Not me.
Close friend who was out on Valentines night. Attacked from behind - struck over the head. Friend was found in the street unconscious and taken to hospital where a bleed on the brain was discovered. Medics were concerned that he could have seizures and/or could go blind.
For background, my friend has autism, lives alone and has chronic pain (several co-morbid autism related condistions). When at hospital they couldn't find a quiet space for him, nor an alternative to the chair he was in. They kept trying to find a bed but didn't have any. Eventually the stress broke him and he left, going home and went straight to bed.
I tried to phone him, hosptial tried to phone him, but nobody could get him to answer the phone. I'm not close enough to have been there with keys in the timeframe they needed, so they got police to do a welfare check, smashed their way in and terrified him, bringing about a meltdown.
After a lot of time on the phone with me, he went back to hospital - they had been advised by a specialist unit (not at their hosp) to keep him under obs for 48h - but ended up in another chair, essentially in what was a cupboard (this was apparenly an 'autism friendly' space as it wasn't in A&E, where he spent another 9 hours). Eventually they came back and said that they had no beds.
He discharged himself with their grudging consent and went home. I've spoken to him three times in 48 hours and he seems pretty much his usual self but is concerned that there has been no talk - and had been none - of a follow up scan to see what the bleed on the brain was doing.
He's tried phoning his GP but the receptionist has told him that he'll have to wait up to three days for the GP to phone him back to discuss, and 'after that' can see about making an appointment.
I've tried phoning the ward he was on, to speak with the consultant who saw him, but nobody has phoned me back.
Now I know that the NHS is pressured and underfunded but surely when they were so concerned that he'd died that they broke his door down, that they might have some sort of follow-up plan; that his GP might actually consider this an emergency?
I'm going to see about taking this to PALS with his consent, but really want to know what do we do to get him checked over again? I'm down as next of kin on his medical records.
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General health
Any medical staff or doctors here who can advise please? Brain bleed
8 replies
RiftGibbon · 17/02/2020 17:49
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