I'd like to preface this by saying I really dislike leaving negative reviews of places. I'm only posting this because I think it's important that people know about my experience.
I was born with a bicuspid aortic valve, which eventually resulted in aortic stenosis. Additionally, until august 19th, I was pregnant (yes my name is really John no I am not male). In my second trimester it was determined by my cardiologist that my aortic stenosis had become extremely severe.
The night of August 10th, I began to experience decently strong chest pains and tightness, as well as some difficulty breathing. I went to the Maury Regional ER and said, verbatim, "I am 32 weeks pregnant, I have severe aortic stenosis, and I am experiencing chest pain."
I was admitted with no sense of urgency. They did an EKG, blood work, and a CT scan (during which I nearly fainted within a minute of having to lay flat) but didn't find anything in particular. They came to the conclusion that my symptoms were regular pregnancy symptoms and sent me home after a roughly 3 hour visit with instructions to follow up with my OB. The diagnoses on my discharge papers were dyspnea (difficulty breathing) and pregnancy.
I contacted my Vanderbilt cardiologist and let her know what happened, and she wanted to see me ASAP. By that Thursday, my symptoms had gotten progressively worse. Standing for more than a few minutes gave me chest tightness and mild pain, and I couldn't do anything close to exerting myself. When I talked to my cardiologist about it, she was alarmed that I had been sent home, and immediately sent me to the main Vanderbilt campus.
Ultimately it was determined I needed a c-section as quickly as possible, that my symptoms were extremely troubling, and that there was a risk of death or emergency heart surgery with the procedure. I had my c-section on the 19th with not only the normal delivery team and anesthesiologists, but also a cardiology team on standby. Luckily it went well, but I also had to have a balloon valvuloplasty done slightly over a week later and spent a total of almost two weeks in the hospital overall.
Had I trusted the emergency room staff and written off my symptoms as being pregnancy related, I likely would have been in an even riskier situation, if not possibly dead. I know that I'm young and tend to mask pain well, but not being taken seriously at this hospital could have cost me my life. I'm sure Maury Regional is capable of handling more minor cases, but if you think something may be seriously wrong, I'd recommend going elsewhere.