What to do

By hal

Tue 26 Aug 2008 14:59

I look after my wife on a full time basis due to incidents that occurred earlier on in the year and I am not happy with the way that she was treated leading up to the incident.

Since late November last year my wife has been having a Community Matron come in on a weekly basis to check upon how she was doing her blood pressure, checking her oxygen levels and all the general checks that were required.

Just prior to Christmas, she was explaining to them about her legs, ankles & stomach being bloated. The doctor was called in and he indicated that he felt that she was alright and would keep a check on her.

At this point, she was sleeping downstairs and had a bed brought to enable her to do so. Over the next few weeks, the doctor and Matrons came over to see her and she was increasing in size. I got her some new underwear which was bigger than normal but would not fit her. She needed some that was even bigger.

Doctor came again and took her off a water tablet that she was on, indicated that she would have a blood test and would know tomorrow, Friday if she would have to go in hospital. The day came and went and no signs of any call from the doctor. My wife called him and he indicated that he would get the medicine sorted out.

Called down to the doctors on Monday morning and nothing had been sorted. The Matron came later in the day and got what we thought was the medicines sorted out.
I went to work and he called to find out if she had the medicines which she indicated that she did. It was only when he came the next day and asked had she been taking the water tablet and when I said that she had not got them, he indicated that there was a prescription for her. He asked me to go down later and he would be back at about 3.00pm from his visits.

Also, he saw how bad her legs were and informed her to keep them up.

I arrived just after this and there was no prescription ready so the receptionist went to see him and I got the prescription.

My wife called the doctors on Thursday morning to find out they were in a meeting as she was unhappy with her legs. Received a call about teatime and they indicated that she should keep her legs up. This was without seeing her.

On Friday morning about 4.00am with my wife being downstairs, I heard her shouting for me. My initial thoughts were that she wanted some painkillers but when I got down I found that she had fallen out of bed. I called for an ambulance and they assisted me to get her back onto the bed. They said that she should go into hospital but she refused. I was then asked to call the doctor to get him to come out and assess her.

This I did about 9.30am on Friday morning and he finally arrived about 1.45pm and he was talking to them and in this I indicated that I would be able to get my wife into hospital. Now, when he was discussing with them he said that had it not been Friday to day that he would have checked in another 24 hours to see that she was alright but due to this fact he wanted her in.

When he came off the phone, he indicated to us that they would give us a call as to what to do next. We assumed that this would be the arranging of the ambulance and a bed to get her into.

It was getting frustrating to us now as it was teatime and nothing had yet happened so we had something to eat and at about 6.30pm I found the number for the hospital and called them. To my amazement, I should have brought her in as there was already a bed for her.

It then took me until about 7.00pm to get her to go into hospital. After working my way over, we got there about 7.30pm and got her onto the ward. She had various tests and some x-rays over the next couple of hours or so. She indicated that she was fine and at about 9.45pm I went home. Contacted the family to let them know what was happening and got settled down for the night.

At about 10.45pm, I received a call from them indicating that my wife had started struggling with her breathing and I should get over as soon as possible. I didn’t think to much of this at the time, just thought that once she had seen a friendly face that it would be fine.

Arrived over there and went onto the ward. She had been moved to another ward at this time and she was just getting settled onto the new ward. Had to wait a while and was informed that she was not good. Had not spoken in a while and was not looking too good.

Saw her and was shocked as to how bad she was. She was unconscious at this stage and went to another room to discuss with the doctor. It was then that I was informed that there was fluid on her lungs and she would only have a 50 50 chance of making it through the night.

It was a tough time was this and other members of the family were called over just in case she didn’t make it. Thankfully, through the night she became conscious again, although at first for a couple of hours had no idea as to what she was talking about. About 6 in the morning she started recognising people around her and she was back with us.

She was in hospital for a period of 25 days and when they started monitoring her weight, it was somewhere in the region of 18 stone. When she came out, it was 14 stone 10 lbs which was a loss of over 3 stone in fluid.

From then on when she came home her blood was being checked on a regular basis by the Community Matron to check that she was alright. She told them that she sometimes felt dizzy and they made notes.

I was keeping a careful eye on her and was sat downstairs when she went up and she fell to the bottom of the stairs. I immediately called for an ambulance and they got her into hospital. I was not happy with her left shoulder.

After x-rays ruled out any broken bones the doctor indicated that they would keep her in overnight which made me happy. They felt that it could be her heart was causing problems and this could have been the reason that she fell.

On going to the hospital the day after, she was having some blood put into her and I found out that she was anaemic again. She had 3 units put into her this time. She had been anaemic in January 2007.

They would wait a few days and put the camera down her to see if there was anything going on causing her bleeding. It turned out that she was bleeding internally and it was this that caused her to become anaemic again.

She got it treated by laser, further tests done and another 2 units of blood put back into her and she was able to come home. Has a very sore shoulder which is getting better on a day to day basis but has to be careful with it.

Should the doctors have picked up the fact that her anaemia had come back again with the blood tests that they were doing bearing in mind that this is not the first time that she had this problem. If they had correctly diagnosed the problem of her anaemia then she would not have fallen down the stairs in the first place.

Should the doctors have almost waited until she died in January before taking any action into getting her into hospital. Have we a case to be able to claim compensation for them not doing there job properly.

Sorry to go on for so long. These last few months have not been easy for me.