Naples, accused of blocking the emergency room: "We just wanted assistance."

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Naples - "We just wanted assistance and a more humane place for my cousin's serious health condition where we could wait our turn. Instead, it was an ordeal that ended with a complaint." A complaint was quicker than access to care.

Anna, the cousin of the disabled woman from Melito who was reported by the Carabinieri last Saturday for disrupting public service at the emergency room of the CTO in Naples, speaks with regret.

"Our case was just a desperate one that ended without our knowledge with a complaint," he says, recounting the hospital admission and subsequent stages. The patient—who underwent surgery for abdominal cancer last February and subsequently had to have her left leg amputated—was referred to the hospital by the Pascale oncology department because she needed a blood transfusion.

“Pascale doesn't do transfusions on weekends,” Anna says, “so after reviewing the blood test results, they sent us an email advising us to go to the emergency room for a transfusion.”

The 47-year-old woman, ill and wheelchair-bound due to her amputated limb, was registered at triage at 15,49:XNUMX PM. After a quick review of her medical records and the Pascale hospital's email, she was assigned a yellow code.

This is where the ordeal began. "First, they told us my cousin had to go into the first waiting room alone, without anyone accompanying her, but it was practically impossible for her to push the wheelchair due to brachial vein thrombosis," her cousin explains, "and she also requires constant assistance, even to go to the bathroom. So I couldn't leave her alone.

They told us to wait in a room where there were many other patients even though my cousin is at risk of infections that could be fatal for her." After the initial ups and downs, the two women waited patiently for their turn. In the meantime, despite having first accessed the triage, her parameters were not measured and she therefore did not have a bracelet.

At 20,30:XNUMX pm, after nearly five hours of waiting—on a scorchingly hot afternoon in an environment without air conditioning and without medical assistance—the patient staged her protest.

"She moved her wheelchair to the emergency room entrance," her cousin says, "and threatened not to let anyone in. She was exhausted from waiting and not thinking clearly. At that point, both the security guards and the other patients waiting understood the situation and gave her priority entry. Everyone realized she had reached her limit and took pity on her condition."

Once through the door, the patient screamed out all her anger; those few meters that she could have walked five hours earlier and which would have given her the relief of a more private environment, more suitable for her condition, had become her nightmare.

"She didn't want priority over life-threatening patients, even though her condition is truly serious," her cousin recounts. "She just wanted a private, protected place, as her situation requires, to wait her turn. I even tried to calm her down, but by then she was at her limit and had an outburst of anger. She was probably also not thinking clearly, given her low blood count."

Once she entered the CTO emergency room, the doctors took care of her and only then did they measure her parameters and put the bracelet on.

“Strangely enough, when the doctor examined her,” Anna says, “it appeared that they had already measured her parameters, but in reality they had never done so, so much so that the hospital bracelet had not been applied to her.

At 21 pm they began to take care of her. Doctors and nurses were attentive and caring, they gave her the utmost attention and understood the gravity of the situation." Meanwhile, the Carabinieri also arrived at the emergency room, alerted when the patient, shielding herself with her battered body, blocked access to the first aid room for a few minutes.

"The Carabinieri interviewed my cousin and the staff present," Anna says, "then left, but didn't tell her they'd reported her for disrupting a public service. Moreover, no red code was issued during those ten minutes. We only learned about the complaint the next day."

A paradoxical situation arose at the CTO, with extremely long waiting times even for patients (in this case, with yellow status and in truly extreme conditions) who needed immediate admission to environments suited to their conditions.

"It wasn't the wait that was the most critical issue," Anna says, "but my cousin's conditions. She was in a room without air conditioning, in a wheelchair with phantom limb syndrome that caused her excruciating pain, a cancer patient undergoing chemotherapy, with an arm she couldn't move due to a thrombosis.

Anyone would have lost patience after five hours. In those conditions, we should have called the police ourselves for assistance, but it's not in our nature to cause problems or demand preferential treatment. My cousin, already overwhelmed by an illness that is wearing her down day by day, reached the human limit of her endurance and went into a rage."

At 22:30 PM, when the transfusion began, the memory of those hellish hours faded. Two hours later, the doctors had to administer powerful painkillers because the patient was overwhelmed by the pain she had been in since the afternoon.

The ordeal ended at dawn when – after about 16 hours – she was finally discharged.

The next day, the complaint arrived, faster than she could even visit the emergency room for examination and treatment. The case of the patient from Melito reopens a window into the healthcare system in Campania, with its extremely long wait times in emergency rooms and the shortage of staff and beds. This situation produces extreme and paradoxical cases, such as that of the 47-year-old woman forced to exhaust herself seeking treatment and then reported. Adding insult to injury.

In short

Naples - "We just wanted assistance and a place more humanely suited to my cousin's serious health conditions where we could wait our turn, instead it was an odyssey that…

A quicker report than access to care.
Anna, the cousin of the disabled woman from Melito who was reported by the Carabinieri last Saturday for…
“Our case was just a desperate one that ended without our knowledge with a complaint,” he says, reconstructing…

Key questions

What is the main point of the news?

Naples - "We just wanted assistance and a place more humanely suited to my cousin's serious health conditions where we could wait our turn, instead it is…

Why is this news relevant?

A quicker report than access to care.

Which detail helps us understand the case better?

Anna, the cousin of the disabled woman from Melito who was reported by the Carabinieri last Saturday for disrupting a public service, speaks with regret…