ER Nurse tells anorexia patient to 'go get some supper'

CLARENVILLE, Newfoundland, Feb. 5 (UPI) -- According to an anorexia patient who went to the hospital in Clarenville, N.L., a nurse at Cross Memorial Hospital told her to “go get some supper and come back” to the emergency room if she didn’t feel better.

In addition to anorexia, 31-year-old Carla Lamb also suffers from bulimia. She had a relapse last week and a counselor at the Eating Disorder Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador told her to seek help at the hospital.

"I was in a lot of pain, physically and mentally. I was ready to start cutting myself and needed to speak to somebody ... and I needed to know that I was safe. I didn't feel safe," Lamb told CBC News.

The nurse at the hospital didn’t see any injuries, so she brushed Lamb off.

"She said, 'We've got five more people that definitely are ahead of you. Can you go get some supper and come back?'” Lamb recalled. “I don't want supper, I am here for an eating disorder. I'm hungry and I told you that but it doesn't mean that I can eat," she said.

Lamb said that if her husband wasn’t at home, she might have done herself some serious harm. She has been on leave from her job as a massage therapist for four years and only weighs about 70 pounds.

"I have anorexia and bulimia. With that came a lot of other physical and mental problems. It's so important that mental health, eating disorders, these things are all as painful and cause as much internal damage,” Lamb said. “Look at my liver, all these things, it's not OK. I can't see the ribs in my back right now. For some reason that was a pride for me that you could see that. There needs to be the right people at the front line to help."

[CBC News]