M (34) sick for two weeks. no hospital will admit me. what do i need to do?

Quick background:

I flew home from the UK on Sunday. Had a PCR on friday before leaving. Negative.

On Tues i start to feel like I’ve got a cold but i put it down to airplane aircon and exhaustion as i worked most of the time was home and spent nights meeting family and friends.

On Thurs i feel rotten. work from home. By evening I’m coughing constantly and it’s hoarse. No sleep and on Friday I’m exhausted and sleep on and off.

Get to sunday and it’s bad so do approved home test – negative. So i visit the clinic monday am and doctor won’t look at me. Just asked if i did pcr. Tells me he won’t treat me. Charges me and i scare the nurses and him enough they throw a prescription for cough suppressant and a generic antibiotic my way.

That night full blown what i can only describe as asthma attack. Years ago, when I had severe cold, it would linger and leave me with infected lungs. Gp usually gave me an antibiotic and steroids and would recover in a day or two.

Ambulance arrives. Doctor tells me over phone he won’t see me because i visited a clinic that morning and got medicine so i should just relax. After a panic attack, i ask them to leave. They insist on trying again. But I don’t understand why it should be like this?

I asked them to leave then made it yo morning. Called an ex colleague and they drove me to local respiratory clinic. There i got xray and blood tests and sure enough it’s a lung infection. Right lung is the size of a banana. He hooks me on steroid drip then prescribes a steroid, two inhalers and an antibiotic.

That night I already feel better.

Flashforward to right now and I’ve just left another ambulance after being told they won’t treat me as it’s late at night… Despite low blood pressure, high heart rate and high fever, dry mouth and trouble swallowing. paramedic asked “we can take you to hospital very far but they won’t treat you or examine you until morning. If you’re still sick in the morning, wouldn’t it be better to go then?”
I politely requested to leave the ambulance and refused to sign the form that says i refused treatment.

So… What to do? I can communicate well enough in Japanese. I told them that I don’t think it’s corona, based on the symptoms..they said “yeah but think of the other patients if it is.”

Is there any action I can take? Any language i need to try next time?

I’m currently writing from bed. I have no family in Japan and few people i can count on.

7 comments
  1. Might help if you said where you are.

    If you were in Tokyo, I’d suggest cabbing it to Nichidai Byoin Itabashi – they have an emergency doc on duty who can admit you.

  2. Best is to call the Covid hotline first even if you don’t think it’s Covid, the hospitals and clinics fear you do.

    After calling, you will be directed to a specific clinic to accept possible Covid patients. You call and make an appointment then take the test there. If it’s not Covid then they can rest easy and treat you.

    Hope you get better soon

    https://www.mhlw.go.jp/stf/covid-19/qa.html

  3. If nothing else works, calling a news crew to video you outside the hospital on the ground saying “they’ve condemned me to die!” may alter their attitude.

    Sometimes you can reason with people. Sometimes you have to talk to them in the only language they truly understand.

  4. Sorry, don’t have a solution. But this is absolutely ridiculous.

    I am an Austrian resident and arrived here a few days ago, during covid peak I had an allergic reaction (skin rash not dying) and they took me by ambulance to a hospital in the middle of the night. How is it that you are so sick and no one can treat you in a city as big as Tokyo???

  5. It’s unbelievable that in a big city like Tokyo, there’s no place and ER where they would treat you with a serious condition.

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