I was in A&E today (aka ER in American).

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This post relates to hospitals under the NHS in the UK.

I had an episode that presented like a stroke. It turned out to be a very severe basilar migraine attack.

My support worker came to my house asap and took me to A&E by taxi.

I had an unpleasant experience with some of the staff. One refused to acknowledge my support worker's presence. Another said "well how am I supposed to do a blood test if I can't touch you" (when all my support worker was trying to say is keep to the blood test and don't try to hold my hand). Another didn't know what autism really was.

I have a hospital passport which I carry with me that states my autism and how I can be best "dealt with" when in distress, and what I can cope with and what I can't.

Does anyone else have experiences with such things? How do I get staff to actually acknowledge my autism if they won't look at the form? Is there a way to get a marker on my hospital records?

I had a massive meltdown when I got home which didn't help in trying to rest after going to A&E.

I really feel for you! I once had exactly the same thing happen, a basilar migraine and ended up in A&E because it presented as a stroke or similar. The A&E staff were actually very nice to me but when I was transferred to the ward I got much worse, I was completely ignored by the nursing staff, I was unable to talk or move much and I could hear them talking beside me accusing me of being on drugs or pretending when all I needed was medication for the migraine. I actually had the consultant psychiatrist turn up after I'd finally been given the medication I desperately needed and could talk again and he couldn't believe that he'd been called. The treatment I got was horrendous. I tried to file a complaint but it was such a long process and so complicated that I eventually dropped it. Sorry I can't be more positive.

you can't because they are incurably stupid....trust me i know whereof i speak

even if you do they won't read it

it IS hopeless i assure you

What if you wore a medical alert bracelet that said something like "Autism. See Hospital Passport." on it?

I reckon the best thing you can probably do is write a complaint to the management and try and get them to raise awareness of ASDs among the A&E staff.

They were probably extremely busy though as is the case in all A&Es so I expect you probably just ended up having to deal with overworked staff.

Bracelet good idea. They did seem overworked though. I saw three separate nurses and two separate doctors, which was confusing.