My experience in 2021 at the PA (Brisbane) sounds similar to Elantra's.
Friday morning around 7:45am SUV took me out (head first into driver's windscreen pillar), driver useless (still in PJs, no phone), local resident good, called ambos & gave me a wad of paper towel to try to stem th bleeding (the blood pool on road was about 40cm diameter - I went back the week later to take photos of the scene). Ambos took about 20 minutes to arrive from about 15km away, which I though was pretty good (lights & sirens), taken to PA with 15cm by 3cm wide (open) head wound (above hairline down past left eye) & suspected other injuries, went straight into Trauma 1. Full exam, full body CT scan, Xrays etc. Found the obvious wound (bleeding profusely), a mild T2 spine fracture, and various other smaller injuries. Have a couple of "incidents" in trauma with heart rate dropping to 40bpm (normally around 56bpm), and blood pressure dropping to 50 over 40, normally 120/80. So far so so good - at least I didn't have to wait on a gurney in the corridor like many others.
Doctors wanted a spinal Xray while standing. They asked me to stand (unaided) for xray, which was fine. Then some genius thought it would be a good idea to get me to turn sideways, and raise both arms above my head - I had another "episode", blacked out and went backwards onto the concrete like a ton of bricks - now had a contusion and massive lump on the back of my head (almost matched the one up front) - that got their attention - I woke up with about a dozen people around me. Back in the trauma short stay area, I was told that my syncopies (they were called something like that) were fairly normal for the level of trauma and blood loss I had experienced
They called in a doctor from "Medics" department to evaluate my heart - he promptly announced that I have a heart murmur (news to me after 57 years) and cancelled any attempt at Plastics stitching my head up. Nurses were puzzled. Then there was a $hit-fight for hours about which ward to send me to because they didn't know where I "fitted" best. On Saturday late morning a senior doctor (specialist ?) came in and checked me out. Was told that I was on a motorbike - corrected her (bicycle). She asked if I cycled regularly and if I measured heart rate etc. When I told her yes, and max heart rate usually over 160 on daily ride, she laughed and said that the Medics doctor was wrong, and that there was nothing wrong with my heart, and put me back on the emergency surgery waiting list (now obviously severely curtailed due to weekend). I was put on fasting in case of surgery.
A couple of hours later a completely unknown doctor came in, didn't introduce herself (which is unusual there) and listened to my heart, and announced that she could also hear the murmur. I called the nurses and told them - they didn't know anything and discovered that she worked in the same team as the Friday night Medics doctor, and that there was a pi$$ing contest between the doctors as to who was right, hence the "second opinion".
No-one knew anything. I was told to shower and prepare for possible surgery on Sunday, so fasting etc (again). Never happened, moved to the Plastics ward. Then told my plastic surgery was scheduled for Monday morning. Fabulous - spent the whole weekend bandaged up like something from a WW 2 movie, with blood intermittently leaking down my face and into my eye & ear. Managed to get dinner on Sunday (for what it was worth), so didn't have much experience with the food because I hardly got any all weekend.
Plastic surgery on Monday. They said that one nerve (sensation to forehead & scalp) was destroyed, and another (that controlled movement to eyebrow etc) was repaired (nerve graft). Allegedly something like 300-400 stitches (internal & external). Had to buzz for nurses during night when I saw the old bloke opposite me suddenly try to get up, rip out all of his "attachments" and try to stand - he had full blown dementia and was recovering from a bad fall and wasn't supposed to walk. They had to restrain him.
On Tuesday morning I had a doctor (who I had never met) and a gang of "rookies" visit, didn't examine me and walk off and a few minutes later a nurse told me to shower because they needed the bed in 30 minutes, so I was being discharged.
I had asked repeatedly about my thumb, wrist, elbow & shoulder being painful, and was essentially ignored. They said that my thumb had been x-rayed in trauma and nothing was broken.
The whole thing was a bit of a cluster really. I discovered later why no-one was interested in anything on my arm - apparently "Plastics" stops at the hand, so anything above that wasn't their area of responsibility
I think the big problem with the PA was the completely compartmentalised nature of the various departments - far more interested in their own area of responsibility than what was good for the patient, and in-fighting between departments was rife. The only "good" thing was that it didn't cost me anything (for my weekend sojourn in the PA hospital).
After another 6 months of out-patients etc and still no interest in my ongoing "arm" issues, I asked my GP for a private referral. MRI showed multiple partially torn ligaments in my wrist & shoulder, and impact-induced bursitis in shoulder, and another 12 months of specialised hand & physio therapy, and things got more or less back to normal.
The nerves never recovered so I have minimal movement in my left eyebrow and minimal sensation on that side of forehead & scalp - probably an inexperienced resident doing the surgery ?
The police were useless, arrived after ambos, and after SUV had been moved to give ambos better access to me, hardly spoke to me, so based their entire report on the driver's account and closed the case before I got out of hospital (and refused to give me a copy - said it was mostly my fault). I went to a lawyer and eventually after 2 years got a few grand out of the CTP insurers, but because it was "he said, she said" nothing substantial - just some "go away" money. That is why I now ride with front and rear cameras.
As for what the actual problem is.....3 GPs, 2 Podiatrists, 3 Physio's, 2 Ortho surgeons with a foot specialty, assorted orthotics and get this....I don't know any more than I knew at the end of last year! The first Physio was shocked when I told her how much I used to ride....where's the muscle?? It's gone. Almost all of it.
