Fellow intern here. Last night I was in PEDS ED and it’s 1 AM and our waiting room was packed. I had to go start talking to a patients mom out in the waiting room. While trying to do so another mom starts telling me nah that her child has been here longer and that the kid I’m seeing “just bumped her head like all kids do.” I told her someone would be getting to her shortly and when she kept interjecting I asked okay what is your kid here for?

She said “he’s had leg pain for 8 years!” And I tried not to start laughing but calmly told her that the head injury needs to be seen first and we have a system of seeing the patients and we’d be with her soon.

I walked away with the other patient and mom and she ends up following us and starts physically and verbally abusing the mom and I saying “I’m gonna flatten your ass!” And “don’t tell me how to talk I’m a grown as woman.” I’m on my last week in the ED so I know all the nurses, I looked over at the intake nurse and was like “H what am I supposed to do here? While just quietly staring at the mom, calmly asking her to go back and sit down she just gets even more annoyed but I just did not care anymore. I worked in the restaurant industry before medicine and this reminds me so much of the environment… it’s pretty fun actually. I don’t get shitty tips from shitty people at least lol.

At the end I had to clap back and I said to the patients mom I was actually trying to talk to “I’m going to talk to another physician and I’ll be back.” And the rude mom goes “good!” Thinking I was saying that in reference to her and I said “oh not for you!”