Nine Hours in the ER
by Kent Humerickhouse
on Apr 21, 2026
𝗡𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝗛𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 ER: 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗡𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗧𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲𝗱 𝗠𝘆 𝗣𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗼𝗻 𝗠𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗧𝗲𝗰𝗵𝗻𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗴𝘆
December 31, 2024. While many people were preparing to celebrate the new year, I was sitting in an emergency room experiencing one of the most intense pains of my life.
What began as mild discomfort quickly escalated into sharp, overwhelming pain that came in waves each one stronger than the last. Eventually, I learned the cause: a kidney stone. Anyone who has experienced it knows how relentless and exhausting it can be. In those moments, nothing matters more than getting answers and finding relief.
I went to the emergency department expecting clarity. What I didn’t expect was the wait. Hours passed - three, five, seven. In total, I spent nine hours before my condition was fully evaluated. When you’re in that level of pain, time feels different. Every minute stretches, and every unanswered question makes the experience harder.
That night stayed with me not just as a patient, but as someone working in healthcare. Sitting there, one question kept coming back to me: what if diagnosis could happen faster? In emergency situations, time doesn’t just matter it shapes the entire patient experience.
For conditions like kidney stones, imaging is often key to understanding what’s happening inside the body. Ultrasound, as a non-invasive and accessible tool, plays an important role in detecting signs like swelling or obstruction. But access to imaging can take time, and for patients in pain, those delays feel incredibly long.
Today, advancements in portable and handheld ultrasound are changing that. Clinicians can increasingly perform scans at the patient’s bedside, reducing delays and enabling faster assessments. This shift helps support quicker decisions, improves workflow, and most importantly, enhances the patient experience.
That experience changed how I see healthcare. Through my work with Neo Medical USA, I now support technologies designed to improve diagnostic workflows. But that night, I wasn’t thinking about innovation I was simply a patient, uncomfortable and waiting. And it made something very clear: medical technology isn’t just about devices or features, it’s about people.
It’s about making the right tools available at the right moment so patients can get answers faster, feel reassured sooner, and receive care when they need it most. Healthcare is evolving, and as technology brings diagnostics closer to the patient, the impact becomes more human than ever.
My nine hours in the emergency room is something I won’t forget. But it reinforced a simple idea: the right technology, at the right time, can truly change everything.
Author: Chirag Batra, authorized by Kent Humerickhouse
Patient Story (photo provided by patient with consent)
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