Late in the afternoon
of yesterday Pa received the telephone call he had been waiting for
for months,he now has the date for his knee replacement
surgery,December 6th 2013. Next week he has his pre
surgery check up,after that if there is a cancellation the operation
could take place even sooner,which we are all hoping for.
Poor Pa has suffered
dreadfully for many years and to have hope that soon he may at least
be free from pain is wonderful, of course we hope that he will be
able to walk again but such is the damage to both bone and tendons
that we dare not hope for too much.
The main thing is that
we have managed to get his operation done at the best hospital for
this type of surgery in London instead of the Hospital
which is just a couple of hundred yards away from our home. The last
time pa was a patient there (bowel surgery in 2007 I think it was)
they almost killed him.
The after surgery care
on the wards was terrible. They left him without any pain relief for
three days when he should have been of I.V pain relief. One of his
medications (a controlled drug) disappeared on the day of his
operation, a fact which they failed to mention. After several days
without this vital drug Pa was very unwell.
Next I discovered that
they had not been giving him his epilepsy medication nor the
medication for narcolepsy and in fact were not aware that he had
these conditions for which there is no excuse.
One afternoon when
arrived to visit Pa the nurse told me that he was comatose, it was at
this point that I discovered that Pa had not been given any of his
medication,except for,believe it or not a sleeping tablet, given to
him at eight thirty........in the morning. Now I was really worried.
I spoke to the staff
nurse who told me all was well and when I asked again a little later
accused me of being a nuisance! By now Pa was having difficulty
breathing and was in acute pain from his surgery,the dressing on his
wound had not been changed for several days and actually smelled bad.
Again I attempted to
alert the nursing staff to his condition, I was told that the nurses
were busy with their rounds and was I trying to teach them their job.
This time I pointed out that Pa was blue, his lips ,nose hands and
feet,at last I got a reaction, a crash trolley and a consultant were
sent for.
It transpired that Pa
should have been on oxygen but that this had been disconnected while
his bed was moved and not reconnected. A combination of no pain
relief, no oxygen ,no fluids and absolutely no attention from the
nurses had brought Pa to within a few minutes of death.
This is not the only
incident we have experienced at this woefully inadequate hospital. A
friend of ours was in their care for a month and during that time and
in spite of the fact that he was in a room with a shower he was never
washed. Unable to walk unassisted he had had to make do with a daily
shave. He smelled so bad he was too ashamed to have his beloved
granddaughters to visit him.
While in the care of
this hospital he developed dreadful bed sores which went unattended,
when I asked about this the nurse told me that it had been dressed
the day before but that the dressing had “come off”. She made it
sound as if there was only one dressing in the place and her
reasoning was Why put on a dressing if it is going to come off again.
One of these sores went to the bone.
He had been put on a
special diet because he could not swallow,this never materialised and
I was obliged to take in suitable food when I visited him. The whole
thing was a disgrace. He died,unexpectedly after a month of neglect
and on the day of his death a viscous black fluid was leaking from
the opening in his stomach where a feeding peg had been located.
We were not family but
had we been I should have demanded a second opinion as to cause of
death,however when is family did show up ,at the funeral no one
seemed to mind, after all they had not been there to see his plight!
It took quite a bit of
jostling to get Pa into the hospital where his operation will take
place,it does a lot of private work and we have no medical insurance.
The relief we all feel
knowing that ,not only will Pa have a good surgeon, but also good
after care on the wards. I assure you that we feel the luck of our
situation and are very thankful for our .G.P s assistance in the
matter.
So now we wait, this
time with hope. Today I made our Christmas cake,Pa adores a rich
fruit cake and as the next few weeks will be busy with non-Chrismassy
doings at least the centre piece of the Christmas tea table will be
ready.
Now I am in sore need
of a quick shower and a long rest so I will wish you a good night and
I do mean good.
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