Drummer Mike Portnoy stirred up a massive debate after severely criticizing a UK hospital for not offering him adequate service. Mike’s initial Facebook post reads: “A very special NO THANKS to the staff at the Whittington Hospital for NOT seeing me regardless of telling them that there is an audience waiting for our show to begin. “I finally left withOUT seeing a doctor in order to make tonight’s show… I have no idea how the hell I’m going to make it through this show… I can’t even stand up or lift my arms…”
Portnoy’s post was met with a solid amount of fan backlash. One of the replies reads: “I’m a doctor that works at the Whittington hospital in London. I wasn’t working in the A&E department tonight however I am sorry to hear of your plight. “As much as I’d jump at the opportunity to help you if I actually was on call tonight, please try to understand. Us healthcare professionals don’t want anyone to wait or suffer at all, however we encounter life threatening conditions every hour, sometimes every minute, that stop us from seeing others that may be slightly less unwell, as quickly as we’d like. The NHS is under-financed, understaffed, overworked. We do have to economise our resources.
“With all the respect I have for you, it hurts when one of my idols insults an organisation I work very hard for. Waiting sucks, I know, but dying patients suck even more. I sincerely hope you feel better and that the show goes well tonight. Gutted to be missing out due to a prior engagement. Rock on though, love the new Neal Morse album.” Mike’s wife Marleene also joined the debate with a lengthy post to explain the situation. “Some of you people are just so HORRIBLE! He didn’t ask for special treatment because he is famous, his concern was the FANS that paid good money to see a concert that was about to get canceled!” she wrote.
“He had already spent most of the day just trying to get seen by a doctor, was looked at by the paramedics who told him to go to the hospital and on the way the ambulance actually ran out of gas, YES, RAN OUT OF GAS, leaving him stranded and having to try to get transportation to the hospital, only to sit and wait for an endless amount of time, missing the meet and greet, that again, fans paid a lots of money for! “So when he asked if anyone even a nurse could just look at him for 2 minutes or just prescribe him an antibiotic because there was a venue full of people that were waiting for a concert, and you all call him a crybaby, or accuse him of expecting special treatment.
“REALLY!!! What is wrong with you people. How can you be so horrible and so mean. All he told me all day is how upset he was for the fans and how unfair it was for them to be stuck waiting. He was told he had to wait several more hours before anyone could look at him. Does this hospital only have 1 doctor? “The concert would have been cancelled and at that point there is no possible way to call in a replacement so he left played a show with 102 fever to not let down the fans, spent a day of hell just trying to be seen by a doctor or anyone that could help him, while being in another country where he isn’t even from and this is your response!!!! WHAT IS WORNG WITH ALL OF YOU. You are just horrible, disgusting people who love to twist the truth so you can say mean and nasty thing about other people! This is a disgrace.”
Finally, Mike issued an apology. “I’d just like to apologize to anybody I offended with yesterday’s post.” he kicked off. It was not a personal attack or rage against England’s health care system in general (of which I know nothing about)…Yesterday I was the sickest I’ve EVER been in my life. “The paramedics came to see me at the gig and then decided to take me to the emergency room, only for the ambulance to run out of gas and I was then driven to the hospital by a very kind fan who offered to help.
“Neal & I calmly waited in the A&E without any indication from any of the staff of when I would be seen. I did NOT expect any special treatment or wanted to be put ahead of anybody else in need. (as I have been so wrongly accused)… we only wanted some (ANY!) answers as the clock was ticking until showtime. “At 7:45, I had to make the decision to continue to wait and cancel the show…or leave without being seen in order to make the 8pm show. I desperately did NOT want to disappoint the fans and made the decision to leave in order to make the show. I played the show in the worst physical condition of my life.
“I’m sure you can imagine how frustrating this experience was and I stupidly posted about it on my social media. I am shocked and appalled at some of the rude and downright nasty comments that have been posted in the wake of this… really, 10x worse than my post. It’s sad to see such hatred… but whatever, I can suck it up and take it. I surely never meant for such attention and controversy.
“Thank you to everybody that cared and sent me well wishes and prayers…the positive vibes will help me on the road to recovery. In any case, I really need to crawl back in my bunk, get off the internet to try and recuperate… but I wanted to address this issue and explain what happened and apologize to whomever I offended.”
So do you work in a hospital or have you had a similar experience? Let us know below.