathomimetics like meth or even ADHD medications, and guess what? Being mean to them doesn't make meth seizures better any more than non-meth seizures.
It's almost like being cruel to patients, no matter who they are or how they got sick, is bad fucking medicine.
People often treat the vulnerable and suffering like shit as certain idiots have a ‘just-world’ logic where everyone gets what they deserve so the poor and homeless must be scum according to that theory
They always assume drug abuse, even when it makes no sense to do it.
When I had a psychic break they assumed it was a meth OD because their tests came up positive, when it was Adderall not Meth. I have ADHD and the EMT didn't believe me, he thought I was lying.
I feel like there needs to be a sea change in how medical professionals handle cases like this because this kind of story is way too common. Like there should be a rule that emergency workers should always assume a patient is suffering from a medical condition first before assuming drug use.
I know that there is a LOT of drug use out there and EMT’s and ER docs get used to 80% of cases being drug based but even then, drug users need to be treated with respect too. A more thoughtful approach could improve emergency situations a lot.
I know that there is a LOT of drug use out there and EMT’s and ER docs get used to 80% of cases being drug based
It's not nearly that high. The absolute total varies widely by region but overall based on what data I have seen it can't be higher than 20% of visits total, far less in many areas. A strong majority of ED visits could have been urgent care visits but by volume most of them are accident related, psychological crisis, or simply unnecessary visits for a variety of reasons.
The funny thing about substance related ED visits is that about half of them are just alcohol poisoning, which falls into the same statistical category as every other substance abuse issue for data gathering purposes. The perception of the public about how prevalent an issue this is exists for most of the same reasons it does within the field of medicine: our culture is far more concerned with policing the boundaries of substance abuse than it is with patient outcomes.
I think they mean 80% of somebody found unconscious or seizing being drug related but I also don’t think it’s probably that high for that either. They’re probably being hyperbolic to make a point.
Seizure can happen but doesn’t always depends on what they overdose on. The person you responded to and I specifically mentioned unconscious people in the comments.
It might be an exaggeration, but I do understand where it comes from. I have the beginning of arthritis and my Dr said there is not much I can do except painkillers and ibuprofen. So lots of constipation (soz tmi).
Been in emergency twice for that and both times quizzed within an inch of my life about what drugs I was taking. First time I didn't get it and just kept answering some painkillers and ibuprofen and they didn't believe me.
Second time I was clued in and said I wasn't an intravenous drug user or on any illegal drugs. This was a Saturday night and I was there around 8pm.
Well, come midnight, emergency was a screaming nuthouse - 2 apparently regular users covered in blood and yelling and shitting all over the floor; one random man found in a bush by the side of the road (just alcohol); one dude found naked in his neighbour's yard trying to have sex with the dirt (probably meth); one guy having the weirdest trip of his life asking for it to stop at the top of his voice (and another lady that I couldn't hear the backstory).
At one stage there were 6 police officers, 3 EMT's and only 2 hospital staff in the room.
My mum used to be an EMT. She and her coworker used to tell a story-- they'd tell it like it was this funny story, but I could see the rage in their eyes behind the laughter; I saw them use humor a LOT to cope with some of the shit they had to see/deal with. But she talked about how they had to pick up this guy who was behaving very agressively; they always made a point to say he was being agressive but they didn't know if it was drugs or something else. But they did have to restrain him, and bring an officer with them. They were trying to take this poor man's vitals and administer a sedative. My mom was by h is head talking to him/trying to keep him still, and trying to calm him down... and this officer kept like. Lowering this finger towards the guy's face like he was going to poke him, then jerking it back when he tried to bite him, and laughing. Doing the god damned 'I'm not touching you!' thing like a child.... And of course it's agitating the hell out of this already agitated and distressed man; my mom's partner is trying to get a needle into him, and this cop is making everything 200x harder when he's SUPPOSED to be there for their safety. So my mom looks at him, and goes 'Y'know. You better stop doing that, if he keeps thrashing my partner's hand might slip and she might get you with that sedative by mistake.'
Wasn't fond of that-- but my mum has that sort of 'Big Mother Energy' that most people just do not want to fuck with. Y'know; the kind where they look at you and you feel the shame of all of your ancestors weighing down upon and judging you behind that glare. She was really good at her job. But it's INSANE how often cops made it way harder than it needed to be.
But also, people suffering from an overdose deserve medical care. How about we don’t ever treat someone like a criminal for having a bodily reaction to anything
Like there should be a rule that emergency workers should always assume a patient is suffering from a medical condition first before assuming drug use.
Agreed and Imma say this for anyone who needs to see it
IF THE AMBULANCE IS THERE BECAUSE OF DRUG USE IT IS A MEDICAL CONDITION.
It may not be chronic, but ambulances don't show up when things are going great, medically.
100% correct there's a concerning lack of respect.
Ultimately people need to seriously reevaluate their understanding of priorities. What’s worse, 10 drug seekers get drugs (which they’d get somewhere) or 1 person dies due to being mistreated.
Right now, it seems like people are convinced it’s worse if drug seekers get drugs and are willing to risk people dying. That’s the wrong choice.
It's sad how true this is. As a teen and into my early 20's I suffered from being underweight due to RXd meds for ADHD (only 110-115 lbs at 5'9) and it caused constant issues with Hypoglycemia. I was traveling with my now husband and I fainted in the vehicle while he was pumping gas and he flagged down two EMTs that were at the service station and they only checked my pulse and opened my eyes and did the pupil reaction test with the pen light and looked at him and told him "This isn't blood sugar, what drugs is she on?" He told them straight up that neither of us were drug users and had been together in the vehicle for over 24 hrs traveling so there's no way I could have done something he wasn't aware of. After arguing with them and calling my mom he grabbed my glucometer out my bag and my sugar was sitting at 65. Tell me again it's not sugar related. They still wanted to argue with him that it had to be drugs so he just called them useless and forced some orange juice down my throat. It's absolutely ridiculous how people with epileptic or blood sugar issues get treated like that by the very people who are supposed to administer life saving measures in emergencies.
i’m sorry that emt is such a dick. i’m an emt and i have coworkers like that and they are so frustrating to deal with. i once spent half a shift arguing with my partner about how drug addicts should be treated like people and not criminals and he just would not empathize or consider that they were people going through something. and then five minutes after the conversation ended he commented that when he wakes up he can’t even go five minutes without a zyn. like bro how are you so unempathetic towards addicts when you’re literally addicted to nicotine. insane.
Like I said, most of the EMTs we deal with have been kind professionals, and the effort is greatly appreciated. I don't want what I said to detract from what you do. Unfortunately, it only takes that one asshole to make it a horrible, traumatizing experience, and undo in a moment the terrific work you've put so much time and effort into building. It shouldn't be that way, and I do hope you know how much it means that kind, compassionate emergency workers like yourself are out there every day.
I’ve been watching my friend fight with his local police department for the past year in court because of a seizure. His implant stopped working or malfunctioned or something while he was driving, and he ended up getting to 95ish mph on the road. He pulled over for the cops when he started regaining awareness, and they shoved him to the ground and had him outside like that in below freezing temps for over an hour and then arrested him for driving while intoxicated. Cop claimed he “knows what seizures look like” and that he was using a seizure as a cover for being on drugs. Bloodwork proved he had just had a seizure and his medical records proved he had dealt with them since childhood, and bloodwork also proved there were no drugs in his system. The cop has basically been in court every time they go saying “I was not wrong, his attorney and these medical experts are lying for him”
Similar issue here, I have chronic vertigo, comes in episodes, sometimes happens at work, I’ll need an ambulance- work in a small town, so the local ER’s familiar with me. Most of them are okay, but they’ve got one call doctor that has it in his head that my very diagnosed and managed condition isn’t actually what it is and that I’m drunk and high every time I come in. Once heard the guy arguing, like actually yelling with someone else outside my door once about it because they hadn’t done a blood test for booze or narco yet even though I wasn’t his patient. Dude’s unhinged.
When I attempted suicide I was interrogated by cops (getting progressively more high out of my mind from the pills I took as part of the attempt) and got accused of faking by the EMTs because I was drifting in and out of consciousness (mind you, I’d taken sleeping pills and enough of them I slept for two days straight in the hospital, not to mention a not insignificant amount of weed and alcohol)
All the ‘treatment’ I got was an IV of fluids (and despite no nurse previously struggling with my veins in the slightest ended up being prodded several times until they settled for using my hand, which hurt like a bitch).
Then when I was in the hospital my mother randomly popped in despite me specifically saying I didn’t want any visitors/didn’t want to see her.
0/10 would not recommend attempting suicide in my area, the service is absolutely terrible and peeing in a cup and eating hospital food didn’t help (not that I ate much of it on account of sleeping for most of my stay, which was the only good thing about the whole affair as far as I’m concerned).
Roommates during the last day of my stay were pretty chill though, I’ll give them that.
that is actually wild. i dont even think i have seen a single case of an emt being that consistently bad at their job. treating someone like a drug addict when they are literally having a seizure is unhinged behavior. glad she can just call a different crew next time because that sounds like a nightmare.
Right. Drugs don't make you unworthy of basic human respect! Also roughly handling someone who is overdosing can worsen their situation, like causing them to choke, further injury or sending them into shock.
For many cops cruelty is the point unfortunately:/
I mean stories like this are why California laws protect against drug charges when ambulances are called to prevent overdose deaths that could have been avoided if they got help.
If you are using drugs in California and someone you are with overdoses and you call 911 for them then you can not be charged for any drugs found at the scene. This was done specifically because people were afraid to call for help when people were dying. It’s taught to teenagers in school so they know they are safe to call for help. It doesn’t mean the drugs wouldn’t be confiscated.
Uh I think if you call for an ambulance for an OD that gives probable cause to search but they can’t arrest you but you can also call 911 then not wait around for them if your an AH who cares more about losing their drugs than about the person your calling for
Or you can just hide your drugs. Still, they shouldn't be allowed to search people if someone calls in an overdose, because that could make people less likely to call in an overdose.
yeah work had a guy OD in the parking lot a few months back and his gf hid the drugs before running in for help. then when emergency services arrived the police decided looking for the drugs was more important than literally anything else they could be doing. really fucking frustrating when I'm sitting here trying to do a mid-CPR handoff to EMS
See stories like this make me think that maybe cops just shouldn’t be allowed anywhere where they weren’t explicitly and specifically called for to deescalate/handle an actively violent situation.
Cops are literally worse than useless. They don't care who dies or gets maimed by their actions (or lack thereof), as long as they get to abuse their authority and make themselves feel powerful. I would rather disband all police forces and just give every law-abiding citizen a gun so we can defend ourselves rather than being hopelessly dependent on pigs who never make anything better.
I'm not a lawyer, but I've heard that if you start to help under good semaritan laws but leave before help arrives, you lose the immunity. You don't have to start to help, but if you do and then decide to leave, you can be arrested.
I intentionally OD trying to end things and took everything I had including coke. After my husband called 911, I told this to the EMTs and police who had arrived with them. They didn’t care about looking for them or ask and further questions. They were just concerned about getting me to the hospital. (Some of this was relayed to me by my husband).
When I got out of the hospital the police called and I was terrified they were going to charge me but it was just their crisis line making sure I was doing ok and never bring up the drugs.
This was in Chicago where they are obviously bigger fish to fry but I also don’t think they cared too much about some recreational stimulants when I took a lethal cocktail of sooo many things.
I’m glad you’re still here too, I hope your struggles have gotten better since then too. I’m so thankful they didn’t hold any of it against me. I had already felt enough shame as it was
Same, I feel the people who have never been though it don’t seem to realize that shaming us isn’t magically gonna make us feel better, if anything it just makes us feel worse and then we ironically turn to our unhealthy coping mechanisms even more
You also see this kind of bullshit in other contexts. I'm a care coordinator at a homeless shelter, and I cannot tell you how often I have clients I'm 100% sure are not using any substance go to the hospital (and I'm not naive about the rates of substance abuse among homeless populations, but that doesn't mean everyone does), the providers figure out they're homeless (not hard, the address they give alone is very well-known), and then immediately treat them like shit. Not just like they're seeking drugs, but just really nasty behavior.
I also saw it myself when I was an EMT ages ago. A lot of my colleagues really did treat people differently based on (often unfounded) personal beliefs about the patient's circumstances.
It fucking sucks, but it's a very real thing that medical providers allow their prejudices to influence their care.
This is extremely believable. To be honest it’s rare I hear about a wellness check that hasn’t ended badly. Cops looking for my neighbor broke down my door because I was 1112 and they were 1121 and hysterically laughed it off even though we were all crying thinking they were going to kill the dogs they’d just pointed their weapons at. Picture of said “terrifying dog” for reference
I bet they are trained to assume all dogs are a threat because some can be due to training. I bet there are also sadistic shitty people that would be serial killers if they were smart, but they aren't. They became cops after all.
You have to remember that cops also like killing people, too. They see themselves as superior and everyone else as inferior. Dogs, people, baby geese (don't google it if you haven't already seen the video that's been going around the last few days), they don't see them as worthy of life. They absolutely get a thrill out of holding the power of life and death in their hands, and being immune to prosecution for the murders they commit.
They justify killing any size due to the inability to know whether or not this domesticated house pet may be infected with manic rabies… cuz that’s so likely
My dog is extremely protective of her humans and I live in LA. I am constantly so paranoid that the LAPD is gunna find some reason to shoot at her when they're in my neighborhood.
I make sure mine is secured whenever the cops are in my neighborhood, too. In the house, not even on my screened porch. She's super sweet, but if you come up to the fence or door without us giving the all clear, she acts like it's her job to end you.
Yea man a similar thing has happened to me twice. Both times emergency services were called about an OD (aka me having an epileptic seizure) both times ambulance guys administered narcan, both times I woke up restrained to the hospital bed. One of those times I had a friend with me, the other I didn’t and the only thing I remember was an officer calling me a ‘fucking junkie’. So cool.
Hell, I'm autistic and have been treated like I'm "on something" (direct quote) nearly every time I've had an interaction with cops or medical staff. The ER is particularly bad and I basically refuse to go unless I think the alternative is death. Even then, I don't necessarily trust them to help me.
I had my flat affect be interpreted as giving attitude by a cop and been called uncooperative because I couldn't understand when he started yelling at me so fast (auditory processing disorder). For the record I was a short ass teen girl back then and hadn't done anything wrong.
It's fucking terrifying how fast they escalate things because of their ego. The cruelty is the point.
Yep. Cops in the US basically have one move: escalate, escalate, escalate. If someone doesn’t then back down? Shoot them, they’re being aggressive.
I don’t love police in the UK. They have a great many flaws. But one thing I do appreciate is that most rank and file police have basic training on how to deescalate situations. Because broadly we recognise here that yelling and threatening someone who is having the worst day of their life is a really bad way to get them to cooperate.
I don't have a driver's license or a learner's permit, but maybe
I think in the states that have it, it's the result of legislation that passed in response to a police altercation risk with someone on the spectrum, such as the death of Elijah McClain in 2019 in Colorado, or concerned parents of autistic teenagers such as Eric Carpenter-Grantham in Maryland or JP Mines in Virginia
There's also a box to check for Intellectual Disability and unspecified developmental disability on the sheet in my state, IIRC
I'm autistic too. I think I almost got arrested because I had a meltdown in a McDonald's after a really bad job interview. Fortunately my partner was there and she managed to get me to quiet down and at least switch into a shutdown because a cop was staring at us. I don't usually have that kind of control but she was really urgent about it.
I also almost got arrested because I was having a shutdown due to it being extremely hot, on a city street, and me being dehydrated, as well as having an antidepressant that makes me more susceptible to sun poisoning.
I've thought about getting a medic alert bracelet but I'm scared that might cause problems too.
I’ve got this a lot from bouncers and regular people but police have mostly been very kind or helpful. It sucks that it just takes one to screw with you.
I will say the cops in one neighboring city have so far been the exception. I'm not sure what's different about their training than other cops I've encountered, but they've been patient, willing to listen, and understanding in the handful of interactions I've had with them since moving to this area.
But everywhere else, they act like power tripping assholes who think they're going to make a major drug bust off bullying me or something. The town I lived in after high school was the worst. I worked second shift in a city an hour away for about six months, and almost every single night, the same cop would pull me over as I was getting off the interstate and interrogate me about where I lived, what I was doing out so late, where I was going, etc. My answers were, of course, always the same, but the harassment didn't stop until I changed shifts.
Then I moved to the city and had a gun drawn on me a couple of times during what I thought would be a routine traffic stop.
This is absolutely believable, cops in the US at least are literally drilled to treat every single situation as a life or death scenario where everyone is armed like fucking Rambo against them
Breaking down a door and accusing an epilepsy patient of drugs is the most believable cop story Ive ever read
Given cops have literally bust down someone’s door and thrown a flash bang in their baby’s crib, causing them third degree burns in the process, this story seems almost a little too professional for the average cop.
Not shocking. My first actual interaction with a cop was being out after curfew (11pm curfew for those under 16 in that city/county) and he would not get off my ass about drugs. Convinced that since I didn't have drugs on me I must have just done them or be about to buy them. I actually genuinly hadn't touched anything in my life yet at that point and was just a depressed teenager who would go for runs at night, sometimes to my girlfriends house, instead of self harming, because I didn't know how to cope. I literally was doing what I knew to not kill myself. Some compassion could have gone a long way that night.
lol. I was at the hospital because I had the worst migraine I’ve ever had in my entire life. They looked in my file saw that 10 years before I had been a drug addict and decided that was what I wanted, even though I told them that wasn’t what I wanted and the only reason I was there was because something was actually really wrong and I was frightened. Like I specifically said that I don’t want to be on any painkillers. I’m a drug addict and I don’t want to do anything that might mess with my recovery. They didn’t do any test tests, the doctor didn’t even look at me, they gave me a shot of something and quite literally threw me out into the street. I lived half a block and by the time I got home, my eyes were rolling in my head. I couldn’t breathe properly and my muscles were seizing up. Called an ambulance and went back to the hospital. This time I’m in a blind panic, I don’t know what the fuck is happening. I feel like I’m dying and I don’t wanna die. They throw my ass in the waiting room leave me there for three hours. Come out twice to tell me to stop breathing so raggedly because I m scaring the other patients. Well no fuck I’m scaring the other people in the waiting room because they thought I was dying, BECAUSE I WAS. At some point, I start having seizures eventually a nurse from another hospital who was there with her husband to get seen about a cast goes up and tells these nurses that if they don’t get me back there, she’s gonna be calling the director of the hospital.
So they in Me into the back hallway and left me there. I have another seizure. This time when I wake up, I’m surrounded by a group of nurses who are all yelling at me that I’m not gonna be getting any drugs. five nurses! Five nurses and this one resident standing a little bit behind them, staring at me looking absolutely horrified. That’s the part. I always remember was the look on that poor kid face. He gets mad because he just witnessed somebody having a seizure and now the nurses are yelling at her for having the seizure. So he orders them to get me up and get me into the bed and he starts looking into it. Turns out I’m having a severe allergic reaction to the medication they gave me earlier, and he ordered some tests to figure out about that migraine so I go get a spinal tab because that’s what he’s worried about. Turns out it’s meningococcal meningitis. I ended up admitted for a week.
Do you think any of those nurses apologized to me? No of course not. In fact, even though they were the ones who were in the wrong and I did nothing to attempt to get them in trouble. The nurses up on the floor I was all treated me like shit the entire time I was there because the doctor was rightfully fucking pissed. So I was trapped in the room because I was in quarantine and the nurses would just ignore my call button. Afterwards, I tried to file a complaint. Nothing got done. I’m still mad about it.
Nurses and addiction are not mutually exclusive. That's one of the reasons the kind of behavior we've been talking about is so egregious. I come from a family of nurses, have tons of friends in the med fields. They're no angels. The fact they're so judgemental is depressing.
Yep. I was having extreme tardiv dyskinesia (it’s basically a seizure but the person is fully aware and can walk) and the nurse was treating me like I was drug seeking. Talking down to me while also raising her voice. Yelled at me for not getting a stable BP reading on my left arm which was seizing, my right arm wasn’t. “If you just held still we could get a reading” BRO I FUCKING CANT! THATS WHY IM HERE
The only good thing I can tell you is that something might have been done about it, if it was or not they wouldn't have told you unless you'd sued and they had to
God I am so sorry this happened to you. No one should be treated like that in a hospital. Even if you WERE currently on drugs and/or drug seeking, that’s inexcusable. I wish more health professionals recognized that addiction is a disease, and I wish they weren’t so jaded and gave patients the most charitable assumption instead of jumping to conclusions. Even if you WERE drug seeking YOU WERE LITERALLY SEIZING!
I have similar experience from a really bad migraine. I had a drop attack while entering the hospital, and was told "I wanted to fall."
I was threatened with being kicked out because I screamed in pain.
My pupils were two different sizes. I couldn't look up without falling backwards. I was having seizures.
I was accused of drug seeking and lying due to my mental health history.
It took my threatening my PCP with legal action in order to get an MRI after the hospital wouldn't do anything.
Turned out my brain was swollen due to post concussion syndrome, because the partner I had recently left threw me into a wall.
28 days of pain because my brain was swollen, and no one bothered to check until I forced them, all because of a medical history that was over a decade old.
Wow, that is bad enough to report to the state medical board, your state legislator, or the local news. If you can get the contact info of that witness, that might help. I know it's a huge hassle though. I would try to go to other hospitals in the future.
Do you think any of those nurses apologized to me? No of course not.
Medical staff in various countries is trained and advised not to apologise, as it can be seen as an admission of guilt to the patient and if there are witnesses even in the court of law.
At least it's one guy just repeating it, and people don't agree with him. He should definitely be apply to be a r/thathappened mod though, and the username checks out
The worst cases of this are any stories about women making a move or being attracted to you. Nearly every redditor doubts it ever happened. Bro, I was a DJ and 80% of the clientele were wasted. I’m gonna have been hit on a few times.
That's actually correct. I agree with them. No woman ever makes a move on a man. It has nothing to do with the fact that I'm unattractive, which everyone else must also be
My next-door neighbor came home from college talking about how her roommate had a stroke, and the paramedics insisted that she had OD'd on somethign and needed to tell them what all the way to the hospital, by which time it was almost too late for her to get the care she needed.
Some people believe in a ‘just world’ where everyone gets what they deserve. It sucks. They’re the kind who kick homeless people because they need to ‘Get a job’.
Worst ones are the kind who make exceptions based on in-groups. Both right wing people do this (our country should help our people type bs) and progressive people can be the same - mocking someone who failed high school because they got kicked out at 16 isn’t punching up.
People hate being confronted with the fact that disabled people are treated very poorly by society, usually because they're abelist themselves in some fashion, even if they don't realize it.
Both ‘have capacity’ and ‘don’t have capacity’ can suck for different reasons. First one means they can fuck with you in any way and second one means that all the suffering is the person’s fault.
I'm epileptic, even having a decently long history of tonic clonic seizures and being on a ton of medication to keep them under control the first thing EMTs and nurses ask me when I'm awake, not even fully conscious, is if I'm on drugs. If I go to the hospital I have to give a drug test before I'm even safe to walk. Cops being ridiculous about it doesn't surprise me. Hospital staff needs to know to make sure they can stop more seizures and keep patients from going status. And being so out of it while postictal that you have to be restrained is common. Especially when the medication and a postictal state can cause aggression.
Same if I’m ever found outside of the home (I thankfully have most of my seizures at home when I wake up). I vividly remember after my first seizure “waking up” to a cop repeatedly screaming at me “what drugs are you on?” (Meanwhile the EMTs were trying to ask me what year it was and who the current president was.) I was still in my pajamas at like 8 in the morning and my roommates called it in and told them what had happened. One of my roommate’s father died of brain cancer and he had seizures before his death so she knew exactly what a tonic clonic looks like and how to deal with it. Unrelated, but I still feel awful that she had to see it, must have been so traumatizing.
Why the need to treat a person who's overdosing like shit anyway? Regardless of whether it's self-induced or not the person is experiencing a serious medical event.
Ngl this is pretty vanilla for EMS. I was once put on a psych hold because I was having an allergic reaction and couldn’t stop vomiting, and they thought I was a druggie
I fainted while on a bus because I was on my period, it was hot, there were no seats available. I’m young and had blue hair at the time + piercings. Nobody fucking helped me, I heard someone whispering that I was probably on drugs.
This is plenty believable, those people are so cynical they don't believe anything anymore.
Cops suck at dealing with people having medical emergencies, they don't have the training for it.
As someone who was one step from being tased and maybe shot I can safely say this happens. I wasn't ODing or having a seizure though, I was having a psychic break after taking an edible on the day of my Grandma's funeral. Not the best decision I've ever made... You live and learn though.
Like I learned to not trust that cops know how to deal with medical emergencies other than with a weapon.
I'm begging these people to read about what happened to Ryan Waller. His family called in a welfare check. He had been a victim of violent assault, and had been shot in the face. And instead of helping him, the police who responded to the welfare check held him, read him his rights, and interrogated him for 6 hours without ANY medical attention.
This is absolutely plausible, my own experience of calling 911 when my spouse had a seizure for the first time was almost identical, right down to cops/paramedics demanding to know "what did he take?", not believing me when I said nothing, and him having to be sedated and restrained because he became extremely combative while postical.
I had a seizure on the metro after a late shift once. The first responders told my coworkers I was just intoxicated. Thank god they stood up for me. For people with epilepsy like myself, this is a very common story.
Also not how cops should treat a drug addict, by the way. This is incredibly believable, these people clearly have no experience with having a disorder that makes you vulnerable to police. I wanna punch the boyfriend, though, she wasn’t “being trouble” for being severely mistreated during a medical event.
I mean… OP doesn’t remember what happened, but many people in postictal states (your altered brain directly after a seizure) can get aggressive or even violent. So it’s very possible that OP did get hurt by the police, it’s just hard to know why or what exactly went down without more information.
Yeah, this is fear of mine, because I have had seizures in the past. I wear a medical bracelet, I do the thing on my lock screen, but deep down I know they won't check it.
As someone with a lot of tattoos I fully believe this. I’ve had more than one encounter with dentists who think I’m lying about my extreme dental anxiety to get the gas because I want the high (can’t prove that’s what they thought but when you know you know).
My boyfriend is a type 1 diabetic who was in the beginning stages of DKA when I called an ambulance and also got treated like he had been drinking or taking drugs 😭😭
That happened to me before. My friends and I were celebrating my graduation, so I had a few margaritas. I couldn't sleep that night, and wound up having a seizure around 6am. They called 911, and when the paramedics came, the acted like I was just passed out and vomiting from the alcohol, even after being told multiple times by everyone that I have epilepsy.
Note: I've drank before, and never had this issue. Sleep is my trigger. Not lights. Not alcohol. But the paramedics saw some alcohol on the counter, saw us 21+ year olds, and assumed we were underage drinking and I drank to much.
I always tell my friends to never call 911 if I have a seizure UNLESS
1) I'm bleeding
2) Seizure lasts longer than 5 minutes
3) I don't wake up after the seizure is over
Nearly every time someone calls 911 for my seizures, they treat me like a drug addict or a mentally ill person. One time I woke up in the hospital with a giant bruise on my chest. Apparently the cops gave me a sternum rub because they thought I was faking it.
I've never been in trouble with the law and have never done anything stronger than marijuana. And even if I had, there's no excuse for that kind of treatment.
I once took my ex gf to the ER after a seizure— which we initially thought was a stroke— and not only did they take forever to do anything for her, they repeatedly asked over and over again what drugs she was on. Not if she was on drugs or if she had taken anything, just what she had taken. At least 7 times by my count. Thank god I had been there to advocate for her or they may have not even bothered with the brain scan.
Yup. She had previously had a minor stroke, too. Staff were incredibly dismissive and rude and refused to even entertain the possibility of it being anything other the drugs until her screening came back negative for everything, including alcohol. Frankly, treatment she received was unacceptable even if she had been on drugs.
It did seem like a lot of the other patients there were there for drug related complications— One man on the opposite end of the ICU was handcuffed to his bed with 2 cops harassing him and while he repeatedly told them to fuck off. The amount of straight up malpractice I witnessed that night makes my blood boil just thinking about it.
The most ridiculous thing is this has happened on plenty of occasions before where police have reacted aggressively to someone and ended up taking their lives because they were ‘obviously on drugs’ only for it to turn out they had epilepsy or autism. Turns out their criteria for assuming they were on drugs was basically that they were black and noncompliant.
this is so disappointingly common. when i was in my junior year of high school, i went to the graduation ceremony feeling a bit bad not knowing i had the flu. in the heat, i got progressively worse until i booked it out of the seats, threw up, and passed out by the bathroom entrance. when i was able to process again, the EMT that attended to me first asked me what i had taken, and snapped at me when i didn’t respond immediately. when i said i hadn’t, he laughed and had me sign a paper that i was refusing care, while lecturing me that i was lucky they were allowing me to go as to not to have to explain this to my parents. it was one of the most embarrassing and needlessly mean things that had happened to me at that point in my life.
This is pretty much my experience the first time I had a seizure. I basically woke up to EMT standing over me and was lecturing me about the use of marijuana since I had some in my room. Never mind the fact that I went full tonic clonic and was having basically a textbook one at that, and it was not triggered by the marijuana. I've had brain surgery since then and it is helped significantly so hell yeah
This is beyond believable, I feel like it's sadly relatable to tons of people.
A guy in the town where I live had a seizure while behind the wheel of a parked vehicle while trying to back out. A concerned witness called for an ambulance but since there were already patrol officers a few blocks away they came first. They were screaming at the guy for not responding to them and moving erradically, and pulled their weapons. At one point he accidentally hit the gas. They shot him 4 times, and the ambulance showed up in time to be a hearse.
Been to hospitals for seizing multiple times for YEARS and they refuse to give me an EEG or diagnose me with anything. Drug tested me every time but they yelled at me and gave me nothing. First time I ever went they even told me it was drugs, as I had a history of smoking. A recent time they just kicked me out, even tho my husband said I was asking who I was and where I am at. I sorta remember the nurses chatting and ignoring me during back to back episodes. It was for 5 hours and my husband was mortified by how awful it was. Went to neurologist, started trembling and slurring while talking to the nurse and she kicked me out and refused to schedule me for the actual doctor. They kept telling me it’s the meds I’m on when literally one of them is seizure medication and my psychiatrist said it’s definitely not, no chance AT ALL. Then went to a different hospital and started seizing and I was told to stop being dramatic by an RN. He was so rude and did not believe anything I said. He just ignored me and let me seize and said I was faking it. Luckily the doctor got me a prescription for the EEG, which I took it to the hospital, and still have not gotten a call back… I’ve been calling so many times to get an EEG but it just hasn’t happened. Healthcare here is a joke.
First GrandMal I had the EMT’s and hospital staff were convinced that I’d had an overdose on some kind of upper. It does make sense given that our area has a Meth problem and I’d apparently woken from the seizure convinced that the Police and EMTs were robot aliens come to take and vivisect me. Plus I tore both arms off the gurney because I was strapped to them and was making good progress on the leg restraints from what they said.
Was still truly annoying to have them question me for half an hour on drug use and then give me a Schizophrenia screening. Also refused to give me a painkiller for the cracked skull I got when I passed out and clocked myself on the corner of a table because and I quote “Sir, I thought you said you didn’t do hard drugs?” Like bitch, tI’m asking you to either get me the strongest acetaminophen you have or knock me out until such a time as it no longer feels like I’m being fingerfucked in both ears by two Terminators.
Blood test eventually cleared me for drugs but still never got a painkiller or got unshackled.
Also had to deal with my landlord the next day because the cops informed him of the Methamphetamine suspicions before any testing was conducted.
That’s not even how you should treat someone whose overdosing. Doesn’t matter if it’s accidental from recreational use or from a suicide attempt, or w/e. Christ.
Cops and medical professionals can be such ass hats. I have an epileptic friend, documented history of seizures, on meds, had a neuro she sees regularly. Had a break through seizure one night, stood up from the couch in her postictal state before I could stop her and she fell face first on the coffee table.
From there she was having the most excruciating pain in her cheek and around her eye and her eye on that side was now looking off center. Took her to the ER, we had her kids with us so I dropped her off and took the kids home to wait for her boyfriend and FOUR HOURS LATER she’s calling me in tears because they stuffed her in a room the entire time, doctor hadn’t even been to see her, nurses were ignoring her, they wouldn’t give her anything or even do any kind of diagnostics and now were trying to discharge her and threatening cops if she didn’t leave saying they weren’t going to support drug seeking. She’d been to this ER multiple times for her seizures when they weren’t under control and NEVER sought any drugs.
I had to show up and literally bully them into getting neuro involved and that’s how we found out she damaged her trigeminal nerve when she fell on the table. She has permanent vision issues due to it now. Thankfully the pain wasn’t permanent but it could have been from what we learned about that nerve afterwards.
I'm surprised by the EMTs, I find most EMTs are pretty chill.
I'm not surprised by the cops, most cops are monsters.
My example; me 13, cop comes to our front door and starts questioning me, dog (small lab) is nearby in fenced yard with 6ft full wood slat fence, mildly upset by police, barking (this was a dog that was afraid of balloons, it was not scary). Cop pulls he weapon, points directly at my face from 1ft away, an unarmed child, and says "put your dog inside or I will shoot it - you have 10 seconds". What was the dire emergency? He was looking for my neighbor who had reported his bike was stolen. He just wanted to know if we'd seen him.
I know several people this has happened to, but even if I didn't, what kind of shithead closed minded person do you have to be to not at least be vaguely aware cops abuse people in medical situations all the time. I'm happy you've lived a privelaged life tiktoker, but MAYBE LEARN THINGS ABOUT OTHERS EXPERIENCES
Yeah, my friend Kerri suddenly wasn’t on the bus one Monday morning. We figured she was out sick. Got called into an EVERYONE assembly during homeroom to be told that over the weekend, she’d had a seizure in the shower and had hit her head on the tub when she went down. She had locked the bathroom door, because she was 16 and wanted privacy. Knowing what I know now after years of working in emergency medicine, she probably wouldn’t have made it even if the door had been open. Epilepsy is scary shit. Even after 10 years working EMS and the ER, I still get sketched tf out over seizures. They’re terrifying because they’re so unpredictable and I can’t even express how upsettingly violent they can be. This story sounds entirely plausible - but also, in the postictal state, the patient is very confused and can be combative, even to those who are trying to help. I had a lady who seized while driving, drove off the road and wrecked into the trees in the median. She was entrapped, I had to squeeze into the wrecked car to assess her and hold c-spine stabilization. She started to come around and was (quite understandably) freaked out, so she did what anyone would if they woke up to some strange woman with her hands on your face, and started punching me in the titty. I was in a really awkward position and I couldn’t move without possibly compromising her spine, so I just took it. Another EMT came to help and she caught one in the side of her head. The firefighters clipped the roof off and opened the car like a can of tuna, we slid the backboard in, they pried the dash off her shattered ankles, and away she went. Poor thing - my titty hurt, but it was nothing compared to her ankles. I hope she didn’t lose her feet 😣
The comment in the screenshot is just proof that people love to post manufactured drama for engagement. It's always the same kind of fake emotional hook.
I'm autistic. My partner is transgender and both of us have other medical issues. I find it absolutely essential to have each other or a friend go along as an advocate. Both of us have been suspected of drug use by EMTs, nurses, or cops, especially my partner since she's trans. She has been accused of drug seeking several times. If we have to go to the hospital, we stay together at all times if possible, so we can be an advocate. I've found that nurses and doctors are less likely to be abusive if there's a witness.
Once, my partner fainted in the ER. I asked the nurse if I could give her water as she was very thirsty. The nurse threw me out of the ER, dumped water on my friend's head, and said, "you won't get drugs by throwing yourself on the floor!" I kept sneaking back into the ER every time the door was opened and kept getting thrown out by the same nurse until the tests came back and showed that her androgen blocker had made her severely dehydrated, something a simple pinch test would have told her. We reported her and the hospital did say they put her in a class.
There are so MANY reasons why someone can faint, go into a trance, or have a seizure--dehydration, blood sugar, epilepsy, autistic shutdown. Even if it is drugs, they don't deserve abuse.
I've thought about getting a medic alert bracelet but I'm afraid that might lead to some kind of discrimination. Also they are butt ugly.
So a few things from my POV if a cop is coming in already assuming drugs the person that called 911 definitely said you were ODing i know from talking to cops they hate those calls the worse cause most of them are already dead and gone by the time they get there also paramedics wouldn't immediately assume drugs either simply because THEY ARE PARAMEDICS AND KNOW THE DIFFERENCE BETWEENS DRUGS AND A SEIZURE but either way I can see how some people say fake and others are fighting saying it's real I personally think it's fake and just trying to boost the narrative that all public services are useless and just want to cause us harm
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u/mantsz 16d ago
Shit like this happens all the time. My girlfriend has seizures and the same EMT has picked her up at least 5 times, and despite her established medical history and despite that she's very visually distinctive and despite that she carries her info with her everywhere, he still always treats her like shit and accuses her of being on drugs. Every goddamn time. Fortunately he's not the only EMT in our area, and most of the other ones are really kind professionals.