Man released from hospital after doctors dismissed his pain: video

Disturbing video footage shows a man being released from a hospital in Canada after doctors speculated he was “faking” his severe leg pain.

David Pontone, 45, is seen on all fours crawling himself out of Humber River Hospital in Toronto after his early discharge – because staff members dismissed his problem as psychological, according to CBC News.

“They thought I was faking it because I was bipolar,” Pontone told CBC of the April 2018 incident. The surveillance footage only just aired after the news broadcaster caught it. obtained.

“There are no words to describe what I went through that night.”

While checking in at the hospital, Pontone – who was later diagnosed with a rare nervous disorder – told staff members he was on medication for bipolar disorder, but had been stable for seven years.

But the disclosure of his mental health history prompted a doctor to order an MRI and refer him to a psychiatrist on duty, CBC News reported.

Although Pontone complained of suffering excruciating physical pain, the psychiatrist wrote that “anxiety” was his most dominant symptom, according to medical records obtained by the Canadian broadcaster.

Another note in hospital records indicates that Pontone’s visit was due to her “bipolar” condition and does not even mention her difficulty walking.

When the MRI failed to reveal any unusual results, a psychiatrist then released Pontone – forcing him to crawl out of the hospital on his hands and knees.

“The pain was unbearable,” Pontone said. “To be able to walk properly was impossible.”

At times in the newly obtained footage, Pontone struggles to the ground as a nurse stands 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 angry. I felt totally helpless.

It took Pontone about 20 minutes to reach the exit and then a security guard helped him get into a taxi.

An ambulance then 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 their nerves.

Serious physical health problems in people with mental illness are often overlooked by medical workers, experts told the outlet.

“We are failing this population miserably,” said Dr. Vicky Stergiopoulos, psychiatrist and chief medical officer at the Toronto Center for Addiction and Mental Health. “[The system] is imperfect and we have to do a better job of seeing people as human beings. “

The director of nursing at Humber River Hospital in Toronto, Vanessa Burkoski, later apologized, Pontone’s family told the outlet.

Hospital spokesman Joe Gorman sent a statement saying the hospital was “deeply disturbed” by the incident and that the staff members involved “had been treated accordingly”.