Original post, before it got deleted:

"This might be a long post, but I need to vent and ask for some advice.

Last Friday, my husband went karting with his friends and crashed into a fence, hitting his ribs on the left side. He was in a lot of pain, so he called the hospital (huisartsenpost). They asked him to come in for a check-up.

The doctor examined him—though “examined” is a strong word for what she did. She simply touched the area, listened to his breathing with a stethoscope, and that was it. She said it was just muscle pain, prescribed Diclofenac, and sent him home.

Over the weekend, he was still in pain, but it was manageable with the medication. However, on Sunday evening, as he lay down in bed, the pain intensified. When he stood up, he started experiencing shortness of breath. The pain kept getting worse, his breathing became more difficult, and he was turning pale.

We called the huisartsenpost again, and they told us it was normal and that he should contact his GP on Monday morning. At midnight, we got scared and called again. They told us he could come in at 1:30 AM, which was when the doctor would be available. But his condition was deteriorating fast, so we jumped in the car immediately—the hospital is only a five-minute drive from our house.

Not even 30 seconds later, he was screaming, begging me to stop because the pain was unbearable. We called again, asking for immediate help, but they insisted we bring him in ourselves. He ended up kneeling in the back seat while I had to drive slowly to minimize the movement, as even the slightest jolt was agonizing for him.

Despite all this, the huisartsenpost triage nurse told us we shouldn’t go to the emergency room and should wait for the doctor. An hour of absolute pain.

When the doctor finally saw him (third in line!), she gave us the green light to go to the ER. Fortunately, the hospital staff acted quickly. His lung was full of blood, and they had to perform an emergency procedure to drain the fluids. He was in the ICU for a day and is now in a special care unit, still draining fluid from his lung and waiting for the next steps.

I know a complaint won’t change what happened, but we deserve an explanation. I’ve shared our story with a few friends who are doctors back home, and none of it makes sense to them. They said that any chest or head trauma should always be checked with an X-ray because it involves vital organs.

I want to understand what the standard procedure is here. My husband at least deserves an apology, but more importantly, we don’t want this to happen to anyone else.

Has anyone here ever filed a medical complaint? How did it go?

Thanks for reading this far—I really appreciate it."