HOUSTON – Emergency rooms are the last place you want to wait for hours, but that’s exactly what’s been happening in some area hospitals.
In fact, one man says he spent 12 hours waiting to get stitches for his badly injured hand.
Xavier Starghill went to the new emergency center at LBJ hospital after he shattered his bedroom window and cut his thumb to the bone.
But the wait in the state-of-the-art facility was more than he expected.
"I sat there in the lobby from that time [9 p.m.] until about 8:45 in the morning," Starghill said.
Doctors said he was checked out right away – something they do with any patient who comes through the door.
"He was not actively bleeding. Vital signs were very, very stable," Dr. Joseph D’Addesio, LBJ Emergency Services director, said.
In the ER, the most serious patients – like those suffering from heart attacks or gunshot wounds – need to be treated instantly. So that means a patient with a less-serious issue could wait for up to eight hours for treatment at LBJ.
"It could be very long, if there are not beds available. Several hours or longer. But they were seen by a professional at the point of entry," D’Addesio said.
Hospital officials said Starghill waited longer because he happened to come on a day when they were still working out staffing for the new ER.
"There were still operational issues we were dealing with in terms of work space," D’Addesio said.
Hospital officials also said they were very busy that night.
But, they said getting in and out of surgery in 12 hours is actually very fast.
In hospital time, that may be true. But to Starghill, it was too long.
"I wouldn’t wish that on nobody," he said.
