Mason Health - Mason General Hospital — Local services in Shelton

Twice in one week visits at mgh ER but couldn't handle the 4 plus hour wait. First time; type 1 diabetic 9 year old boy with elevated ketones, high blood sugar and 102 temp. Wait time 4.5 hours. Second time: me, his Great Grandma 67; No temp, have not urinated, held down food or pedialyte drink, extreme diahrrea and vomiting, 3 days sick. MGH nurse line advised to immediately be seen in ER. 3 plus hour wait. Both of us in high risk health groups. I had to leave after watching the wait room empty several times without being chosen to be seen. Dehydration is a serious condition for t1d children and elderly patients. I assume it's because we both needed IV treatment, taking up space in a crowded ER. They wouldn't even give me a blanket when I had chills. Went to urgent care but they don't do IV treatments. I was especially concerned about DKA for mt great grandson and people can die from dehydration. How sick do you have to be to be seen in the ER?

Edit** I called the hospital and got sympathetic call backs from Mason generals finest. Supervisors and heads of depts etc. I appreciate the time these people took to call me but the fact remains that getting an IV when you need one is next to impossible at Mason general. Urgent care cannot do iv treatment so the only source is the emergency room. The triage dictates the order of who is the sickest and who goes first and who stays at the bottom of the list. Myself and my grandson at the bottom and God knows how long that wait will be. I left and went to urgent care knowing they cannot help me with an iv drip. The doc was nice enough and told me that while it's true an iv would make me feel a lot better and heal a lot faster; no can do. I suggested that other ERs will give you an iv and allow you to sit in a wheelchair and you leave feeling better sooner. I was told they can't do that because they did it before and people left still hooked to an iv. I asked for a blanket while I waited but was told that homeless people take the blankets so you can't get blankets while you wait anymore. I was actually offended that they would say that. That is too much information and I feel it is disparaging to give me such personal information about a sector of our population. I talked in circles to the people who called me back but the bottom line is that if you need an iv on a busy day you are better off not going to mason general. Mason general does not provide iv treatment in urgent care though many other hospitals do. I couldn't handle the hours and hours long wait. Two days later I'm trying to heal and get back to all my normal responsibilities as I'm just sick. I've heard that there's a shortage of IV solution and if that's the problem just say so; don't put me at the eternal bottom of the list. The only thing I accomplished talking to dept heads is that they shouldn't disparage homeless people and you can ask to be triaged again if you start to feel worse. While I appreciate the phone calls what I really wanted is to know I can get help when I...

Two stars just because I didn't die.

I had an accidental overdose Monday night. I dreamed I hadn't taken my pills and, in that somnambulistic state, downed the first container i grabbed -- which had all my pain pills. Immediately woke completely, tried to induce vomiting with no luck, called Poison Control who said call 911 and I will say those EMTs were terrific.

Got to the ER and was given more charcoal solution to chug, got into a gown, was hooked up to monitors, and an IV. Here's where it went sideways in a weird way.

The staff seemed nice enough, although there were lots of "sweeties" and such, which is actually infantilizing language used with elders on the assumption that we're toddlers again. As the mental fog thickened, my heart rate and oxygen saturation started to drop. At the lowest, my heart rate was 47 and O2 sats were 87 -- both dangerous. The first few times, they checked but after that, nobody did. It was then that the reality sank in that I would have to save myself. So I used all my strength of will to listen for the alarms, to check the numbers and counter the problem -- vigorously moving to increase my heart rate and taking hyperoxegenating breaths to bring the O2 levels at least into the 90s.

Having survived the night mostly due to my own efforts, a nurse came in and in tones of utmost indifference told me I could go now. When I stopped to thank the nursing staff, they could barely be bothered to acknowledge the thanks. I was turfed out unceremoniously -- none of the usual wheelchair to the door, no "so glad you made it." Just indifference overlaid with shades of "go away."

My takeaway from this attitude was that they didn't believe that it truly was an accident. I am not an addict and never have been. No, I am a retired computer programmer and current columnist living in a nice house in a good neighborhood -- not that any of that should matter. It felt as if they saw me as some drugged out old bat who was just lying about it. More importantly, though, was that they stopped checking when the alarms went off. What if I hadn't had such strength of will and became completely unconscious and couldn't do what I did to save myself? How would they have explained that to my grieving family?

As it was, I toddled my still somewhat wobbly way out and caught the taxi the young woman called for me before behaving as if my brief attempts at basic friendliness were an undue burden.

Had I been able to go to an Olympia hospital, I most certainly would have and I will make sure that I only go back if essentially moribund and unable to tell people to, for the love of mercy, not take me there!

And no, I don't want to discuss it as clearly the slough of horrifying reviews from years back demonstrates that they have no interest...

Took my boyfriend in here supper early in the morning because he was throwing up blood and extremely sick. They did an x ray on his chest and all came fine. they then decided they wanted to to do a CT scan on his chest to make sure there were not fluid in his lungs. while attempting to put the IV in his arm to insert the dye they poked him in the arm in the wrong spot several different. finally when they “got it in his vein” he was crying begging them to stop because of how much pain he was in. they assured him it was in the correct spot and he needed to calm down. come to find out the whole time they were injecting the dye in his arm not his vein! his arm swelled up to twice the size hard as rock. they then left us in the room for over an hour without telling us anything but they think he has fluids in his lungs. Well shortly after the nurse comes in and all is good he has bronchitis there gonna give him a percription and take the iv out so we can go. they left us waiting another 45 minutes without coming to check or update us. my boyfriend was still crying in so much pain because of the IV STILL in his arm. that’s when i went to get a nurse for help and she told me to go back to the room again and wait. at this point we were fustrated just wanted the Iv out so we can go home. the nurse then comes in serval minutes later calling us impatient and informing us there are people with “real emergencies” in here. she must havw forgot we came in because he was throwing up blood? it wasn’t until i called later afger we got home to figure out if his arm was going to be okay and figure out what really wrong that we learned he was injected 70 ML of dye to his arm not vein. fast foward about a week later my boyfriend is still extremely sick and his arms are bruised horribly still. seems as tho we left worse than we went in… going to another hospital ASAP because i’m not too sure they really knew what was...