To put in a complaint against NHS

[Vanillaisboring666]

My beautiful 14 year old dd attended hospital Tuesday last week to have her ACE stoma reversed . It was a simple 20 min procedure that was class's as day case surgery. We arrived at 8am and she went down to theatre at 12pm , arrived back onward at 1pm . At 230 pm she was discharged . She was un comfortable but managed to walk to car . Upon getting in car began to cry saying she was in a bit of pain . I got her home and into bed and gave paracetomol as per hospital instruction. At 4pm she was in agony and sweating. Took her to A&E as day case unit advised on phone they would be closing at 8pm . Anyways 2 hrs in a&e she was sweating , breathing fast and writhing in agony. After 2 hrs a paed doc came and gave oromorph and placed her on paediatric ward. She stayed overnight and was given regular oromorph but she was still In agony . The sister the next morning said it was post op pain and told me to take her home amd have a duvet day and give paracetomol. By this point she could not walk and looked gravely I'll with sweat running down her face. I took her home and once again tucked her up in bed. At 4pm wednesday (day after her stoma reversal ) she was in absolute agony so I called gp and he prescribed oromorp and we gave it her overnight. Thursday mornine she was unable to lift her head and gp advised over the phone i ring an ambulance . Ambulance arrived (after 1.5hrs) and she was once again took to a&e . A gastronsurgeon came immediately and she was then rushed to theatre . I was signing consent forms running along corridor. It was terrifying. Anyways she ended up having a full blown laparotomy after the attempt at doing surgery laparoscopically failed. She has 4 laparoscopically incisions and a huge vertical cut down her tummy from laparotomy and also a cut on right side of tummy from her ace reversal surgery and initial ace surgery. She has been through hell. She was on itu for two days and is now on ward but is still critically ill as having temps and heart rate fast. The surgeon who did the ace reversal was never informed dd was readmitted by the ward and has profusely apologised as he said this should never have happened. He is going to be looking into why he was not told dd was back in hospital with pain 4 hrs after his surgery and why the bloody hell she was discharged in such a terrible state the next day when she was very obviously seriously ill. She is so so so poorly now and is still critically ill amd at risk of sepsis . She will be getting ct scan tomorrow as nothing is bringing down her temps . I am furious she was made to suffer such pain for 48 hrs and has ended up needing full blown laparotomy. If her surgeon had of been informed on the Tuesday he said he could have managed to do surgery laparoscopically. Instead he said her abdomen was so full of puss and poo he had to open her tummy from top to bottom. I am heart broken and not coping well with seeing how much pain she is in. I am strong in front of dd but have to go to toilet amd cry every now and then. We have a huge long road ahead to get her better but I am now starting to realise just how appallingly she has been treat by the ward who initially discharged her. No doctor even examined her before discharge and the sister said it was post op pain amd to have a duvet day and paracetomol ? I can tell the hospital is shitting themselves as they rolling over me and dh now . Even my dds consultant has admitted this should not have happened amd has apologised . He came to see dd twice a day Saturday Sunday despite it being his day off. I pray to god she recovers as docs say she is still critical and may need more surgery amd to go back to picu if her temps don't drop. Sorry it's so long and I hope it makes sense. I'm in bits and can't believe our wonderful nhs could have gotten something so wrong. A routine simple procedure has ended up with 8 hrs of surgery ,paed intensive care for two days,severely in pain child that is bed bound ,catheterised and has no clue just how serious this situation is. Her whole abdomen was filled with puss and poo and her bowel had ruptured . According to ward sister though it was post op pain and all she needed was paracetomol and a duvet day. My dd is so lovely and never complains so I knew something bad was wrong but the sister said she knew best and discharged her ??? AIBU in going to pals ????

Your poor DD. You definitely should complain once she is feeling a little better. How frightening for both you and her.
I hope she gets better soon

yanbu
complain
do it when you are ready
in the meantime take notes, of when, who, where

lots of good advice here

I hope your lovely dd feels much better soon.

Your poor dd. Gentle hugs to her and big squishy ones to you.

I am not sure what the original procedure was but dp had a perforated bowel about 6 years ago. He walked around with it perforated for at least 3 days possibly longer. He had a peritonic cavity full of pus and poo. His appendix had burst and he had perotonitus.

He was on hdu for 5 days as his lungs had started to collapse upwards due to the build up in his abdomen pressing on the base of them. He was in a right bloody mess but is snoring away besides me.

He was poorly in hospital for about 2 weeks in total but he was fine in the end. And his scars have faded.

I hope your dd feels better soon. Keep on at them for pain relief. And physio.

And use the hours sat with her to keep a written record of her care so you have it for later. Definitely raise it with pals. It should never have happened.

You need to complain so the mistakes can be learned from and not happen to someone else. And i say this as someone who works in hospitals.
You poor things, you've been through hell, please remember to take care of yourself as well as your daughter.

My Dh was sent home from gall bladder removal op in agony. We couldn't get an ambulance, even though the advice given was to phone an ambulance. To cut a very long story short, he had 4 more ops, 15 days in hospital was moved to a different hospital and a surgeon admitted his liver had been cut during surgery, causing life threatening complications. Then he got pancreatitis.
Dh complained and we received a written apology last week. The operation was 23 months ago and it has only just been addressed.
Complain by all means but be prepared for more anger and frustration at the procedure.
Write everything down and deal with it when your Dd is home and well. Wishing her a rapid recovery and I hope you are now getting the best care for her

When you are up to it then do speak to PALS - I work in a hospital and this kind of thing should not happen.

I remember when my sister was sent home too early from a tonsillectomy- she then had a serious bleed & could have died. She didn't complain but it may have made a difference if she had done.
I hope your poor daughter recovers soon.

My children have had a number of surgerys, day and stay over ones. On every surgery they have been given at least 24 hr open. Access back.to the ward that they were on post op..why the hell wasn't your daughter given that?

Actually that's down to individual hospital policy. Some wards have open access policy but lots don't. I have never worked anywhere that does. You could potentially have all sorts of patients turning back up which would be very unsafe where as it's much safer to go back through a&e.

@frouby my dds lungs are not filling with air properly either. She is on oxygen 24/7 . They tried reducing it today but her sats dropped so low. Scan tomorrow should tell us what's going on in tummy and lungs .

I complained to PALS over a relatively trivial matter (not trivial to me obviously) and was satisfied with the outcome. I hope your DD gets better soon OP.

I would have thought the sweating so soon after surgery would have been a big red flag that a check for infection was needed, after all pain wasnt her only symptom.

Vanilla, I'm sorry to hear that your daughter is so unwell. I hope she gets better soon xxxxxx

So sorry OP for your daughter and you. I hope you're able to get some RL support.

You're right to want to speak to PALS. Something went wrong, it needs looking into.

OP is she on morphine for pain? That can make her breathing worse short term too x

This is a clinical negligence case.

Be careful who you ask for help but action needs to be brought. Not so you can make a fast £££, but because sometimes that's all that the powers that be in the NHS understand.

Only then will they look at the causes rather than try to brush it under the carpet.

Wait until you LO is better, then seek advice. Thinking of you and your family. What a terrifying time xxx

Another nhs worker here. Write everything down including what was said by who and when now so that things get blurry or minimised as time goes on. I encourage patients to complain when they've had poor treatment. I do think you should wait until things are more stable though. Your friends are probably encouraging you to complain partly because it'll be hard for them to know what to say. Wishing your DD all the very very best xx

I'm so sorry to hear this has happened. I really hope your dd makes a full recovery soon. Lots of hand holds x

Hope your DD makes a full recovery and you and your family are able to stay strong. I am so sorry this has happened to you.

You must be so worried about DD. I hope you know how everyone here reading your messages is rooting for her to make a speedy recovery, and for both of you to feel better. In the meantime, I second what PP's have said, take notes and when you feel ready, complain. I must confess I still don't quite understand what happened. She was discharged too soon with clear signs of infection, I get that, but why was she so poorly when her surgeon did not expect it? Is there something her original surgeon did/did not do or miss? When it comes to something like this, it's sometimes not just the obvious person (the sister with her have a duvet day and a paracetamol, the second admitting staff who didn't locate/notify the original surgeon), but what about the surgeon himself? Sorry if I am missing something, I am just always suspicious of any organization that essentially self-polices. Yes, he should do the paperwork to find out what happened, but there might be something you are missing about his role in all of this... How do you know they didn't contact him, for example? Complain, and let it all be investigated. And do it on your timetable, so you can do what you are doing now, and what no-one can do better than you, which is looking after your DD and being in her corner and making sure they don't make any more stupid mistakes to the best of your abilities. Mumsolidarity with you!

And yes, as I am sure her carers are aware, morphine can depress breathing, and there may be other pediatric narcotic options. I trust they are all paying diligent attention at this point, but it's still worth asking about.

I've just seen this thread and can see you've had lots of excellent advice re. complaining, so I just want to say how very sorry I am to read of the dreadful suffering your daughter has endured and is still enduring and hope that she will shows signs of improvement soon. You are going through hell too and I feel so angry on behalf of you both. What a terrible nightmare this is. I am watching this thread in the hope of reading that your daughter's condition improves soon.

I am so, so sorry that this has happened to your lovely DD (and you)

This has been a catastrophic system failure which sadly will be traced back to ridiculous bed pressures, targets and pressure on staff from management to empty spaces ready for the next elective patients, coupled with incompetence by the nursing staff due to numbers being reduced and junior staff given roles far beyond their competence.

Your daughter's complications will be investigated, but as you know, are discussed at consent as a potential risk of the surgery.
What is not acceptable is a lack of adequate observations by the team, a lack of senior review pre discharge in an obviously uncomfortable patient.
The beyond shoddy post op advice

I implore you, when you are ready to, please complain. We need the help of data from such horrific incidents in order to help us put mechanisms in place to stop this happening to anyone else.
You can make it as official or as legal as you wish, but give yourself time to get through this first.
If you can, try and make a timeline of events, add to it each shift if possible. Just facts.

It honestly breaks my heart that this can happen, I have several surgeons in my family and often, the lack of a reliable, capable nursing staff to support them nowadays is terrifying. 

Sending lots of love and strength to you both, please keep us posted x

Vanilla I wouldn't normally hear a bad word about the NHS but sometimes they can and do make mistakes. They were very good to me a while ago but there was one aspect that could have been done a whole lot better and yes, i did complain but it was put right and they did apoligise and that for me then was acceptable. But here this is way more serious and there's not much I can add that hasn't already been written expect take notes all along and keep them for use afterwards.

BUT the most important thing here is that your poor DD as poorly as she is has got a fantastic caring mum who's there for her, that's the main thing:-)

Bless you!

Please contact PALS. You might not yet want to think about writing a formal complaint, but it might be of help if you're on PALS' radar. If they're any good at all, they'll ensure you're getting all the information you need, and chase up every note/test result so there's a complete record of your DD's treatment.

I hope your DD progresses as well as possible.

Wishing your dd a speedy recovery and you lots of strength, patience and support.
Dh was admitted with a severe condition that was being monitored by the specialist. On admittance I asked the GS to inform the consultant of his situation. Three days later he is still on the wrong ward with no surgery booked and no bedside visiting (day ward due to shortage of beds)...still in agony. Phoned the consultant's PA to ask if he knew he was there. Nope but she would tell him immediately. When I went in two hours later, I met him marching in the door. He told me to wait. Came out and took him straight into surgery. Done and discharged the following day. I was so cross they left him for so long in such pain and didn't even contact the man he had been under for 12 months! Pals were great and eventually he got an apology. It was about making sure this didn't happen to anyone else. As the other posters say, make lots of notes. See her through the worst and then lodge your complaint. This sister and the registrar need to know their actions were unacceptable and jeopardised you dd's health.

I'll confess to having never complained about failings in care I've received (including preventing a never event by chance - luckily I spotted that the labels being stuck onto the vials of blood taken from me on the third attempt that day by the third person to try were, er, not my name... this was the day after I was left with no post-op analgesia for c10h in a cubicle in recovery with the curtains drawn [because who needs to see how the epileptic with brittle asthma is doing, right?] & no call bell...) despite being told to. But when you feel able to OP, whether that's now or later (working from notes, as PPs have recommended) please please complain about what happened - it's so important in terms of the hospital's improving its processes & ensuring it doesn't happen again.

I was discussing this (generally, obviously) with a medic!friend on Sunday & she was saying how important it is hospitals - and their staff - be held accountable (but not hung out to dry) when things go wrong so that things can be reviewed & improved. She was saying honesty & transparency is key & that patients should be involved in the process right from the beginning, too.

Please remember to look after yourself as well as your DD - I know it can be hard to get enough sleep & to eat properly when you're with your child in hospital. I really REALLY hope that she starts to improve soon & recovers well