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"No support, without friends or family."

About: Armidale Rural Referral Hospital / Emergency Department

(as the patient),

I'm a student who moved away from my family. I woke up with bad chest pains in the early hours of the morning and the ambulance came and got me. I was let out later in the day. Without family and friends in this town I didn't have anyone to pick me up, not to mention sit with me at the hospital during this scary time. Being a full time student money is hard to come by, amongst paying rent and fuel to and from my place of study everyday I barely have enough money to feed myself. I was told to catch a taxi or walk home. I live a long distance from the hospital, I was still in my pyjamas, with no shoes, my phone was about to die and I felt very weak. I asked if there was someone to help me out with a cab fare as I had no money to do so, and they said they only give them to people who stay overnight. I believe they weren't going to budge and felt as though they started to humiliate me in front of other patients. The end result was a voucher for a taxi, but I was told not to go back to the hospital if I don't have a way home next time. This was my first experience at the hospital, completely by myself, without friends or family there to support me and I went home feeling more terrible then I did when I went in there.

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