General anaesthetic.

[CurlewKate]

We may have done something stupid. Dp went to hospital today for a very minor routine procedure under general anaesthetic. It's just occurred to me (because I'm dumb) and I am sure it hasn't occurred to him (because he's dumber) that he won't be able to drive himself home. Is that true? He's currently waiting and he has no idea when he'll be done.

I’ve usually been told no driving for at least 24 hrs post GA, sometimes 48 depending on exactly what I’ve had done. So probably not.

He really shouldn’t drive home, he should have been informed beforehand.

When there’s a procedure with sedation or a GA the hospital should have made it clear he wouldn’t be able to drive himself home and generally they ask someone is with the patient for 24 hours
often you have to sign a form and give the name of person collecting you / taxi as well
he will have to get a cab or you will have to collect bim

I doubt they’ll discharge him if there’s no one to collect him or no taxi. You need to be monitored afterwards too. GA can cause some weird reactions so it’s really not safe to drive or be on your own.
Can you get a taxi there and drive him home? Or he’ll have to taxi home and pick up car tomorrow.

He is not allowed to drive, he would have been given information about this at the time.

Apart from the danger aspect his insurance will not cover him. You need to get yourself or someone else there who can use his car to drive him home or he needs to get a cab and pay a rather large parking ticket when he gets the car tomorrow. I would also contact the hospital parking in advance if it’s going to be more than 24 hours.

Has he ever had a GA before? I’m assuming he won't be under for long. I used to work in a day surgery unit and people’s recovery time varies a lot. I have had a few in my life and I’m one who feels really bad for a few days unfortunately even if I’m not under for long.

He certainly won’t be safe to drive himself home - hospital won’t let him. It will have been in all the literature he was given at his pre-op assessment. The staff will ask for the details of the person taking charge of getting him home and will want to know who is going to be at home when he gets there, because he mustn’t be left alone for 24 hours afterwards.

Bugger. It's not a problem, just need to make some arrangements. So glad I thought of it! Thank you.

Yep, won’t be covered by insurance for 24 hours post-op. The medication can impair your judgement. They will insist he is collected. Can you drive? If not could he come home in a taxi with you? Collect the car the next day?

Yes, much better to have thought about it now than this evening! Hope it all goes smoothly for him.

In his defence- he went to minor injuries yesterday morning with a lump that suddenly got very painful, got sent to A&E, was told it was an abscess then waited all day and was sent home to go in again this morning. So no proper paperwork. And the Microsoft outage has screwed up a lot of the processes.

We're always told no driving (they won't release the patient unless they are picked up by someone who is going to stay with them) and no signing legal documents either.