Yeah - I have to agree with WoB, N_P. Not all people are capable of being sweetness and light under the stress that having to go to the ER can cause. People are frightened, sometimes that expresses as anger and agression - ER staff are trained to deal with that. They certainly should NOT let it effect their ability to triage efficiently.

My own personal experience of ER has covered three countries - in all three there were long waits and levels of apathy that only changed when the seriousness of the problem was determined. All four times during the wait time we conducted ourselves politely and tried not to hassle the staff beyond the absolute necessary - we got dealt with no faster than anyone else. In two cases the problem was determined to be minor but painful and the patient (not me) was treated efficiently and given pain meds. In the other two cases the problem was determined to be serious and the patient (me) was given as much treatment as ER had to offer til a bed became free on a ward.

The ER staff I dealt with on those 4 occassions were all very professional and the medical service, when it got to us, was good - but in 3 out of 4 cases we, and the other people in the waiting room who didn't arrive by ambulence, were treated like time wasters until an actual problem was determined. In 3 out of 4 cases (in Ireland and the UK) the front desk staff were not medically qualifed and no account was taken of the type of problem presented and we were sent to wait in the normal fashion - in 2 of those three occassions that exacerbated the problem (or could have). The other time (in France) a qualified nurse took my details and determined I was at risk of PE and had to lie down, not sit, while waiting. This may well have saved my life - I'll never know.

And also, in line with what WoB says, who and what you are has a lot to do with how you are treated. In the UK the young Irish couple presenting with him in pain were treated impolitely and were accused of being under the influence of drink and or drugs (we were neither). In France I was assumed to not really know what I was talking about because I couldn't, at the time, express myself as fluidly as I needed to. There was a significant change in the attitude of the staff when the seriousness of the problem was determined.

There is no excuse for what happened to that woman - it is not a problem that could only happen in the US either. There is indifference and prejudice everywhere.