Woman forced to wait for 12 hours for operation (From Your Local Guardian)
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Woman forced to wait for 12 hours for operation
9:08am Thursday 16th February 2012 in News By Sophia Sleigh
Louise Teasdale had to wait 12 hours at St Helier
A woman who suffered a miscarriage was forced to wait on a hospital ward without food and water for more than 12 hours for a prearanged operation.
In the end, grieving Louise Teasdale was so frustrated at being ignored she left the St Helier Hospital and has paid £2,000 to have the procedure to remove womb tissue privately.
St Helier hospital this week apologised to the 34-year-old travel consultant from Beddington for the level of care they gave to her 'at what would have been a very difficult time.'
Miss Teasdale was five weeks pregnant when she suffered a silent miscarriage which was diagnosed at St Helier hospital on January 19.
She had an appointment to have an ERPC procedure to remove any remaining tissue on Tuesday, February 7 and arrived at the hospital at 8am.
But instead of being taken into theatre for the operation she was overlooked for hours.
She said: ""This whole experience has been so traumatic that I never want to have my life left in the hands of the NHS ever again." Following doctor's orders to starve herself from midnight, Miss Teasdale arrived at 8am on the day of her operation and was told she was second on the list to go into theatre.
Miss Teasdale had not eaten since 7pm the previous day and became agitated and thirsty.
After several hours, she was told twice she needed a drip, however the drip never arrived and she began to suffer from terrible headaches.
At 5pm she complained but was told there were no managers, supervisors or matrons on duty.
By chance, her mother found Sally Sivas, the head of midwifery at about 7pm who also said Miss Teasdale needed a drip.
However, this never happened and distraught Miss Teasdale left the ward just after 8pm.
She said: "You get to the point when you think I can’t stay here any longer; I had been bleeding for three weeks."
When leaving the ward, she was told she might be called for surgery within the next 30 minutes, but if an emergency was to come in again she would still be left waiting.
She said: "Bearing in mind the reason for me having to undergo this operation, to be treated the way that I was, is disgusting.
"It’s not as if my partner and I are not heartbroken enough as it is; we are then expected to be left and forgotten about on a hospital ward where the staff won’t even make eye contact with you when they enter the room and walk away from patients leaving them in tears.
"You should not offer any of these kinds of operations associated with miscarriage if you cannot carry them out on the day you tell the patients."
She returned home, continuing to bleed and has spent nearly £2,000 on private medical care to get her on the road to recovery.
Ruth Bender Atik, the national director of the Miscarriage Association said that the situation Miss Teasdale faced could have been made more acceptable if she had received better care and communication.
This includes updates on what was happening with timing, a kind word, compassion and sensitivity, a follow-up regarding the drip action if it was agreed and overall a feeling that she was being looked after rather than ignored or avoided.
Pippa Hart, director of nursing at Epsom and St Helier Hospital said: "We are genuinely sorry that Miss Teasdale is unhappy with the level of care we gave to her at what would have been a very difficult time.
"Unfortunately, on the day that Mrs Teasdale was scheduled to undergo her operation, we saw a large number of emergency cases that needed urgent surgery. Whilst emergency cases need to take precedent in situations such as this, we recognise that our communication with Mrs Teasdale could have been much better.
"Our Head of Midwifery, Sally Sivas, has spoken to Mrs Teasdale personally and has written to her to apologise. "In addition, we are reviewing the care Mrs Teasdale received to fully understand what happened so that we can help prevent it from happening again. "We are keen to support Mrs Teasdale and her family in any way that we can during this time and we have made that clear in our communications with her."
For information and advice visit the Miscarriage Association at miscarriageassociation.org.uk or call their helpline on 01924 200799.
Comments(2)
Z.Hurn
says...
12:08am Sat 18 Feb 12
However, this is not an isolated case and appears to be the 'normal' pattern of 'NHS care'; provided not only at St Helier but across the country. A recent article in the Daily Mail reported on the subject and had a family member not been experiencing similar problems at St Helier at the time, I would probably have felt that it was rather exagerated.
On 16th January at 35 weeks pregnant, my relative started bleeding and was immediately rushed to St Helier. Thankfully the baby was delivered safely at 38 weeks on the 5th February but the three weeks intervening can only be described as a complete nightmare.
During this period, she spent approx 5 days at home, the remainder she was being transferred between the labour ward and maternity unit. The bleeding continued at intermittent intervals and on three occasions she was prepared for an emergency cesarian. She was considered 'high risk' owing to the bleeding and level of care at the time of the bleeds was excellent. However, once the bleeding had subsided she was rarely even monitored. The events following the bleeds seemed to form a pattern. Once the bleeding subsided, she & the baby were considered 'safe' & she was transferred to the matenity care unit where she was then virtually ignored. Numerous hours were spent awaiting a consultation with a doctor or someone who would be in a position to advise on the very worrying situation. Following a further bleed on 31st January, it was agreed that a decision would have to made with regards to inducing labour. She was told that the consultant would visit her on the 1st at around 9am. Again the waiting game, until around 1pm when a midwife announced that it had been agreed to induce. Nobody however had thought it very important to let the patient know!!! Eventually at 8:30pm that evening she was taken up to the labour ward to administer the first stage of inducement. The plan of action was to follow up with further inducemnet at 6 hour intervals. However this did not happen and 24 hours elapsed, being the 2nd February, before the 2nd stage inducement. The 3rd stage was scheduled for 8 hours following this but again this was not the case.
The explanation given for the delay was that owing to her status, i.e., 'High Risk', inducement on the maternity ward was not an option. The stages of inducemnet had to be carried out on the labour ward with full monitoring and the necessary resources were not available. However, on the 3rd February, she was taken back up to the labour ward, with assurances that she would be there for the duration of inducement; the inducement plan would be followed and she would not leave there until the baby was born.
It was actually the 4th before this 'promise' was fully adhered to and the final stages of inducement thankfully resulted in the baby being delivered safely on the 5th.
I cannot describe the distress experienced during the three weeks prior to the birth. The situation was not helped by the lack of consistency of care or by the complete failure in the line of comunication between the nursing staff and the patient. It is 30 years since my own children were born and one would assume that the advancement in medicine would be reflected in the running of wards. However, I feel that this certainly is not the case and if anything there is a huge decline in the standards.
Michael Pantlin says...
8:31pm Thu 16 Feb 12
One wonders how much this is due to the actions of the temporary hatchet man CEO who has been slashing jobs and causing the staff dreadful anxiety. In my travels round the hospital I have several times heard the expression "hanging by our fingertips". Time for readers to stand up for their NHS and their local hospital and stop PM Cam-moron and his sidekick Lansley who are hell bent on privatising our NHS and reducing the standard of care to the unacceptable American level, Kill the Health Bill.