It’s time to get a few things off my chest regarding this matter. As most of you know I’ve had 14 surgeries in my life so I think I can speak plainly based on my own experiences. Last year my mum had a knee operation which went perfectly well, a successful operation. Then an incident happened which made my blood boil somewhat. I had a very distressing call from my mum (she had her own room) one late morning, that she was in terrible pain and not had her pain medication. I was fuming and made my way to the hospital asap to find out what had happened to delay her meds. When I got there, mum said she was in her bathroom when the nurse came in and left her meds on the table obscured by something, she had no idea they were there. Firstly, under no circumstances should a nurse leave meds unattended on the table, they are supposed to either help you with them if you’re unable to administer them yourself. Or at least watch you take them from the little white pot they put them in. Remember she just had major surgery and was not coherent about her surroundings.

In the early part of your healing process, it’s important to have your pain medication on time. Suffering in pain will not aid in your recovery.

This was so upsetting to see her so distressed I had to report it. I went straight to the nurse’s station to ask for the ward sister and explained what had happened and that under no circumstances was this acceptable! I was very polite but made it clear that I know what is supposed to be happening therefore that incident can’t happen again. The sister was very apologetic and said yes I am right and that she would speak to the nurse in question. Later on the said nurse came in and tried to explain herself and that there was clearly a misunderstanding. I stopped her right there and said NO, there was no misunderstanding, you did something that shouldn’t have been done full stop. My mum is now acutely aware of this procedure.

Last week my mum had a very complex hiatus hernia operation and was in ICU for 4 days. They were absolutely fantastic looking after her as one would expect in such a tense environment as ICU. Her bed was extremely high tech; I’ve never seen anything like it. It inflated, massaged, vibrated, and could positon into a chair. So when it came to getting her up, they helped her into a chair by her bedside. Immediately she felt dizzy so back to bed she went, her blood pressure had dropped. They did it again the next day and she passed out, sats, oxygen and blood pressure all dropped.  Moving on from this scary situation and speaking to my mum, I said to her ‘Why don’t they make your bed move into the seating position, let you rest there for a bit, then slowly let your feet touch the floor, THEN be helped into the chair. Imagine, she told the nurses to do this and guess what she was fine…

Why the hell am I telling them? Surely that’s common sense after the previous episodes? Clearly not.

She was eventually moved to the same surgical ward as when she had her knee op and of course saw the same said nurse which mum said was a bit awkward lol. Now in this ward her nurse would take the pills out of the packet after showing her them, put them in the little white pot, wait for her to take them and then give her the necessary injection. Simple right? So why did mum wake up to a pot of tablets and a syringe with required meds on her table? They were not even hers!!!!! Are you kidding me. I was in complete shock that I had to laugh because surely that can’t be right. If my unfortunately timed neck spasm hadn’t laid me out, I would have been there in a second. But my mum handled the situation like the boss that she is. She reported it and the next morning she could hear the ward sister talking to all the nursing staff around the nurses’ station. She overheard them getting reprimanded and emails and leaflets have been distributed amongst the staff. Reminding them that anybody could have taken them, or stolen them!

Lessons Learnt

Please be aware of procedures in hospital environments. I have experienced the most shocking behaviours in the NHS and Privately, and learnt a lot over the last 30 years and some of those experiences I have helped make change for the better. Don’t be afraid to speak up.