"Presenting with trouble breathing"

I had been dealing with the flu for a couple weeks (had a negative PCR Covid-19 result), and it was getting increasingly worse. Over a couple of days, I had become extremely fatigued, felt like a rag doll, and could barely move. As an Aboriginal person with a chronic illness, flus and other viruses hit my immune system harder. One recent night, my breathing had become shallower and raspy. I was worried it was becoming pneumonia and my partner became quite concerned and drove us to Royal Perth Hospital.

When we arrived, it was unclear where to go due to all of the road works; however, my partner confirmed with a number of hospital staff that we were okay to park at the spot we were in while my partner ran and got a wheelchair for me until I was admitted. When my partner told staff that I was having trouble breathing and could hardly move, a nurse sent for a bed and had assistants wheeling the bed out to the car. It was a relief to see it and not have to expend what little energy I had sitting up in a wheelchair, but to be able to lie down.

Introductions

However, I recall another nurse interrupted the process and seemed to bark at my partner that they needed to move their vehicle. My partner tried explaining that they were following directions of another nurse and there was a bed coming for me. I believe the nurse cut my partner off and yelled that they needed to move their vehicle. My partner explained that I couldn't breathe and I needed help getting out of the car. I recall the nurse looked at me struggling to breathe and barked at me if I’ve taken anything tonight?!

Explanations

My partner was confused and tried to answer, but I recall the nurse cut them off again and said that I need to answer. I was struggling to breathe and could barely manage to say a word. I pointed to my partner to answer, who was quite confused by the question, and they explained I had only been on antibiotics that my GP had prescribed. It seemed the nurse continued barking questions at me that I could hardly answer and became increasingly upset that I wasn't cooperating and that my partner was answering on my behalf. I believe the nurse yelled at my partner that I needed to get out of the car and they need to move their vehicle. My partner explained again that I needed help getting out and there was a bed coming. The nurse waved off the bed, and instead went and got a chair.

When the nurse returned with a chair, I assumed it would be a wheelchair and attempted to get up but I felt I was as fatigued as a rag doll and couldn't move. My partner tried to help me, I recall the nurse barked at my partner again that they needed to get ready to move their vehicle and the nurse would help me up, but I also needed to help myself. It seemed the nurse roughly pulled me out of the vehicle, and as I felt I was about to fall, put me into a restraining chair, and tried to buckle me in. My partner had to go and move their vehicle, and I was left in the nurse's care, feeling unsafe, scared, and anxious. The nurse hastily pulled the straps over my arms, and then tried click the straps together, eventually abandoning the broken buckle, and left me to slump in the chair.

I had such little energy, I felt I was continually about to fall out of the chair and onto the ground. I recall the nurse kept barking at me to sit up in the chair, then when they handed me over to the nurse in the respiratory unit of the ED, I believe they did so saying I was exhausted in that pathetic sort of way. It made me feel so awful that I was holding back tears, choking up, and having even more difficulty breathing. I felt incredibly ashamed, half tied up like that, unable to talk for myself, difficulty breathing, slumping from debilitating fatigue, and having staff members act frustrated with me for not answering their questions.

I kept getting asked to sit up properly, it seemed as if it was something I had the energy for, and I kept using up my air to ask for a bed. It took all the energy and breath I had to answer the nurse's essential questions for letting me through. I started crying halfway through the questions because I felt like an animal tied up in that restraint chair. I didn't understand why my partner couldn't have answered these questions for me so that I could just breathe and I didn't feel safe.

I was taken for a Covid-19 swab. Then left half strapped up in the chair in a respiratory holding area for a couple hours. Each time this new nurse came for my blood pressure, I asked for a bed, as I couldn't sit up any longer, and help for more air. I felt I was about to collapse onto the floor from lack of energy. Eventually I managed to say that I needed to lay down. Am I going to get help tonight? To which I believe the nurse said that there was 6 people ahead of me waiting for a bed. One of those people has been waiting 3 hours. I told the nurse I need to lie down. Too much breath and energy sitting up. Do I need to go home for that? I recall they told me that option is up to me.

So about half an hour later, the nurse got my partner, met them outside of ED, handed me over in the restraint chair. We went home and I cried through tears and many breaths to my partner, "never take me to RPH again."