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How to refuse Ambulance trips to ER?

Fri, 11/16/2012 - 16:05

I've had several seizures over the past few years where I regain consciousness soon enough that a paramedic hasn't yet arrived but before I am not fully coherent until after I reach the hospital. My insurance has a high deductable for going to the emergency room, so I really don't want to go.

Each time that I've had a seizure, I have tried to refuse to let the paramedics take me to the hospital. After having a seizure, I just want to stay where I am and rest until I can get up and go on with lift. But they insist on doing it as a precaution. The paramedics standard procedure is to ask me a battery of questions over and over again. At first, I can hear them and understand them and can picture who the president is but I can't speak. Eventually I get to a point where I can barely speak but can remember his name (so the best that I can answer is something like "big ears, black") and can't remember whether they've asked me this question already. Eventually I am coherent enough (by the time that we reach the hospital) that I can say "I don't want to go, I don't need to go" but they take me in anyway

How do I stop them? At what point are they no longer allowed to insist on taking me?

Comments

I think the ADA should make

Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 2015-08-25 - 18:31
I think the ADA should make insurers pay for our emergency reponses (paramedics, ambulanev and E.R. costs).  It's unfair discrimination against us to be strapped to the gurney, against our will, and force us to go to the E.R., then have to pay the entire expense because "it wasn't a medical emergency".  No one can know for sure until being evaluated if it was a SEIZURE or a STROKE.  They look alike.  In fact, some people with epilepsy do have strokes!Have you ever experienced this?

I think this is really

Submitted by mwolf on Tue, 2016-10-11 - 17:36
I think this is really important. I woke up in the ambulance and tried to refuse care and they wouldn't let me, claiming I was too post-ictal. I just don't want anyone to call an ambulance they can't do anything, it looks like an emergency, but it isn't. I mean, is waiting for it to stop that difficult? I think more people need to be notified to just not call the ambulance. it's rare that someone is put in actual danger from a seizure, if that happens, yes, call, and people might not know the difference, but a trip to the ER is a waste of time and money. 

I think this is really

Submitted by mwolf on Tue, 2016-10-11 - 17:40
I think this is really important. I woke up in the ambulance and tried to refuse care and they wouldn't let me, claiming I was too post-ictal. I just don't want anyone to call an ambulance they can't do anything, it looks like an emergency, but it isn't. I mean, is waiting for it to stop that difficult? I think more people need to be notified to just not call the ambulance. it's rare that someone is put in actual danger from a seizure, if that happens, yes, call, and people might not know the difference, but a trip to the ER is a waste of time and money. 

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