ATTENTION ALL PARENTS:
If you need emergency care for your child, seek it elsewhere! Do not enter StarER with your child. StarER was founded and ran by local doctors in Lubbock, and over the years our family has had great experiences with their care, kindness, and treatment. Those days are no more, as this emergency room is now not only not locally owned or ran, but is filled with the most irrational, ego-driven, incompetent caregivers you can imagine. On a recent trip for our eleven year old's injured finger, she (at eleven!) was not treated with kindness or compassion at all and got an inconceivable medical experience. The doctor, Dr. Dale Curtis, proceeded to talk inappropriately to her and over her, threaten us as parents if we didn't conform to his every demand, refuse to help us get to a hospital we, as parents, were comfortable with, refuse to let us even leave, and demand "he'd rather protect himself from a possible lawsuit" than care for what was truly at hand. The nurse watched us, as competent, caring, concerned parents, be ostracized, disrespected in every way, wrongfully threatened with CPS, and unjustly treated from the most immature, unprofessional and belligerent behavior by a young UMC EMT brought in by StarER, but she did not stand up for us or our daughter. NO ONE cared that from the point of arrival and initial start of IV antibiotics the 11 year old patient was improving tremendously...fever down from 102.3 to 99.7, heart rate down to 130s from 150s and significantly less pain along with more movement in the extremity. Doctor wouldn't even look at her improvement when it was mentioned. Nor, would he provide blood work results, when asked multiple times. He had an agenda to punish a little girl's parents for the answers to their questions about vaccines and our choice of watching the injury for a couple days at home before getting treatment. Words of wisdom, you should not be punished for your choices when you seek help. Your child should not be punished by someone in a power-trip position over answers to vaccine questions or the decision as parents to watch an injury until signs of infection show up (at which point we sought immediate care). You should not be subjected to medical punishment for your personal choices when you need an emergency room visit if you are not breaking the law (which we very much were not) and it's evident the child is not in danger in our care.
No parent should ever, EVER experience needing help for their child and then wrongfully being threatened with a doctor's demands or CPS as only options. No child should hear or experience a doctor pointing at a mother from across the room exclaiming multiple inappropriate things including "you should do what's in her best interest." Not to mention the repeated, very inappropriate conversations spoken to and over her by a so-called professional. No compassion, no common-sense. Nothing but indignified authority.
So, the finale is, we complied with the doctor, nurse and EMT all of which shouldn't have a license to work with children, for the sake of our own child. When we got to "competent care" at a real facility, our daughter was not only treated with kindness (as were we as parents), but, from the minute she was unloaded from their demanded ambulance transfer to the time we got in our own vehicle to go home was less than an hour!! Their threats, scare tactics and demands were not in any way in her best interest, nor medically based. With no additional IV antibiotics and oral ones started, she had no fever the next morning, had movement and no pain in her finger, and heart rate was never a concern because competent doctors and nurses know a slightly elevated heart rate and low-grade fever is the body's way of continuing to fight the infection the antibiotics are helping with. (The "dumb" mom tried to express that to Dr. Curtis, but he and his pride-filled arrogance (and bragged on medical license) cared more about punishing parents.)
The second opinion didn't threaten surgery or loss of finger like Dr. Curtis, they saw the improvement from infection. They were very right; not him and his immature, unprofessional decisions and (literal) finger-pointing; punishment/money-driven tactics.. Turns out the infection couldn't cause the "worst-case-scenarios" Dr Curtis and his nurse asserted because it wasn't even in correct tendon to cause those issues. The finger was FULLY healed in 3 days including follow-ups with qualified professionals (that included compassion in their care.)
These people have no business caring for anyone, especially kids. Parents, no one deserves what we went through. No one. Please don't enter these doors with your child. There are kind medical personnel out there, with medical knowledge. We finally found them at a complete different hospital.
Please beware! The agenda, whether punishment, arrogance, or incompetent care is unacceptable on every level. (cont. in pics) read more
