Disturbing images show a man crawling out of a Canadian hospital after doctors assumed he was “pretending” to have severe leg pain.
David Pontone, 45, is seen on all fours pulling out of Toronto’s Humber River Hospital after premature discharge – because staff dismissed his problem as psychological, according to CBC News.
“They thought I was pretending to be bipolar,” Pontone told CBC about the April 2018 incident. Surveillance images were released only after the broadcaster obtained it.
“There are no words to describe what I went through that night.”
While in hospital, Pontone – who was later diagnosed with a rare nerve disorder – told staff he was taking medication for bipolar disorder, but has been stable for seven years.
But the disclosure of his mental health history prompted a doctor to order an MRI and send him to a psychiatrist on duty, CBC News reported.
Despite the fact that Pontone complained of suffering from agonizing physical pain, the psychiatrist wrote that “anxiety” is his most dominant symptom, according to medical records obtained by the Canadian broadcaster.
Another note in the hospital’s files states that Pontone’s visit was due to his “bipolar” and fails to mention even his gait problems.
When the MRI did not reveal any unusual results, a psychiatrist discharged Pontone – forcing him to crawl out of the hospital on his hands and knees.
“The pain was unbearable,” Pontone said. “Being able to walk right was impossible.”
In the points from the newly obtained records, Pontone is shown fighting on the ground, while a nurse is sitting next to him.
“The nurse kept saying, ‘You’re a big boy!’ You are strong! Come on, big boy, get up! ‘”Said Pontone. “I was upset. I felt completely helpless.”
It took Pontone about 20 minutes to reach the exit, and a security guard then helped him into a taxi.
An ambulance later took him to Toronto Western Hospital, where a neurologist diagnosed him with Guillain-Barré syndrome, a disorder in which a person’s immune system attacks his nerves.
Medical workers often overlook serious physical health problems in people with mental illness, experts told the press.
“We are failing miserably in this population,” said Dr. Vicky Stergiopoulos, a psychiatrist and chief physician at the Toronto Center for Addiction and Mental Health. “[The system] it is flawed and we need to do a better job of seeing people as human beings. ”
Vanessa Burkoski, executive director of nursing at Humber Hospital in Toronto, later apologized, the Pontone family told the store.
Hospital spokesman Joe Gorman said in a statement that the hospital was “deeply disturbed” by the incident and that the staff involved “had been treated accordingly”.