Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Chat

Join the discussion and chat with other Mumsnetters about everyday life, relationships and parenting.

Original poster

Hospital ward CF stories

161 replies

SapphosRock · 29/12/2019 13:44

Can anyone beat mine?

I was admitted to hospital today and so far the neighbour in the bed next to me has:

⁃	Stolen my pillow
⁃	Stolen my fan 
⁃	Moved her curtain around MY cupboard and put all her stuff on it - I now have nowhere to put anything 
⁃	Plugged her phone into my plug socket 
⁃	Had about 5 noisy visitors all of whom brought some kind of smelly takeaway
⁃	Had a nap. Snored her head off 
⁃	Complained loudly about everything and everyone on the ward disturbing her - all the other ladies are quiet as mice

A lovely nurse is going to try and move me!

OP posts:
helpconfused · 30/12/2019 23:27

When my sister had DN2, she was next to a lady who thought it completely acceptable to put her newborn baby in the cot trolley with my 1 day old neice and walk off of the ward. This woman was a different nationality and did not speak the same language at all so they hadn't even had a conversation or acknowledged each other as both had curtains shut up to this point
. Bizarre.

ThanosSavedMe · 30/12/2019 23:29

When I had an outpatient appointment for a broken collarbone there was a young kid in the seat next to me who kept wriggling around and nearly knocked into me several times. I asked the adults with him if they could please move him as I was worried, I couldn’t believe the abuse I got from them. Soon shit them up when I had a go back, don’t think the expected that. One of them then kept apologising to me when I burst into tears.

ThanosSavedMe · 30/12/2019 23:29

Shut them up, not shit them up!

LolaDarkdestroyer · 30/12/2019 23:35

winterdaysarehere not a cf.....a sick one though..you are in a hospital, your kid is ill. That's kind of vile.

Babyroobs · 30/12/2019 23:41

These people should be threatened with being thrown out if they can't behave. I used to work in a hospice ( privately funded) and if anyone refused to be nursed by a certain person because of their colour or race they would get a stern talking to . There should be zero tolerance. Wtf is wrong with people ?

BillywilliamV · 30/12/2019 23:47

Loathed my private room, was much happier on a ward where I could see stuff going on.

ChilliandLemon · 30/12/2019 23:51

@Winterdaysarehere that’s just beyond inappropriate. Hmm

A nurse friend of mine walked into a cubicle once and found the parents having sex.

ReanimatedSGB · 31/12/2019 00:06

Not a CF as such because she couldn't help it, but the woman in the next bed to my mum had some sort of stomach issue and was both farting really loudly and screaming all night. Then had a bout of loud and very smelly diarrhoea at breakfast time. My mum isn't great about other people's bodily functions anyway and was utterly miserable...

Winterdaysarehere · 31/12/2019 00:36

Ds wasn't ill and door was locked.

secretfreckle · 31/12/2019 00:59

Firstly, thank you to all the wonderful NHS staff on here, you are amazing!
Very recently I was on a children's ward with my daughter who was coming round after a GA. The curtains were round the bed as she was trying to sleep. On one side of us was a very young baby crying (fair enough) and her parents. On the other side was a father with his toddler son. For an HOUR, he answered the questions we had been asked by a nurse when we arrived. Our answers took around five minutes. Questions like 'does your child have any allergies?' Every answer was given in a booming voice with no regard for anyone around him.
When the nurse asked him 'does your child have any other health issues we need to know about?' he actually said: 'Just that he's so adorable. You know, one woman who met him recently said oh he makes my OVARIES ache ..... blablabla.....'
I just couldn't believe it. The complete entitlement and selfishness of him and also the wasting of the nurse's time who had to sit for an hour and listen to him instead of getting on with something useful.

Rottnest · 31/12/2019 05:38

I would be very tempted to call the police tbh, have actually done so in the past with 'difficult' visitors. Some people need a wrecking ball before they will take any notice.

Obligatorync · 31/12/2019 05:48

I was in hospital several times a couple of years ago with my gallbladder. The second time they couldn't operate as I had a chest infection. I had been up all night and had morphine so come 9am on the ward I fell asleep, curtains wide open.
I WOKE MYSELF UP snoring and had drooled all over the pillow.
For every further admission I had a private room, which I'm sure was just chance, but I used to wonder if they'd written CANNOT BE LEFT ASLEEP NEAR OTHERS on top of my file.

Weenurse · 31/12/2019 05:59

I always tell patients who demand single rooms, that they are for the dying and the infectious. That stops them complaining.
Confused patients are a different category. The worst beating I had from a patient was a 93 year old “off NOF” as we used to refer to them. Confused little old lady who broke her hip. Weighed about 50 kg wringing wet. Beat me up a treat as we were rolling her to prevent pressure sores at about 2am. I learned how to duck after that.
Re confused patients, we understand that this is not their usual behaviour and don’t take any behaviour personally.

Clymene · 31/12/2019 06:14

It doesn't matter @Winterdaysarehere. It's revolting behaviour

Obligatorync · 31/12/2019 06:30

I was in a room next to a confused elderly lady once. She'd broken her hip but didn't understand this and kept trying to get up. It was heartbreaking.

MrsElijahMikaelson1 · 31/12/2019 08:55

@Wintersdaysarehere that is truly disgusting behaviour. It doesn’t matter that the door was locked, it was a hospital not a sex dungeon🤮

SexlessBoulderBelly · 31/12/2019 09:00

Seriously. How did you go from ‘we forgot to buy each other a valentines card’ to ‘let’s fuck in a&e while DS is asleep.

Ugh crass.

ChasingRainbows19 · 31/12/2019 09:01

@Winterdaysarehere we have had our nurses stumble on parents doing the same while checking on their sick child. It's so wrong to be faced with that while in work and doing your job!. And while your sick child is in hospital ffs.

Who is thinking of being sexual in a germ filled humid environment while their sick child is next to them? Confused

Thingywhatsit · 31/12/2019 09:29

Not a patient CF but a nurse one. Was admitted for a week onto a 8 bay ward furthest away from the nurses station. I was the youngest on the ward by about 30 years. A young woman was then admitted who was on the palliative care pathway who was rather ill, and completely drugged up. I was constantly buzzing during her first night as she was falling whilst trying to get out of bed, going into the other bays etc. Not her fault at all.

Next day the charge nurse instructed me to buzz as soon as she had an issue and she would come personally to deal with the lady, so basically I was asked to be her babysitter whilst I was being treated for sepsis. The nurses apologised to me as they weren’t happy with it. Of course the lady got out of bed, started pulling her drains out and rip out her drip. No one came. So I had to get out of bed and wobble to the nurses station where I then collapsed and had to be wheelchaired back to my bed (bear in mind I hadn’t even been allowed to visit the toilet on my own at this point). It was really horrible as this poor woman had no dignity whatsoever,

The next day a family friend came to visit and charge nurse was on duty - she completely changed, as thought I was putting in a complaint as the friend was very high up in hospital management and often visited wards to speak to those who serious complaints. Within 10 minutes of his visit a HCA was stationed to her bed to look after her and during a 40 minute visit, charge nurse visited our bay 3 times. Within a few hours of the visit she was moved to a bed in a view of the nurses station. The lovely nurses were complexed at the turn around!

It turned out charge nurse was removed from post not long after, even though I made no complaint plenty of others had.

SpruceTree · 31/12/2019 09:33

Just a reminder to people that nurses are not security guards or police. They have no power to make rude people stop what they are doing, and are often subject to violence, so it is unfair to expect them to sort out other peoples behaviour. They are there to nurse people.

Catrescue1971 · 31/12/2019 09:34

OP, I hope you have had some progress with your illness / hospital move.

stripeypillowcase · 31/12/2019 09:40

Just a reminder to people that nurses are not security guards or police. They have no power to make rude people stop what they are doing, and are often subject to violence, so it is unfair to expect them to sort out other peoples behaviour. They are there to nurse people.

nurses are responsible for the people they take care o on the ward. if there are issues as in the op they need to arrange for help.
who else is there a vulnerable patient can go to for help?

Wineislifex · 31/12/2019 09:52

I can think of a few...the patient who kept having sex with her boyfriend in the public toilets on the paeds corridor who was removed by security...
Or a guy who self discharged one evening cos the ‘NHS are shit’ then decided the next day to turn up on the ward because he wanted his bed back, when explained that his bed had a new patient in, he laid on the floor and screamed until he was given a prescription for a certain controlled drug he wanted!
Oh and another, a man who wrote in his feedback form that ‘he wood not have had to wait if he woz black’...spelt exactly like that 😫

ChasingRainbows19 · 31/12/2019 09:57

cf are everywhere. We've had parents complain while the doctors are busy with a an arrest at ward round that their child hasn't been seen. Politely explain 3/4/5 times with a very sick child someone will be with you ASAP. Parent grumbles and complain that their child is sick too....ShockChild has a nurse looking after them, obs stable and child playing. Hmm but don't worry we will drag the doctor away from saving a life to tell you they can be discharged.

Parents demanding we feed them 3 meals a day too. Yeah cos the NHS has that big a budget.

Don't even get me start on visitors.... leaving children to run around on their own or even leaving them on the ward while they nip off, turning up well after visiting, sitting on clean beds, 10 visitors turning up at once and then being annoyed when you tell them it's not possible.

The amount of things stolen is also ridiculous, games consoles, controllers, dvds, games, toys, cot mobiles etc. Even nursing/hospital equipment has gone too...

YoureAllABunchOfBastards · 31/12/2019 09:57

When I had DS1 his blood sugars were low and he needed a formula top up every hour. I didn't sleep at all, really. The woman in the next bed snored like a drowning warthog all night - the nurses who were coming to check on DS and give him his formula kept having to check she was OK. The next morning she told us all that she hadn't slept all night....

When I had DS2 I was an inadvertent CF. He was unsettled and I was trying to soothe him with not much success. A nurse appeared and offered to take him to the desk to watch him so I could have a sleep. I agreed and had a lovely couple of hours. It was only in the morning that I realised that she thought I had buzzed for her - I hadn't. It was the poor woman opposite who had had a forceps delivery and was in pain.

Please create an account

To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account.

Join Mumsnet Log In

This thread is closed and is no longer accepting replies. Click here to start a new thread.