Is There a Doctor in the House?

Okay, one more little rant before I begin the story of my "journey" into the medical field.
I got a page one evening while I was on call to see a patient in the hospital the next morning as a consultant. I notice that the patient was in the intensive care unit so I called the nurse to make sure they felt it was a routine consult and that they didn't feel I should see her that night. The nurse described the patient as being poorly responsive, hypotensive and in heart failure but not yet on the ventilator and she thought they did want a cardiologist to evaluate the patient rather urgently. (Seemed reasonable to me.) I asked to speak to the doctor in charge of the patient but they weren't sure who that was. There must be a physician responsible for this woman who was admitted from the emergency room to the ICU in unstable condition! After about 15 minutes of being on hold, the nurse again apologized and finally found a PA (physician assistant) to speak to me who basically said she was 84 years old so don't bother coming in to see her now. The lady was described by the RN and PA as being close to death, yet they didn't think they needed a doctor to come in and evaluate her even though they could not easily contact the Dr. in house! (Oh, yeah. This is the largest hospital in the second largest city in the state.)