Medical treatment at FW

[ftwildernessguy]

I am sure that Reedy creek takes their calls seriously, they are professionals. Whatever they were doing, or in your mind not doing, I am sure they had good reason for it.

Sometimes it's like talkin' to the wall, Scott.

 

[leanan]

As a local I can tell you that yes people who are local do go to celebration. Although an overwhelming number of people come in from the parks. No you do not want to go to the next closest hospital it sucks even worse than celebration.

There are two main groups of hospitals. One is Florida and the other is the group that are tied to ORMC. My Dad walked off the operating table and checked himself out AMA last Christmas because South Lake which is an ORMC group hospital was so bad.

I am not saying your opinion is not important but just that in the scope of things the care just plain SUCKS in the Orlando area.

 

[ftwildernessguy]

My Dad walked off the operating table and checked himself out AMA last Christmas because South Lake which is an ORMC group hospital was so bad. .

Now that would be something to see.

 

[bigdisneydaddy]

Sometimes it's like talkin' to the wall, Scott.

I am not a big fan of Monday morning quarterbacking Jim, especially when its something I know very well.

 

[kpatrick74]

I am sure that Reedy creek takes their calls seriously, they are professionals. Whatever they were doing, or in your mind not doing, I am sure they had good reason for it.

Yes, I know they are professionals and I also know that Disney has one the best Emergency Services operation in the U.S. In fact, Disney was the first place to utilize 911 in the State of Florida.

It just seemed like 15 mins was a little long considering where they are located but then again, it was Thanksgiving. Maybe they were busy dealing with people who were choking on turkey legs at the parks.

 

[kpatrick74]

Sometimes it's like talkin' to the wall, Scott.

I am not a wall and I am sure that those who have also expressed their thoughts on this thread about Reedy Creek and the hospital aren't either. All we are doing are expressing our viewpoints about what we have seen or experienced.

Of course, I shouldn't expect beer-loving, Monday night football couch potatoes to understand that -- hee hee.

 

[2goofycampers]

Maybe they were busy dealing with people who were choking on turkey legs at the parks.

 

[bigdisneydaddy]

I am not a wall and I am sure that those who have also expressed their thoughts on this thread about Reedy Creek and the hospital aren't either. All we are doing are expressing our viewpoints about what we have seen or experienced.

Of course, I shouldn't expect beer-loving, Monday night football couch potatoes to understand that -- hee hee.

I wasnt talking about what others have said, just you.

Larry brought up some excellent points.

 

[bigdisneydaddy]

Yes, I know they are professionals and I also know that Disney has one the best Emergency Services operation in the U.S. In fact, Disney was the first place to utilize 911 in the State of Florida.

It just seemed like 15 mins was a little long considering where they are located but then again, it was Thanksgiving. Maybe they were busy dealing with people who were choking on turkey legs at the parks.

I agree that 15 minutes is a long time. How do you know it was 15 minutes though ? do you have the dispatch records ? studies have proven that many peoples concept of time is skewed while waiting for an emergency response.

If you want to throw acusations around then you should be prepared to defend them. he he

 

[LarryJ]

on Thanksgiving night that went to the ER? We were traveling through loops looking at decorations and I thought that the RV looked like your pics. There was a truck parked in the middle of the loop, a sweet woman jumped out and told us it would be a few minutes b/c she had to call 911.

You might also want to complain about Disney's response time. It seemed like it took a while for EMT's to get there considering they are on-site. Disney staff got there right away (parked at the end of the entrance to those four loops), put on his night vest and had his light ready to direct the EMT to the site.

When we pulled back onto the main road, here comes EMT just traveling along at a regular pace, no lights, nothing. Everyone in our group said pretty much the same thing "I hope I never need an ambulance while I am here". From the time, we left your loop, we went through the other 3 loops looking at decorations at a very leisurely pace before we got back on the main road and saw the ambulance finally coming.

I do hope you are ok and that they have figured out the problem and you will not have any long-term effects from this experience.

Yeppers that was me causing all the commotion ... just thought I would add some adventure to FW for those not going into the parks that day

No Celebration really didn't solve anything, but ruled out a lot and actually made things worse IMHO by not allowing me to even get out of bed basically for over two days so all the progress to get my right leg back in shape (see below paragraph ended up setting me back mobility wise). I'm not questioning some of what they did since a possible minor stroke can cause the exact issues I developed in almost no time at all. Any way we have a back up plan if we can't get all the way back to the D.C. area. I'm retired military and won't go into the details but am a TRICARE PRIME member so if needed we can always hobble over to NAS Jax and stay either at a KOA or on station at NAS Jax and I can go to the hospital and get everything I need at zero cost to me. Now that I can do what I want I have made tremedous progress in just the last 24 hours. I'm not ready to run a marathon and still have a swollen and painful to bend right knee so I can't walk normally yet, but can stand and once I get up and with quite a bit of discomfort and shuffle around the trailer as long as I don't bend my right knee. I don't have normal mobility yet, but I can now put all my full weight on either leg, when I was discharged this was not the case basically IMHO I got no exercise at all so things never improved.

I didn't want to get into the specifics or turn this thread into a medical issue one, but basically what happened is that I have been having some right leg issues. Pulled a hamstring early not real bad and trying to work that back out sort of favored that and walked funny and since I have feet as flat a boards got shin splits. O.K. both those are fixable, but when resting between exercise periods I didn't realize my cushions were so flat I was sitting on basically a board and added a knotted muscle in my right that pinched my sciatic nerve ... talk about adding insult to injury and I've had the shin split issue and the sciatic nerve issue on an infrequent basis, but never those two plus the hamstring all while trying to do Disney so it ended up being a comedy of little things. After getting all those finally resolved I was basically walking normally, albeit not my normal run off and leave folks and X-giving night decided to walk up to the bus stop and go down to the beach and watch the Fireworks. Absolutely no problem walking from the 1800 loop to the bustop and sat down. Then when I got up I must have twisted my right knee funny and down I went and couldn't get back up so that's why this didn't make sense because it was so sudden so being the worrier I am I decided to seek medical attention and so the Saga began.

I didn't mention it but in Celebration's defense there was nothing significant found before the MRI and our issue was getting the MRI results reviewed by a doctor to tell me there were or were not any issues. I had the full 4 procedure MRI and finally got ahold of the head nurse honcho who IMHO realized I wasn't getting told anything called another FLORDIA HOSPITAL and thru his equilivant there got a doctor to read the MRI results and nothing showed there so they got me released. At least after a combined MRI cost close to $2500 (won't pay that much since I do have the equilivant of military HMO coverage and not to get into details I'm a TRICARE PRIME member) I know I have no brain tumors, clots in either the brain or major artery issues and a clear spine (so slipped disks, etc.) so there was some positive out of all this and once I get back home all the procedures and results can be re read at my home military treatment facility which is the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md. since they are available to them thru the FLORIDA HOSPITAL system and this system is also a member of the same military HMO (for lack of a better word) organization. I could have check myself out, but would have had to give a waiver that treatment was not complete and couldn't have gotten a Discharge Summary which most likely prevent me from recouping any of the costs of treatment thru TRICARE.

My biggest complaints were the admin, MD staffing, lack of doctor/patient communications and what appeared to be stonewalling of the Celebration Hospital.

To all expressing concern and support I truly appreciate it.

Larry

 

[rdrjj5]

We were wondering what sirens we were hearing about 5pm on thanksgiving. We have had to take our young son twice to a walk in facility on 535 a branch of Florida hospital I believe. Care was ok but my husband said years ago next time we should just go to the hospital at celebration as it was probably closer. Thank you for the information on your experience. Hope you are feeling better.

 

[bigdisneydaddy]

The fact that you are better is all that really matters now.

 

[LarryJ]

I agree that 15 minutes is a long time. How do you know it was 15 minutes though ? do you have the dispatch records ? studies have proven that many peoples concept of time is skewed while waiting for an emergency response.

If you want to throw acusations around then you should be prepared to defend them. he he

In defense of any time issues you have to realize, I was lucid, awake, and really not under what I would call serious medical distress, but simply could not stand and it was me that agreed to have things checked out by a medical facility. What happened simply made me think this is not right and in this case I don't want to self medicate so to speak myself.

Larry

 

[medic9016]

Yes, I know they are professionals and I also know that Disney has one the best Emergency Services operation in the U.S. In fact, Disney was the first place to utilize 911 in the State of Florida.

It just seemed like 15 mins was a little long considering where they are located but then again, it was Thanksgiving. Maybe they were busy dealing with people who were choking on turkey legs at the parks.

I agree that 15 minutes is a long time. How do you know it was 15 minutes though ? do you have the dispatch records ? studies have proven that many peoples concept of time is skewed while waiting for an emergency response.

If you want to throw acusations around then you should be prepared to defend them. he he

Before this post turns bad and opinion start flying, I am going to defend the EMS side of this. The closest ambulance may have been on a call. The call may have be put in the dispatchers system wrong, miss coded, or wrong information given. What you may think is 15 mins may be 5 to 8 min of actual response time. Federal and state guidelines are set for 911 call taking, dispatching times, and response times. Third party dispatching take a little extra times also. Which means a call goes into a call center then transfered to a fire, EMS, or police dispatcher.

LarryJ,
I hope everything work out for the best for you. I don't know how FL EMS transports works, but you should of had an option of which facility you were transported to within reason. Here in SC our patients do have an option, if the facility is appropriate for their level of care and within a local area.

Shannon
Firefighter/Paramedic
911 dispatcher

 

[bigdisneydaddy]

Before this post turns bad and opinion start flying, I am going to defend the EMS side of this. The closest ambulance may have been on a call. The call may have be put in the dispatchers system wrong, miss coded, or wrong information given. What you may think is 15 mins may be 5 to 8 min of actual response time. Federal and state guidelines are set for 911 call taking, dispatching times, and response times. Third party dispatching take a little extra times also. Which means a call goes into a call center then transfered to a fire, EMS, or police dispatcher.

LarryJ,
I hope everything work out for the best for you. I don't know how FL EMS transports works, but you should of had an option of which facility you were transported to within reason. Here in SC our patients do have an option, if the facility is appropriate for their level of care and within a local area.

Shannon
Firefighter/Paramedic
911 dispatcher

I have been a driver/engineer/paramedic for just shy of 20 years.

 

[ftwildernessguy]

Alot of time lapse occurs because EMS personnel are not notified right away by witnesses. Despite all the hype about 911, it only works if someone calls. A couple of months ago a young girl was hit by a car in front of my office. On the way out the door, I told my office manager to call 911. After several minutes of treating the girl, I noticed a fairly large crowd forming, many on their cell phones, several complaining about how long it was taking for emergency personnel to arrive. I asked if anyone had called 911, and I looked at a crowd of some of the stupidest expressions I have seen. After the emergency personnel arrived and took over, I talked to one of the police officers there who told me the call from my office was not only the first to come into the 911 dispatcher, BUT THE ONLY ONE!!!!! I wonder, too, if a patient were to expire in the ambulance going to an ER farther than Celebration if the comments might be "why didn't they go to Celebration - it's the closest ER." There are a lot of comments here being made condemning the emergency response system, ER's and hosptal staff by people with an obviously close personal experience. My experience, however, indicates that many of these observations may be in error.

 

[RNmomnFL]

We were wondering what sirens we were hearing about 5pm on thanksgiving. We have had to take our young son twice to a walk in facility on 535 a branch of Florida hospital I believe. Care was ok but my husband said years ago next time we should just go to the hospital at celebration as it was probably closer. Thank you for the information on your experience. Hope you are feeling better.

I had to take DS to the FL Hosp. Urgent Care on 535 last Friday for an earache. It is 2.5 miles from the Fort and we got detailed directions from the Disney staff which was nice. Turns out we found Walgreens and a bunch of shops too closeby (always good to know about). Anyhow, here at home the nearest hospital is 15 miles away and frankly they don't do a lot of pediatrics so care is questionable. Plus invariably the pharmacy at home doesn't have my child's medicine in stock but the Walgreens on 535 certainly did. The FL Hosp. Urgent Care was very efficient and wonderful with DS. I'm sure it's because they see a lot of sick kids. Now, I'm waiting for the billing statement. Expecting it to be a lot.

 

[des1954]

Larry- I'm glad you're on the mend & that a stroke was ruled out.

I've had 2 tia's & you were very correct in your possible stroke theory. In my case, one second I was working just fine & the next, not. No pain, no warning, just lost abilities. I had a thought that if there was no neurologist on staff that evening at Celebration, it could explain the delay. I'm not defending them by any means, but it could explain why things took so long.

Now, like I tell my brother Al...you're not 21 anymore, so SLOW DOWN!!! We need someone to harass on this board, Larry.

Take it good & easy on your way home & stop often - walk much!! Drink a lot of water too, to make sure your body stays hydrated.

Safe travels.

 

[kpatrick74]

I have been a driver/engineer/paramedic for just shy of 20 years.

I knew it!!! I knew you had to be in some way related to this field.

As far as defending my thoughts, we have a clock on the radio in our golf cart and I had just happened to look at it when we came upon the woman making the call. I looked at the time b/c we had our two young kids with us and I wanted to make sure we didn't keep them out too late, before we proceeded to the next loop. Then we saw the ambulance I checked the clock again.

It was just one of those things for me, since I had just read an article about my town's response times. The city I live in has one of the best response times around and considering it is under 7 mins, with a population of over 130k, I just happened to notice it.

 

[tim5055]

I don't know how FL EMS transports works, but you should of had an option of which facility you were transported to within reason. Here in SC our patients do have an option, if the facility is appropriate for their level of care and within a local area.

It has been a few years, but the last time I dealt with the Florida systems - EMS was required to take you to the closest appropriate facility. i.e. if the facility was in the system accredited to handle the type of emergency, then you were transported there. Again, things may have changed but that was the way things worked.