ERS ARE THERE TO TREAT ALL - EVEN ADDICTS

When Alexa Hahm showed up at the Hopital Saint-Luc emergency room this
September, she needed surgery to remove infected flesh from her arms,
skin grafts to cover the wounds and antibiotics to keep the infection
from spreading to her blood. But the doctor who saw her offered no
more than a clean dressing. He wouldn't even admit her overnight for
observation. A few days later, emergency staff at the Montreal General
treated her more gently but didn't offer her much in the way of
serious help, either.

Granted, Ms. Hahm wasn't the most promising patient. She was in such
appalling shape because she'd been injecting herself so often with
heroin that her arms were as full of holes as a pincushion. But that was
no reason to turn her away. Addicts are as entitled to health care
as anyone else. And while Ms. Hahm eventually got the help she needed
- - thanks to a caring nurse at Saint-Luc - her initial treatment (or
lack of it) raises serious questions about how emergency rooms deal with
drug users.

According to Cactus Montreal, an organization that runs several
programs for addicts, emergency-room doctors are routinely callous
when users show up looking for help, even when they're accompanied - as
Ms. Hahm was - by a Cactus counselor.

The self-destructive nature of addiction might well test the patience
of even the most caring physician, and an overworked emergency-room
employee might well conclude his time would be better spent patching
up car-crash victims and resuscitating heart-attack patients. But
while perhaps understandable, this attitude is callous and
counterproductive. Bad habits should be no bar to needed medical care.

There's also a practical aspect to a more caring attitude. Drug use is a
chronic problem in our society, one that's greatly aggravated by the
reluctance of addicts to seek medical attention. It took Cactus two
months of concerted effort, for example, to persuade Ms. Hahm to go
for help. For such people, emergency rooms are the chief gateways to
more extensive medical care. If they're unwelcoming, then those who need
them most might simply choose to take their chances on the street - and
that's intolerable.

Hopital Saint-Luc administrators and the College des Medicins are
investigating Ms. Hahm's complaint, which is all well and good, but
what's needed is a full assessment of how emergency rooms deal with drug
users.