Dd upset following operation about post op care in hospital

[DanielaDressen]

Dd is an adult, had surgery under GA recently and rang me hysterical when back on the ward begging me to come. I got there quickly and she was saying the staff had been awful to her, managed to calm her down a bit and she is back home now.

she says the nurse in recovery was nice to her and then the ward nurse and a “porter” came to collect her. Dd says she remembers the ward nurse arguing with the recovery nurse saying she didn’t think Dd should leave recovery yet as sleepy but the recovery nurse said she was fine. So then she was getting pushed back to the ward and when arriving on the ward she was trying to sleep and they wouldn’t let her. Dd says the porter shook her by her head telling her to wake up, Dd started crying and the nurse was shouting at her saying she didn’t understand why Dd was crying.

i have tried to tell Dd that maybe they were worried about her being too sleepy and may have been doing their best to wake her up. Dd has been raped before and this thing about having a man clamp his hands on her head is now giving her flashbacks and she has been crying on and off since yesterday. Dd says there must be better ways of waking someone up rather than shaking their head. She is also hypermobile and says the head shaking was really rough and could have damaged her…..I’m gently trying to say yes but it hasn’t. Is this head shaking normal practice?

Kindly, why are you worried about getting someone in trouble ? You are DD's mom here you should be unequivocally on her side.

I think that’s what I was worried about. That it might not be quite as she remembered. I obviously haven’t said that to her. Thanks will get her to contact PALS. Because if it didn’t happen how she remembers maybe she’ll feel better for knowing that?

It does sound like the ward nurse was maybe right and she wasn't ready to leave recovery.

But I would suggest getting onto PALS first thing in the morning, They will be able to find out what has happened and who was involved. If it has been that everything was for sound medical reason and unavoidable they will be able to explain that to her or you can do it. And if not then you can start a complaint.

GA's do do weird things to people but PALS will help you work out if something untoward has happened.

I wonder if there's a chance she's remembering a 'head-tilt, chin-lift' or jaw-thrust manoeuvre as the head shaking? It's what we would do if we were worried that someone who was dopey and not breathing normally post-op - the manoeuvre is quite stimulating (and is often all that you need to do to wake someone up enough to get back on track), but perhaps after a bunch of drugs in someone who might understandably feel quite vulnerable could easily be misinterpreted. Whatever happened, I'm sure they'll be happy to explain if she gets in touch to ask. Of course if she's not happy with the explanation then she could take it further. In the future, if she didn't this time, it may be worth mentioning the history of sexual abuse as well - most staff don't want to distress patients, but you can't do anything to improve a patient's experience if you don't know what might trigger traumatic memories.

Another surgeon . I can’t believe that this happened if another staff member was also present. It’s very odd and not acceptable clinical care if it did happen . Our operating department practitioners do frequently take patients back to the ward and perform clinical care.
I wonder if DD is misremembering the details because of the anaesthetic. It must be very frightening for her to believe this and should be investigated if only to reassure her .

She needs to speak to the ward nurse who was there at the time to make absolutely sure she is remembering correctly; perioperative drugs can make you hallucinate wildly, in which case this may not have happened at all.

I hallucinated a children’s TV presenter dancing in my room wearing wellies when coming round from anaesthetic and clung to my Mum in panic because I thought he was there to kill me. Have also had a conversation with a patient in recovery (as the nurse that time) about the big party he was planning that weekend, when I sent him back to the ward I told him to enjoy his party. He looked very confused and it transpired that he had made the whole thing up!

I truly hope this didn’t really happen to your DD, but she needs to discuss it with someone who was also there, but who wasn’t under the influence of general anaesthesia and other heavy drugs to establish what exactly happened.