Disturbing video footage shows a man crawling out of a hospital in Canada after doctors allegedly “pretended” his intense leg pain.
David Pontone, 45, is seen on all fours crawling out of Toronto’s Humber River Hospital after premature discharge, because staff members ruled out his problem being psychological, according to CBC News.
“They thought I was pretending it was because it was bipolar,” Pontone told CBC about the April 2018 incident. Surveillance images were only released after the news station obtained them.
“There are no words to describe what happened that night.”
While registering at the hospital, Pontone, who was later diagnosed with a rare nerve disorder, told staff he was taking medication for bipolar disorder, but that he has been stable for seven years.
But revealing his mental health history prompted a doctor to order an MRI and refer him to an on-call psychiatrist, CBC News reported.
Although Pontone complained of agonizing physical pain, the psychiatrist wrote that “anxiety” was his most dominant symptom, according to medical records obtained by the Canadian station.
Another note from hospital records indicates that Pontone’s visit was due to her “bipolar” and doesn’t even mention her walking problems.
When the MRI revealed no unusual results, a psychiatrist discharged Pontone, forcing him to leave the hospital on his hands and knees.
“The pain was unbearable,” Pontone said. “Being able to walk properly was impossible.”
In the points of the newly obtained images, Pontone is shown fighting on the ground while a nurse is by his side.
“The nurse kept saying, ‘You’re a big boy! You are strong! Come on, boy, get up! ”Said Pontone. “I was angry. I felt totally helpless. ”
It took Pontone about 20 minutes to reach the exit and a security guard helped him get into a taxi.
Later, an ambulance 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.
Medical workers often overlook serious physical health problems in people with mental illness, experts said at the outset.
“We are failing miserably in this population,” said Dr. Vicky Stergiopoulos, a psychiatrist and chief physician at the Toronto Center for Addictions and Mental Health. “[The system] it is flawed and we need to do a better job of seeing people as human beings. ”
Vanessa Burkoski, chief nursing executive at Toronto’s Humber River Hospital, later apologized, Pontone’s family reported at the dam.
Hospital spokesman Joe Gorman issued a statement saying the incident was “deeply concerned” by the hospital and that the staff involved “were treated accordingly”.