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 ????

I'm with pp Stellacat - this was what is known as a Never Event (ie. It should never have happened) and I'm so sorry you and your DD are going through this Vanilla .

If you don't raise any concerns they will often investigate the incident, draw their conclusions and not really give you any information, especially if they feel they 'sorted things out in the end' with your DD.

Therefore you could contact PALS to inform them this has happened and to tell them you would like the SUI (serious incident) investigation to be joined up with your complaint. That way you are guaranteed a written response from the patient safety manager, if not the CEO themselves.

I have previously worked in patient safety and some of our best outcomes came when we joined up our investigations. I worked in a central unit that looked at incidents from over 5 NHS trusts plus private units and sometimes trusts 'lost' incidents on their Datix systems that we didn't know about until we got a patient complaint and then we had to go and put a rocket up the trust.

One incident I was involved in as the patient. The nurse who caused a significant clinical error didn't Datix it and faked an official response. I was able to send my complaint and her faked response into my own department, had my manager deal with it and the nurse was very severely disciplined. I got a full written apology from her CEO. Sunny I have had a few things gapped to me over the years as I've had so many operations and the first thing people always say is "You must complain!" And that's if they don't say "Are you going to sue?" In the UK.

I wish all the best for your DD Vanilla.

*happen, not gapped!

I'm glad today has brought some progress, OP
RideOn - before you malign all "ambulance chasing solicitors" (do you even know what that means? ) perhaps you should actually read what this one said - you ALWAYS make a formal complaint first. In this type of scenario, PALS would always pass it onto the CE, so you should skip the middleman and write to them directly.

Eating is a terrific sign.
Are you aware of what meds she is on?
Have they spoken to you about counselling yet? You should be able to get an onsite referral, especially if they are (rightly) bowing and scraping.

Have you managed any rest or meals?

Delighted to see that the poor girl is on the mend. Heads must roll for this catalogue of disaster.
Pressure on staff to get rid of patients as fast as possible is at the root of this. Yes yes the stupid sister and her " duvet day" I could cheerfully strangle.
Systems must be reviewed thoroughly in order to prevent this kind of malpractice being replicated.
People need to stay in hospital and be monitored for much longer after operations such as your child had.
Have you noticed that the word "operation" is now replaced with " procedure"? makes it sound trivial.

I would definitely be complaining. Your poor daughter.
Don't think I would sue though. The nhs are on their knees as it is. The sad thing is with them being so overstretched I doubt this will be the last of this type of story.

Well, I definitely think you should sue the hospital. I think it's the only language they understand. A meek frightened mother to be patted on the head and told a load of cobblers is not on.
Hit them where it hurts.

I've been following your thread and am very pleased your dd is improving and the light at the end of the tunnel has appeared.

I agree you should write everything down on a timeline with names and what happened. However I would venture that PALS work for and are salaried by the hospital and so have the hospital's interests as their priority.

Write directly to the CEO and make sure you give a deadline for a full reply, ie, 30 days. In this case I would take legal action and think it wholly justified. The sister you first saw was clearly totally incompetent.

We continue to sing the praises of the NHS for some reason I don't understand. A little more criticism 20 years ago and it might not be in the mess it is. Nursing standards have declined seriously in the last two decades and yet they must be revered like the fatted calf.

I used to work for the NHS (non clinical role) and I would advise ypu lodge a complaint. I have seen ward staff fail to report issues because no-one outside the clinical staff was aware.

Raising a concern or making a complaint is NOT the same as suing. It's bringing a failure to the notice of management. What is wanted is a change of procedure so that no other patient has to go through this.

I'm glad your daughter is stating to recover, may she continue to do so and be back to normal shortly.

Glad your daughter has turned a corner.
Yes you need to complain but I suspect it wasn't so much the ward sister at fault for discharging a post op child with presumably mild temp and pain when the ward is crammed with seemingly more acute patients waiting. The whole NHS is in crisis yet slowly it's falling apart and the government is still refusing to prioritise it.

Nursing standards have dropped Roses I think it's because student nurses don't get the tuition on the wards like they used to. They are just treated like care staff, used to make beds and fetch things rather than observe nurses and be taught things.

There are no routine operations.
All have risk of complications.
Bowel surgery has a high risk of infection and complications.
I imagine she was discharged initially when her obs. were considered to be within normal limits. As are most people. So in that respect I don't think there us an issue as no one can know which patient will deteriorate over time.
It's more alarming that her infection wasn't spotted after a trip to a and e.

Hi Vanilla,
Really pleased to hear your last update. It's really positive that she's managed to eat and drink something.
You definitely deserve a family holiday once your DD is better and this is behind you. X

Gone down hill again. Only managed about 4 grapes and can't stomach nothing more. She has horrendous diohrea and feels dreadful. Consultant says to just give her appetite time to come back . We seem to get over one hurdle to be hit by another ???

After major surgery it will take time for the bowels to work properly again. They may try and get her to walk around, if possible. It can also be worsened by pain meds such as a PCA / morphine. This could be why she is struggling eating. Maybe they can offer something like Ensure to start with. I was only in a liquid diet for a while. Kind thoughts, hope things improve soon x

Bless her. Hope she starts to feel better. I imagine the recovery is very up and down when you have been so very sick.

Is the consultant the best in the field. Ask the question. Phone the CEOs office and just say you want a second opinion due to the cock ups already.

Check the hospital's cqc rating and if less than good tell CEO you expect to be transferred to one that is a centre of excellence for these problems. Firstly request another scan to make sure they haven't cocked up again.

After what this lot have done already your dd ought to be getting a gold plated service with bells. She deserved it in the first place

You must note every conversation from now.

Your poor dd.

Oh Vanilla, you must be beside yourself. How distressing.

I am also really struggling. I feel terribly guilty saying this as my dd has been through and continues to go through hell but I am so so utterly exhausted . I am up all night with dd , helping her to move , getting her ice packs as her temp is still high , helping her to toilet . I'm lucky if I get 20 mins stretch of sleep. My dh has offered to stay insted of me but no way am I leaving her after the mistakes that have been made. She was up nearly all last night with horrendous diohrea so today iv cancelled all visitors and I'm goimg to snooze through the day to try and feel a bit less exhausted. There is still such a long road ahead that I'm getting dis heartened. Whenever a little progress is made something huge hits and we are back at square one. Even though she is allowed to eat she simply does not have an appetite and I'm forcing her to eat small amounts and drink high sugar drinks (suggested by consultant). The diohrea last nightvwas awful. I had her in shower at 3 am then they let me bath her at 5 am (first was she has had in ten days so she said she felt amazing and clean ) . She is so weak and says she feels rotten. Wish I could just make her better . Thanks for your continued support. Xxx

Good suggestion from OhTheRoses.

My heart goes out to you both. What an appalling nightmare.

Morphine amd pca have been stopped. She is managing pain with paracetomol and brufen. The physio is happy with her walking and does short walks with her twice a day (just to bedroom window and back) . She is managing to walk to her toilet ok with help from me. She has a couple of bed sores so they changed her bed last night and she has a fancy airbed type thing now which she says is super comfy xx

What you are doing is nursing your daughter. What are the nurses doing? I don't care if they claim to be understaffed. Tell the CEO to dedicate a nurse to her tonight - an excellent substantive member of staff and to pay overtime bank hours for someone less Ill.

Or pm me and I'll phone the CEO. Or better still call your MPs constituency office.

These sorts of standards sound very much like local trust though probably reicated all over the country.

your poor dd. wishing all the best to both of you.
agree with roses there are questions to be asked.

those nutrition drinks might be a good idea.

can you dh take over for a couple of hours so that you can at least have a longer nap, meal & bath?

Clearly the nurses have been doing cuff all if she has bed sores.

Have you actually got a chair that converts to a bed and has anyone made you a cup of tea?