Thanks, CNN! This is totally what people need to know!

[emmycantbemeeko]

How to be an entitled asshole in the ER: A special report by CNNRemember, folks, if you successfully line jump after triage, you're shoving in front of someone a medical professional has already determined to be in more serious condition than you are

Comments

[emmycantbemeeko]

As you will see if you read my above comments, I have no problem with people being upset and demanding it be fixed if they or their loved one is actually misdiagnosed. Frankly, though, if one can't figure out that that's appropriate or how to go about it without a how-to article, one probably isn't a very good judge of diagnostic ability. I've had people complain that their lunch tray was late during a code on the same hallway- most people are really really bad at prioritizing their problems realistically when in competition for limited resources with other people's problems.

This article, though, right down to the freaking example they used, it basically telling people just to be jerks, regardless of the actual seriousness of their condition, to follow their instincts when their instincts are largely wrong, and to grab what they can from an already strained system regardless of where they might fit in the picture from an objective view, and that's so messed up. Many patients already live by the methods they suggest- I'm just horrified that a respectable news outlet is endorsing it.

If I do this someday and I'm wrong, I hope to God the delay doesn't harm someone else.

The fact that you recognize this as a possibility means you'll probably never cause it to happen. I don't think the author of the article- or most people who do it- even recognize it as a possible consequence. That's what's so scary and upsetting.

[cubes]

Yeah, I guess I forget that people in general are selfish idiots. Sucks.