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Sudden significant, difficult to control nasal bleeding
Ear, Nose & Throat (ENT) | Last Active: Jul 15 12:11pm | Replies (21)Comment receiving replies
I just tried sending a rather lengthy response but it didn't work, so I'm going to attempt to do so by DIVIDING it and sending each section SEPARATELY. HOPE IT WORKS!!!
Here's Part A....
A belated thank you for your having made time to write to me about your husband's experience. I "lost" your post and found it difficult to locate, and was delighted when I found it this morning! I experienced yet ANOTHER nose bleed episode on April 5th. I wrote about it within another response here.
You are fortunate to have great emergency services. We live in a desirable area of Westchester County but the ER department of a hospital just 14 minutes or so from our home FAILED ME MISERABLY. Not only was I left alone in a corner along a heavy trafficked passageway, but I had the misfortune of having an obviously inexperienced, insecure (and yes, inept) PA be assigned to "attend" to me. He would disappear for up to about 15 minutes or so at a time, spoke in a way to low-voice within the din in that ER, but also did not ask ANY questions about my situation or my medical history! I had to call out for help when I began to gag and warm blood rushed out my mouth up blood along with clots onto a towel. Not one glance in my direction! I took a deep breath after puking up blood (with blood rushing out the left nostril and down back of the throat) and YELLED "I need help!!" Only then did someone who was not a nurse place a plastic basin in my lap (and another towel), but then took off! I had to call out in a LOUD voice to the nurse sitting behind the desk, who was tapping away in front of her computer. She did not come over but did glance (looking a bit annoyed) in my direction. "Where is the PA assigned to me?" I loudly asked. A bevy of staff walking past me and down the corridor to my right obscured the nurse and the nurses station. Finally a nurse (I presumed she was nurse or possibly a NP) came and took my vitals, then she also disappeared. I continued gagging on the warm flow of blood down my throat. I gagged blood into the basin, along with nasty blobs of blood clots. I was so scared! I had NEVER had nose bleeds in my 7 and a half decades of life, and no one appeared at all concerned that a senior was in the condition that I was in....FINALLY the errant PA came and told me he was going to insert "something" in my nostrils (yes both, not just the gushing left one) to stop the bleeding. No explanations, no questions about any medical info/situation that he should be apprised. ¡NADA! All I clung to were his words "...to stop the bleeding..." so I was prepared to be cooperative, but NOT prepared at all for the excruciating pain the he inflicted while SHOVING a nasty object into my right nostril. It hurt!! I yelled out "You're hurting me!" but he continued, even as I moved my head and entire body AWAY from him. "Stop!" I demanded, but he didn't, so I screamed "STOP ALREADY!" He finally did so, then disappeared again! My one consoling thought was that he was hopefully getting advice/direction from one of the ER doctors. I continued gagging and bringing up blood and clots, with not one medical personnel coming near me, not one staff member at all interested. My husband had not been allowed into the ER for whatever inane reason so I had NO ONE to advocate on my behalf. I felt so alone, and damned scared.
----------------Part B to follow--------------
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pretty flower PART B RESPONSE
FINALLY the PA and one other person (possibly the one who had taken my vitals --- and she had announced "Wow! Your numbers are really high!") appeared in front of me. Made me more apprehensive after what the PA had attempted to do to my right nostril. With no word of apology for what had transpired, he said that perhaps the blocker that he had tried in the right nostril was "too large" so he had with him a "much smaller one" for the left nostril. "It WILL stop the bleeding" he urged. I told him that my left nostril has ALWAYS been sensitive and painful and said I'd cooperate as well as possible but that if told him to STOP that he had to do so IMMEDIATELY. He agreed, then started the insertion, which got blocked by my deviated septum. I clenched my fists as he attempted to re-direct and insert it and FINALLY IT WAS WHERE HE EVIDENTLY WANTED IT TO BE. He explained that he was going to "pump air" to inflate the "balloon." The idea chilled me but I consented. I soon felt intense pain as the "balloon" pressed against sinus cavity tissue and in turn that set off the nerves in my face and left eye. Since he had not asked questions about anything he should be aware of, he didn't know that he had ignited nerve pain in my face and eye, also into my temple area and into my left ear. I told him to remove it, to get it OUT, but he said he couldn't. The "nurse" evidently had reached the end of her rope at this point and told me I was going to be sent by ambulance to another hospital. "NO! I'm leaving with my husband and HE will take me to N---- Westchester Hospital ER where I can get help!" So she placed a form in front of me and asked me to sign. I told her I couldn't read the form (which had sentences followed by lines and "blanks") because I did not have my readers. In a terse, nasty tone, she pointed to a line and said "Just sign here!" Against my better judgement, I did so b/c I wanted to LEAVE the incompetency and what I was being put through. (I later found out that my signature indicated that I was signing out "against medical advice" which not only was a LIE but also ILLEGAL since I'd had no idea what I was signing, AND also NO "advice" had been given, I just got the cold impression that she wanted me out of their ER). I was wheeled out in silence, where my very worried husband had sat for the 3 1/2 hours that I'd been in the ER area. (He had repeatedly asked to be let in but kept being denied entry, with no reason offered.) Without a word, she stomped off, leaving me in the wheelchair unattended while my husband went to bring his car to the area in front of the exit/entry. Despite my pain, I sensed that she was glad to be rid of me...and she was indeed in a nasty, haughty mood. My husband took me to the other ER, where I was attended to IMMEDIATELY and attentively. Unfortunately, the PA there could not remove what I later learned is called a Rocket, from my throbbing left nasal cavity, and there was no ENT available BUT she called one in private practice who agreed to see me immediately. My husband drove me there (a 40 minute drive one way) and the otolaryngologist was wonderfully calm, patient, CARING, and not only removed several medium to large blood clots from my throat and nasal-pharangeal area (they had been obstructing my breathing and swallowing), but she also extracted the Rocket!!! Then she cauterized the area in my left cavity. I was so happy and relieved that I cried tears of joy. She comforted me and then gave me clear instructions on how to deal with any possible other bleeds, giving me the spray required; taught me how to make a "nasal dam" and placed one one me; then told me that I need not worry because she has indeed encountered situations like mine before.... We left her office feeling grateful not only to her, but also to the PA in the second hospital ER that had made the arrangement for being seen the SAME DAY by this amazing doctor....Evidently ONLY an otolaryngologist can remove a Rocket because significant trauma/damage can occur if done without competency and knowledge (thus a PA can insert one but cannot remove it, and this doctor had concerns about the PA having inserted one into my obstructed nostril).
----PART C TO FOLLOW------------