About my mother, how do you get a second opinion from another hospital?

[belledechocolatefluffybunny]

Do I have to wait to get her discharged? Do I need to look for a specialist orthopedic centre? Does anyone know one?

She needs a hip reconstruction and I have found this place

//www.rnoh.nhs.uk/clinical-services/joint-reconstruction/hip

We'd like to get her moved out of her current hell -hole hospital, we just don't know how to do it. It appears they have been overloading her with fluid in an attempt to cure her dehydration, this isn't good for patients in mild heart failure.

[belledechocolatefluffybunny]

Ahh, I live in Derby so that would be very helpful. I have some friends in the x-ray department at the QMC. Thankyou herbie. They are talking about putting her in a care home with old people now, that would really finish her off, she gets really upset as she's very caring towards the elderly, not the best place for her psychologically.

[stripeyknickersspottysocks]

Talk to her consultant and ask for a referral to another hospital - have you another one in mind? Its easier to do this as an outpatient, don't know how easy it is to do as an inpatient but ask everyone, consultant, her GP, the ward sister.

Good luck.

[unfitmother]

The nearest to you would probably be the Robert Jones & Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic & District Hospital in Oswestry, Shropshire. They do NHS and private

[belledechocolatefluffybunny]

I doubt that her consultant will do a referral to be honest, we have had alot of problems with the hospital and have a solicitor now preparing a case against the trust. A specialist hospital in the East Midlands would be very good for her, her current hole hospital is just a district general (think one recently in the news for very poor patient care )

[belledechocolatefluffybunny]

Thankyou unfitmother, I'll have a look She's high risk for an open procedure as she has mild heart failure and mild COPD. She was fine when they operated to repair the initial fracture in October though.

[stripeyknickersspottysocks]

My dad's consultant has referred him to another hospital but I think partly because my dad has something very rare and the local hospital are out of their depth on how to treat it. We did have to push for it though.

He was an inpatient at the time when we first started asking, the consultant started off ringing another hospital consultant for advice. Dad has since been discharged from hospital and is now having appts at the 2nd hospital to get a plan put in place.

[moaningminniewhingesagain]

Oswestry is excellent for orthopaedics, a proper specialist centre.

[belledechocolatefluffybunny]

I hope your father's OK stripey.

I blame her hospital for the condition she's in now. They sent her home with an infection induced confusion, she was confused when she fell because the antibiotics hadn't started to work (they were prescribed by a mental health crisis doctor who was seeing her at home, there was nothing wrong with her mental health, she had an infection). It's all so needless.

[belledechocolatefluffybunny]

I've emailed to ask them about how we can get a second opinion, her other health problems have not been managed at her current hospital though, she's been encouraged to drink as much as she can to prevent dehydration (again) but they have not taken into account her heart failure so she's had fluid overload. They have allowed her to become seriously dehydrated twice because of UTI's, I had to complain to the chief exec to get her put on a drip! (bashes head against a wall). Would a hospital operate on her with all of this going on?

[Feenie]

Anyone is entitled to a second opinion under the NHS, and I think your consultant will be obliged to tell you how you can get one. My mother's history under one NHS consultant was appalling, and so was the nurses' reatment of her in one hospital - and she was also told that she would never survive further surgery (but for a urostomy, so completely different medical circumstances). A second consultant totally disagreed, and gave her the urostsomy that she needed. She did survive, and is living to tell the tale 20 years later.

Consultants are not God, and they are not always right. And sometimes the NHS lets people down. You are doing exactly the right thing, and I hope the next consultant's opinion is different - and more correct. Don't take no for an answer.

[belledechocolatefluffybunny]

Thank you Fennie. She's such a lovely lady and means such alot to us all. We've had to complain and fight for her to have the treatment that she deserves, there's more to do still. We want her home so she can see her grandchildren grow up, this is all she wants aswell. My sister and I are shocked at how easily her current hole have written her off.

I'm really pleased at reading your story.

[Feenie]

Me and my sister used to play good cop, bad cop - one of us would do the very much needed stamping feet and kicking off, while the other one was more reasonable - it helped keep the nurses on side while getting things changed.

On reading your story, I can see so many similarities, and it tallies with lots of disappointing experiences we've had with one or two consultants in particular. Keep fighting - they've got no business righting your mum off, and it sounds like total bollocks to me.

Actually, my grandfather had a hip replacement a few weeks ago - he has a history of heart trouble and one anaesthetist also told him he wouldn't survive the operation. He is 82 years old, it nearly frightened him to death. My mum and dad stepped in, he had the operation at a better hospital in South Wales with specialist facilities for heart patients, and is recovering nicely, no thanks to the anaesthetist at the first hospital.

Just like the rest of the world, people in the medical profession aren't always right, but unfortunately lots of people will believe what they say as gospel (and you can understand why) and don't look for different advice. I'm glad you've chosen not to accept the first verdict, I think you're absolutely right not to.

[belledechocolatefluffybunny]

They have really frightened her, her GP told her several years ago that she must not have another GA or she'd never wake up. Every time she goes into hospital she's petrified now. It sounds like bollocks, I never realised how badly patients were treated in some hospitals until now. There's another meeting scheduled on Wednesday to discuss her care after she's been discharged, my sister wants a second opinion so we'll ask then. The nurses and doctors don't communicate with each other and the nurses can't get the doctors to visit my mother most of the time.

Thank you

[Feenie]

No problem - let us know what happens. x

[belledechocolatefluffybunny]

I shall do. Thank you.

[belledechocolatefluffybunny]

They did that for the initial repair and now she has problems retaining urine, she's has had a catheter since the operation in October, they are not changing it weekly though and it falls out sometimes, we think her bladder goes into spasms and keeps the urine in, then relaxes too much so the catheter falls out. They say she pulls it out but I really don't think she'd do this, it would be so painful. She gets a UTI when it's fallen out as she can't go to the toilet

[Feenie]

Omg, a catheter since October??? No wonder she gets infections, that can't be right.

[belledechocolatefluffybunny]

No, we're not impressed. They rarely change it once it falls out she gets a UTI within 3 days, we know the signs now, she acts very strangely.

[belledechocolatefluffybunny]

Thankyou.
They have only just (the last week) been restricting her fluid intake, prior to this she was encouraged to drink as much as possible. Her catheter is only changed when it falls out, there have been occasions where it has remained in for more then 6 weeks, one was left in for a few months. She has a urologist as she's previously had a stent in her kidney, he's done nothing, just said he'd leave her and review her again in clinic 6 months later (didn't happen).

I've called her today and she doesn't sound with it at all, I recon she has yet another infection. She's 59, I don't think this is very old to be honest.

[unfitmother]

59?? That's no age!
Does she have a hip replacement that needs revising or is a complex fracture?

[belledechocolatefluffybunny]

She fractured her femur, they put pins and plates in it. Apparantly they have moved and are majorly out of place so she's been told she needs a hip replacement. The origional operation was in the mid shaft of the femur so no where near her hip. I'm assuming they need to remove the pins and plates, then reconstruct the femur, I'm unsure as to the state of her hip as I've not seen the x-rays.

[unfitmother]

Mr Spencer Jones, Mr Gregson or Mr Evans at Oswestry spring to mind.