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Woman Tweets for help after hospital mistake
The Dove
Posts: 1,221 Forum Member
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A woman who had just undergone major surgery in a Cambridge hospital was not only given a painkiller she was allergic to, nurses refused to give her further help.
Sue Marsh was left in agony after being given Fentanyl, despite being assured she would be given Pethidine and even wearing a bracelet to say she was allergic to the drug.
When nurses told her she could have Fentanyl or nothing, Sue took to Twitter pleading for help. It took a journalist ringing the hospital before she was finally given some pain relief.
This is a terrible story. How medical staff could subject someone who just had a large part of their bowel removed is unthinkable.
http://www.latentexistence.me.uk/sue-marsh-given-wrong-drug-and-nurse-refused-to-change-it-agony-instead-of-pain-relief/
Sue Marsh was left in agony after being given Fentanyl, despite being assured she would be given Pethidine and even wearing a bracelet to say she was allergic to the drug.
When nurses told her she could have Fentanyl or nothing, Sue took to Twitter pleading for help. It took a journalist ringing the hospital before she was finally given some pain relief.
This is a terrible story. How medical staff could subject someone who just had a large part of their bowel removed is unthinkable.
http://www.latentexistence.me.uk/sue-marsh-given-wrong-drug-and-nurse-refused-to-change-it-agony-instead-of-pain-relief/
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Comments
I had a major operation a couple of weeks ago and could not fault the care, information and attention I received.
I was also in hospital for 8 days last October with an infected (and downright bloody painful) gallbladder. Again the care was first class at Pinderfields in Wakefield (who have had their own problems lately with cutbacks etc.). The nurses were great, and were there within a couple of minutes if I had to press the call button no matter what time of the day or night. I was on four different antibiotics every four hours and three different painkillers every four hours too. Getting woken up several times during the night was a tad annoying I guess, but necessary.
By the sounds of it I'm glad I wasn't at the hospital that women went to.
Sounds very very weird to me. On the face of it, they deliberately gave her a drug which they surely must have known she was allergic to.
That is tantamount to a deliberate attempt to harm the individual ~ if it's true.
What I was thinking. wouldn't it be classed as attempted murder? :eek:
She has a problem with her stomach and was admitted to WM, she complained to my Dad that they had not given her all her tablets, my Dad found out she had been taken of steriods DESPITE having the fact that CX had told my Dad she must NEVER be taken off them.
The Nurse was rude and dismissive to my Dad when he asked why, it took my Dad an 80 yo man to ring CX and talk to the consultant who then rang WM to tell them to put her right back on them.
The Dr at WM did not even KNOW my Mum had a brain tumour despite having her notes which my Dad had given WM a copy of.
The steriods are given her a better quality of life WM could have set her back and shortened her life and they were so arrogant, Dr and Nurses know best yeah right
and BTW I dont think its Tory cuts I think this type of thing has been going on for years but now people are challenging these type of decisions and its getting more into the press and over the air waves
I do hope your mum is feeling easier now.
It's though important to note that post major surgery there is often episodes of unaccounted paranoia leading to unfounded accusations
If it's true it's appalling but as in the past I have known patients report untrue claims to police press etc when paranoid I would wait before condemning addennrookes which actually is a very highly regarded hospital internationally
I am allergic to Nurofen and have had Anyphylaxis and the medical staff are only short of writing it on my forehead if I ever am in a hospital or clinic or dentists .
It could be as simple as the nurses saying that at that moment in time nothing else was charted for her untill they got a doctor to sign for something else. Or that she wasnt due another drug at that moment in time as the time gap wasnt reached .Or numerous reasons .
I would have agreed with you until I was taken to hospital two weekends ago, now I believe every word. It was only because my husband had internet access on his phone he could check my meds if he hadn't been quick I would have been given a med I am dangerously allergic to and could have died. Some doctors and nurses really do not care, and it's a shame as they give all the really wonderful people in the NHS a bad name.
Gosh that awful . Do you wear a bracelet with an alert ? I have one with the allergies on the back and at least my husband can read it if he is in a tizz .
I know as a nurse that it was so vital for us to know allergies and we were so aware of them .
it happened with our son too.he was in hospital for a lengthy stay and for some unknown reason i felt the urge to go over from our accomodation at 1 in the morning and see him.
a nurse was just about to give him a drug he is not allowed due to renal problems.:eek:
I have too many allergies to list them on a bracelet so carry a list in my bag with my epipens/steroids and antihistamines, but if the person prescribing won't listen or read them it's dangerous. I have met some wonderful helpful people in hospitals and this was an eyeopener the doctor actually said I was just a patient what did I know about medications !
It does seem, from the comments in her tweets, that her version isn't the whole truth.
My Guess?
She woke up in pain with post op confusion. As her previous experience of Fentynol was that it was ineffective (NOT that she is allergic - 'more pain' is a subjective measure not an automatic allergic reaction like hives or anaphalaxis) she assumed she had been given Fentynol not Pethedine because of the pain. Everything that followed was miscommunication.
However, that is certainly only a guess and it could have gone down the way she described. But I can think of a number of more likely scenarios.
The vast majority of hospitals and staff are fine, so there isn't much chance of something bad happening to you to be fair.
Stories such as the one posted are quite rare, hence the reason they make the press and cause an outcry. Like they say, good news doesn't sell papers.
If you go into hospital and aren't happy with some aspect of your care ask for clarification, ask to speak to your consultant or doctor too if you feel the nurses are lacking. If you don't get any satisfaction consider making a formal complaint. It's not likely to happen though, but just in case.
I can't help agreeing, stress monkey. She sounds like she's gone through a really bad time, physically, and developed some anger issues because of it and has built up an expectation that things will go wrong. It might be that she is intolerant to Fentynol, rather than 'allergic', as such (I'm intolerant to the antibiotic Erythromycin...makes me vomit uncontrollably but that doesn't mean it will kill me). However, if the hospital did administer it contrary to what was agreed (.i.e. purely because Fentynol was the drug of convenience and getting hold of Pethidine was inconvenient/expensive), that is outrageous. It needs to be confirmed exactly what she WAS given and WHY the treatment plan might have been violated before judgements can be made, really.
I am sorry you both had such awful experiences .Its so wrong to hear such stories . As for the doctor who said that molliepop I would be putting that in writing to the patient services and at very least get it off your chest and a note made .
I have made a complaint as this was not all that went wrong that evening, waiting for a reply. Not sure what good it will do though as although I have no intention of asking for money most hospitals make that assumption and seem to clam up and try to hide mistakes.
Surely there should be some form of database for this? Something they can quickly pull up that shows what medication you can't take?
As for the person in the first post. I'm quite sure her experience was horrific but I noticed she is blaming the Tories for what happened. Not sure it's quite that simple.
Project 2000 was a disaster it got rid of the familiar Nurses with their stripes to indicate their year of training from the wards , back then it was 25% academic at an attached college and 75% ward training , so when a Nurse qualified he/she already had a vast amount of experience. Now the emphasis is on degrees and the majority of training is acadamic in lecture halls with qualified Staff Nurses hitting the wards with relatively little experience especially with how to actually handle the public .
Sometimes what some see as progress is just not progress at all.
In my case yes my notes say it all, I usually carry my list though for emergency services who don't have access to them, sometimes the ambulance people need to know before we get to the hospital. Although I don't think many doctors read notes even when I go to the GP they need telling everything each time rather than simply reading their own notes.
In an ideal world it would be great if this was not necessary, however lets say you collapse on a ward and the staff have moments to act, having a wrist band that states something could save valuable time and mean you can be treated at your bed immediately instead of someone having to run off to a PC to check a database.