This is my ER experience, I will do a separate review for my Labor and Delivery stay. This is lengthy so I do apologize in advance. I just had my baby on 7/18/19 and started having recurrent, high fevers when I came home that Saturday night. I took 600mg Motrin every 6 hrs. But the second it wore of, my fever would spike even higher. so on that Monday afternoon, when my thermometer read 104.6, I decided to go to Loyola’s ER. In triage, I was sweating profusely due to the fever breaking from the medicine. I told the triage nurse my symptoms, including dizziness, loss of appetite, back pain and fever. I told her I was 4 days postpartum and prior to arriving in the ER, I took 600mg Motrin. She took my temp., which read 99.2 and said, “You don’t have a fever.” I repeated that I just took medicine and that it will go back up. She told me that I would be seen in the ED, took the rest of my vitals, and sent me to the waiting room.After having my labs drawn, I waited patiently in the waiting room for over 4 hours as my fever and chills returned. Now I am an ER nurse and one thing my hospital knows is that postpartum patients who present with signs and symptoms of infection needs to be evaluated immediately. After my nearly 5 hour wait, an ER nurse called my name and brought over a wheelchair, stating, “We are going to take you to L&D because your blood pressure is elevated.” This was the blood pressure they took when I first arrived!!! It took them nearly 5 hours to determine that!!! The moment I got to L&D, they re-evaluated me, my temperature 102, heart rate in 120s, blood pressure elevated. They immediately called a rapid response. Working in the ER, I know how challenging it is to determine who needs to be evaluated immediately and who is able to wait, especially when the census is high, which it was that day. However, there is no way a postpartum patient presenting with signs & symptoms of infection should’ve been waiting for as long as I did. Loyola’s triage process really needs to be re-evaluated.
