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ER tweet: “If my husband dies, I’m going to go [eff]ing ballistic”

By  | February 1, 2010
Categories: e-Patient stories

When Benn Rosales had a heart attack in December, his wife Lani, a very active member of the Twitterati, tweeted throughout the experience. Afterward she thought to compile those tweets as a record of Benn’s e-patient experience: “this hospital is understaffed and we’re being sh*t on because of it. if my husband dies i’m going to go [eff]ing ballistic.” Here’s the story, told in tweets, largely unedited…

http://twitter.com/LaniAR/status/6752311191
dear ER, oh.em.gee.you.are.sooo.slow. please be less slow. love, lani.
9:10 PM Dec 16th, 2009 from web

@jburslem @K2daV @matthew_parente thanks. you guys are wonderful :) hopefully we can go home tonight in time for jimmy fallon :)
9:19 PM Dec 16th, 2009 from TweetDeck

RT @BennRosales: if i keel over tonight @laniar gets everything signed me will by tweet. [I’m putting TEN Realtor logos on ur grave!]
9:49 PM Dec 16th, 2009 from TweetDeck

okay, finally in triage, @bennrosales being questioned.
9:50 PM Dec 16th, 2009 from TweetDeck

oh jesus, it’s blood test and ct scan time. we should take bets on diagnosis so we can pay this damn ER bill…. who’s in? ;)
10:29 PM Dec 16th, 2009 from TweetDeck

@jacksonj not sure yet. not neurological, that’s good. may be heart, ekg good, ct and blood up next
10:52 PM Dec 16th, 2009 from TweetDeck in reply to jacksonj

nurse in here she’s super nice. looking like this might be an overnight stay.
10:55 PM Dec 16th, 2009 from TweetDeck

OMFG @bennrosales just told the nurse “i’m a squirter” (it was in reference to blood and getting a drip but OMFG out of context it’s GOLD!)
10:59 PM Dec 16th, 2009 from TweetDeck

benn wouldn’t let me tell the nurse dirty jokes. chest and arm pain not getting better, this effing ER is SO slow. ct scan next.
11:31 PM Dec 16th, 2009 from TweetDeck

doctors don’t like when they’re being serious & you’re on your laptop googling them and poking fun of where they went to med school. lol.
11:43 PM Dec 16th, 2009 from TweetDeck

OMFG JESUS EFFING CHRIST, it doesn’t take 30 EFFING MINUTES to respond to the emergency button in this ER room.
12:37 AM Dec 17th, 2009 from TweetDeck

would they notice if benn coded? probably not, they didn’t notice for 30 minutes his monitor was off
12:38 AM Dec 17th, 2009 from TweetDeck

>>>http://twitter.com/mexicanfrommars/status/6757201416
@LaniAR that’s about the time i run out in to the nurse station and start screaming.
12:53 AM Dec 17th, 2009 from web in reply to LaniAR

@mexicanfrommars did that. “they’ll be right there” yes i threw a fit. we’re not popular here.
1:07 AM Dec 17th, 2009 from TweetDeck in reply to mexicanfrommars

okay, in the next 238023890 hours, @bennrosales will be admitted. feeling less humorous now, they don’t know what’s wrong. ct, blood clear.
1:08 AM Dec 17th, 2009 from TweetDeck

scared.
1:19 AM Dec 17th, 2009 from TweetDeck

this hospital is understaffed and we’re being sh*t on because of it. if my husband dies i’m going to go [eff]ing ballistic.
1:33 AM Dec 17th, 2009 from TweetDeck

>>>http://twitter.com/jasoncrouch/status/6757919371
@LaniAR Which hospital? Sincerely praying – I know that has to be truly scary.
1:37 AM Dec 17th, 2009 from TweetDeck in reply to LaniAR

@jasoncrouch [says which hospital]. never come here.
1:38 AM Dec 17th, 2009 from TweetDeck in reply to jasoncrouch

still in er triage still not in a private room. Hour [eff]ing 10.
5:04 AM Dec 17th, 2009 from txt

Update on benn: after being in ER since 8pm, now finally into cardiologist, they said he’s been having a heart attack, angiogram now.
6:48 AM Dec 17th, 2009 from Tweed

thanks for all of the well wishes, i’ll respond (and do so for benn) after the angiogram.
7:06 AM Dec 17th, 2009 from mobile web

@bennrosales’ stint succeeded thank god. Now he has to lay flat for hours.
11:10 AM Dec 17th, 2009 from txt

hey guys, thank you so much for your support- fingers crossed we can get @bennrosales out of the ICU today and into a room!
11:28 AM Dec 18th, 2009 from TweetDeck

>>>http://twitter.com/mexicanfrommars/status/6775473995

@mexicanfrommars you were there at the same time? benn was the one having a heart attack over and over in the ER.
12:18 PM Dec 18th, 2009 from TweetDeck in reply to mexicanfrommars

okay GOOD NEWS everyone, @bennrosales just got transferred OUT of ICU and into a private room! YAAAY! :)
6:02 PM Dec 18th, 2009 from TweetDeck

today @bennrosales looks pretty good, still waiting to learn how much heart tissue was damaged. thanks for words of support, all :)
10:22 AM Dec 19th, 2009 from TweetDeck

YAAY! Looks like I get to take @bennrosales home today!!!!!! Finally learned it was a clot that caused the heart attacks!
2:41 PM Dec 19th, 2009 from txt

 

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7 Comments

  1. Meredith Gould
    Meredith Gould on February 2, 2010 at 5:54 am

    Even though this kind of crap happens all the time in hospital ERs and I’ve had very similar experiences, this tweet transcript is chilling to read. It’s a miracle Benn survived and Lani’s tweets reveal the power of virtual community during times of deep distress.

    Also, I zoomed in on the “never come here” tweet because when, if ever, does anyone have a choice of hospital?

  2. Rafael Marquez
    Rafael Marquez on February 2, 2010 at 1:50 pm

    Wow, I had no idea all that was going on. I caught a couple of the tweets but I didn’t follow the whole sequence when it all went down.

  3. Mimi Saffer
    Mimi Saffer on February 3, 2010 at 4:26 pm

    Very powerful! Thank you for posting. I can see it now: a whole ream of patient experience data coming thru twitter…that’s a good thing.

  4. Amy Romano
    Amy Romano on February 3, 2010 at 9:59 pm

    I agree this is very chilling to read in sequence. I tweeted when my daughter was in the ER for stitches and loved the support I got. I also used Facebook to lament and eventually solve my problem when I discovered how many hoops I’d have to jump through to get the darn stitches out. (My FB friends ended up egging me on to remove them myself, which I did.)

    I know of at least one person who mines through twitter hashtags to find women (or, more often their partners) tweeting details during labor and birth. She’ll butt in with bits of patient advocacy when it seems from the tweets that the woman is getting poor treatment or being railroaded into a cesarean she doesn’t need. There have in fact been several #twitterbirths, with other expectant or new moms giving support and encouragement and childbirth educators, nurses, doulas, etc. offering up information and trying to help women avoid the boobytraps they might encounter in the hospital. I wonder what would happen if a bunch of volunteers (or professionals?) “listened” to twitter to pick up conversations about people in the ER, and offered them support and advocacy for navigating the system they’re relying on for safe care.

    • Padraig McKeon
      Padraig McKeon on February 10, 2010 at 4:07 pm

      I had a heart attack in what (in Ireland) call A&E – they confiscated all the devices so no tweeting possible.

  5. Fireshark81
    Fireshark81 on February 10, 2010 at 5:09 pm

    OMG!! U people need to get a life!! This is inappropriate. As a 25 year veteran EMT it is not as simplistic as this string of Tweets would seem to make it. And “googling doctors and making fun of where they went to med school is beyond reproach! WTF!! U got one side of the story and don’t know what else was going on behind the scenes, how many other critical patients etc. This sh*t is getting out of hand!

  6. e-Patient Dave
    e-Patient Dave on February 10, 2010 at 5:18 pm

    Fireshark81,

    If you think it’s in any way tolerable that nobody noticed a patient’s monitor is OFF for a half hour, and it took them TEN HOURS to figure out he’s been having a heart attack IN THEIR EMERGENCY ROOM, then I’d say you’ve given up on competence. And that’s not tolerable, to me personally.

    I’d say it’s charitable of the family not to give the name of the hospital.

Trackbacks/Pingbacks

  1. Jon Lebkowsky - @laniar's hospital tweets: "If my husband dies, I'm going to go effing ballistic." http://bit.ly/aXYq7d
  2. Austin Biz Tweets - RT @jonl @laniar's hospital tweets: "If my husband dies, I'm going to go effing ballistic." http://bit.ly/aXYq7d
  3. sarchet62 - RT @jensmccabe: http://tinyurl.com/yaklw9k ER tweets during a crisis. Woman's husband had heart attack...ER beware twitter is here...
  4. Jen S. McCabe - http://tinyurl.com/yaklw9k incredible stream of consciousness ER tweets during a crisis. Semantic processing, NLP, play catchup. Fast.
  5. ePatientDave - @JonL posts chilling ER live-tweet transcript by @LaniAR: http://is.gd/7zMt8
  6. Amy Romano - @feministbreeder - I just mentioned you (not by name) in a comment here http://is.gd/7zMt8
  7. Robin Lloyd - husband goes to ER w/heart attack and wife tweets it all: "If my husband dies, I’m going to go [eff]ing…
  8. Jenn Riggle - Angry wife tweets re: her husband's ER experience after his heart attack http://bit.ly/aXYq7d
  9. Fitting Group - Hmm...maybe there's an appropriate time NOT to tweet.... http://ow.ly/160kq
  10. “Chilling” Twitter Stream | Spark Consulting - [...] real time stream of Lani Rosales‘s tweets from the ER while her spouse, Benn, was having a heart [...]

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