the NHS

Associate
Joined
24 Nov 2002
Posts
1,647
Location
Abertawe, Cymru.
Arrrrrrggggg doing my head in, long story so bare with me.

About 7 weeks ago my mother was rushed into hospital with seveare pain just above the stomach, they diagnosed a leaking gall bladder which then infected the blood that caused abescess on the liver and a bladder infection.

She was also having major migraines, she was blind for three days. Then one night she had two seizures. After that she started to recover, and after a week she was discharged and she was fine apart from a little confusen.

After two back home she started getting pain in the lower bowel, Dr was called and he sent her to another hospital, she was throwing up even though there was nothing in her stomach, major nausea so she wouldn't eat for days. they said it was a infection of the intestines.

Come this Saturday, we went down to see her norm time and she was fine, back to her old self etc

Sunday we go down and again she seemed fine, but we did notice she was saying words that didn't make sense, like she would ask to drink the milk, when all she had was a bottle of water, we asked the nurses and the said that the Dr had seen her and was happy to discharge her on Monday.

So yesterday comes around and we get no phone call to say when to pick her up, so I rang up about 1pm and was told yes she is fine, and sitting in a chair and the Dr was happy to discharge her.

30 minutes later my stepfather phones up and asks what time we can pick her up, they say any time after 4pm, oh and she had a fall last night and banged her head and needed a stitch in it, now they never told me that 30 mins before.

So off we trundle get to the hospital about 3:40, I go up to the ward, she is fast asleep, so I gentley wake her up, she said why are you here, so I say to take you home etc

Now she was acting totally confused, like she would call people she Knew by different names etc So again we go and have a word with the ward sister, oh yes she says the Dr saw her this morning and is totally happy for her to go home.

So we get her dressed, down to the car, on the way home she starts moaning as if she was in pain, but every time we ask her she says she is fine and just wants to go home, we get her home and she sits in the living room moaning, and clenching her fists. About 30 mins later she lies down and starts having a conversation with herself, so the rest of us decided to phone an ambulance, I ring 999 get through and answer a stream of questions and they decided to put me through to the out of ours Dr.

She rings back about 20 mins later and I answer another stream of questions, and she says she is going to confer with her colleges and they will phone me back within the hour.

10 minutes later my mother has a seizure, I have never been so frightened in my life, anyway I ring 999 again and ask for an ambulance, and is asked to answer another stream of questions, at this time I'm like just send the frigging ambulance, girl on the phone assures me a rapid response unit is on the way with an ambulance as back up, so about 10 mins later they turn up, treat her, make sure she is breathing etc ask us her history etc we tell them and say she was discharged from hospital this afternoon, they just look at each other and are like wtf!!

So off I go in the ambulance with her, she is talking just about, pulse and heart rate fine, we have to sit in the ambulance when we get to the hospital for over an hour before they will let us in, so in we go and we are asked to leave for a little bit while the nurses etc look over her, during this time she has another seizure, so I Dr rushes over does his thing etc and makes her stable.

So we go through the complete history with him again etc by this time she is fast asleep, and as it's about 2am we are told we might as well go home and they will decide what ward to put her in.

So after a night of restless sleep I phone up to be told she had a fine night, and she is stable but she did have another seizure around 7am this morning and she gets very agitated when they try to do any medical thing on her.

Now I didn't know this but my stepfather phoned up about an hour before I did and was told she was fine all night and she is sleeping, no mention of this 3rd seizure this morning, oh and the one stitch they put in her head, it was three and she had a black eye and a big bruise all over one side of her face.

So here I am, worried sick out of mind, I feel like puking, and to top it all I'm running a temperature and my glands on my neck are up, so I won't be able to go and see her.

Sorry for the very long rant, just needed to share with someone.

SJ.
 
Dont take any crap from the NHS ( as an institution )

Be nice and polite at all times and dont blame individual staff for things you think have been done wrong, it may well be someone elses fault.

Im my experiance you have to insist on certain things to get the proper results.

Remember that the VAST majority of NHS staff are caring and hard working professionals, who work long hours and are stressed. Things can go wrong and miscommunication can cause issues. Be patient put persistant and make sure you know at all stages exactly whats being done for your mum. There are a few bad eggs ( i know i have met a few ) but getting this seen by others and moreover getting something done about it is very difficult.

My first port of call would be the doctor who discharged her... get his opinion of the situation and see what he/she does from there. Your mum was their patient and was discharged on their say-so... she then had the relapse.

And best wishes for her recovery.
 
Last edited:
I feel for you guy, there is not much you can really do except seek additional opinions from other doctors to find out the underlying cause of the problem. My heart is with you, stay strong for your family and yourself and in the end I hope good prevails.
 
Sounds terrifying :s

You sound like you've done all you can mate. Sounds to me like they aren't sure whats going on. Can you try to get a second opinion?
 
Dont take any crap from the NHS ( as an institution )

Be nice and polite at all times and dont blame individual staff for things you think have been done wrong, it may well be someone elses fault.

Im my experiance you have to insist on certain things to get the proper results.

Remember that the VAST majority of NHS staff are caring and hard working professionals, who work long hours and are stressed. Things can go wrong and miscommunication can cause issues. Be patient put persistant and make sure you know at all stages exactly whats being done for your mum. There are a few bad eggs ( i know i have met a few ) but getting this seen by others and moreover getting something done about it is very difficult.

My first port of call would be the doctor who discharged her... get his opinion of the situation and see what he/she does from there. Your mum was their patient and was discharged on their say-so... she then had the relapse.

And best wishes for her recovery.

I agree with this, you really need to push to make sure they are listening to you and know exactly what's going on. I had a neighbour turn up at my doorstep at 3am one night convinced she was somewhere else and looking for my boyfriend to take her home. She had only just come home from hospital after surgery and was on pills that were causing really bad hallucinations. It turned out that she had been having hallucinations for several days, but the nurses who were supposed to be looking after her didn't know her so they just assumed that it was normal for her.

I really have to give top marks to the doctor I called out though, he said he'd let me know when he was done but didn't and just left her alone - a couple of hours later my neighbour called to say she thought there was someone in her house, she was alone and hallucinating again :rolleyes:.
 

What a pleb you are platinum87.

Dont take any crap from the NHS ( as an institution )

Be nice and polite at all times and dont blame individual staff for things you think have been done wrong, it may well be someone elses fault.

Im my experiance you have to insist on certain things to get the proper results.

Remember that the VAST majority of NHS staff are caring and hard working professionals, who work long hours and are stressed. Things can go wrong and miscommunication can cause issues. Be patient put persistant and make sure you know at all stages exactly whats being done for your mum. There are a few bad eggs ( i know i have met a few ) but getting this seen by others and moreover getting something done about it is very difficult.

My first port of call would be the doctor who discharged her... get his opinion of the situation and see what he/she does from there. Your mum was their patient and was discharged on their say-so... she then had the relapse.

And best wishes for her recovery.

Very good advice, I don't mean to sound rude but if you could tell your mother was having trouble with something just before she was discharged and had been told the doctor saw her in the morning why not ask them to come and take a look before she goes and make sure that something else hasn't come up.

As for the miscommunication on the phone you maybe getting through to a ward clerk who isn't given the same information as a staff nurse/doctor or that the one you have spoken to hasn't been caring for your mother.

I know you are stressed but the NHS is a brilliant service, it just suffers the same as anyother large company with staff/communication problems.

KaHn
 
Last edited:
I hope she gets better soon op. :(

May I recommend everyone who has quoted platinums post remove the quote (perhaps just with a *snip* there). Its bad enough it's there, but keep repeating it makes it worse. :)
 
Yeah I know, looking back we should have made a fuss but at the time you just think to put your trust in the Dr, apparently they are going to give her anti epilepsy drug to stop the seizures, the brain scan came back negative so they have now sedated her and are taking a lumber puncture. But my sister did say she seemed a bit more responsive and she recognised her and her b/f which is more then she did last night.

to top it all off, my real father is admitting himself into the same hospital as he has been in agony for the last 4-5 weeks with a hernia that's reopened.

And my stepfather went to have some tests done for back passage cancer, and they have found blood etc so want him to go in for tests.
 
Just remember that everything at the NHS costs money for them to complete, so they will try and avoid tests which aren't needed, unless they have information to show that their is a problem.

So with your mam being fine one minute then bad the next you just need to keep them informed of her condition as you know her, at the end of the day who would you rather be, the paitents family who try everything to make sure they are fine or the family who let the doctors get on with it and come in once a week?

KaHn
 
I've had a letter from our Trust Chief Executive today because I attended a 'Listening In Action' meeting.
This consisted of around 1000 staff over a number of days airing their views and the number 1 concern for staff was Communication and no 2 was not enough time to do the job.
I made a point of customer care and how staff fob off service users who self diagnose using the internet or Doris down the road.
It just so happened that the bloke next to me was a Consultant Surgeon and he said that he would love to tell a self diagnosing patient why they are wrong but he hasn't got the time, he only has time to tell them how it is.
 
I know you are stressed but the NHS is a brilliant service, it just suffers the same as anyother large company with staff/communication problems.

KaHn

100% agree after having some problems last week myself after an operation/day surgery and not as serious as the OP`s (not the right place/time to tell the story) ive come to the same conclusion.
So to the OP hang in there dude and try your best to be patient with the staff and i wish your mother a speedy recocvery.
 
Dont take any crap from the NHS ( as an institution )

Be nice and polite at all times and dont blame individual staff for things you think have been done wrong, it may well be someone elses fault.

Im my experiance you have to insist on certain things to get the proper results.


This is very true, I'm quite ill myself at the moment so I totally sympathise with the miss communication and misdirection that happens at times, all I can assure you of is that it is all innocent, most of them are just completely over worked.

I do hope your mother recovers well and in good time, my thoughts are with her and yourself.
 
Back
Top Bottom