Worst behaviour you’ve encountered in hospital ward

[Ithinkthatsenough]

I am probably being U and touchy in posting this as ive just spent the day in hospital having a late d&c...
on ward with 2 other ladies who were chatty, was fine and bearable this morning, after 1/2 hohri knew all about their admissions and problems, children’s schooling, then had to put my headphones in when they started on bowel movements.
I was having an op, cleary due to care, questions asked, they could hear eveyrthinf tooand quite a distressing one

There should be a phone cut off at 9pm on all wards and if you want to use it’s free that you go to the day room.

I was in and out of hospital as a child and go to know some of the others kids who were in and out well. They had a room to play pool in and about five of us were in there, it was two in the afternoon and suddenly this Women came storming in threatening to beat us over the head with the pool cue if we did not shut the fuck up. The nurse came in and said we were not making much noise at all (the nurses station was right outside) and asked why she was upset as her child was having a scan at that moment anyway. The Women said she wanted to use the time to get some sleep in the chair as she had been out clubbing last night and that’s why she had not gone with her 6 year old for the scan
The women that said we were all did not look ill and one of the other kids said we all had long term serious health problems, the women then said she hoped we all fucking died before we became a drain on society and stormed off

I was on a ward after having given birth and visiting hours were over so my DH had left, at 10pm a woman and her partner and new baby are wheeled in, then all of their extended family turn up and are shouting excitedly at each other in Portuguese, I can speak Spanish and from what I could understand it seemed the woman was disappointed that she didn’t have a boy. Eventually they all leave except the partner, and the midwife asks him to go twice and each time he says in 5 minutes but then just didn’t leave. I was sat on my bed terrified to go to sleep with my day old, poorly baby listening to this couple jabbering away in Portuguese and eventually I had to go and find a midwife to make him go which took her another 2 attempts, but by now I was scared the woman would know I’d complained so I spent the entire night sat upright in bed holding my DD.

I really wish I’d made a fuss and insisted on a private room, I hate being around other people at the best of times but especially when I’m vulnerable, tired, bleeding heavily and need to be examined or discuss personal medical information.

Idrink If someone has medical physical health needs plus mental health issues, there is nowhere for them to go except to a normal ward.

Never witnessed anything bad myself, but one story off MN that I read about 6 years ago has always stuck with me.
A midwife wrote that she opened the curtains to a lady who had given birth just a few hours previously, to find the ladies husband on top of her, having sex.
The general consensus was that the lady was in an abusive relationship.
I will never forget that story

All in a professional capacity -
Assaulted by a patient with schizophrenia
Patient (male) deliberately urinated down my leg because he didn't want to get out of bed
A patient with TB who continually spat at the walls
Several cases of sexual harrasment/assault by patients, can't remember the details, though were just at the groping level.
Trying to cope with a very confused large elderly male patient who kept trying to leave the ward. I was (and still am) 5' 4" and weighed 7 and a half stones at the time. I was petrified.
Numerous incidents of elderly confused patients smearing /throwing or occassionaly eating their own faeces.

Should have added, I witnessed frequent incidents of racial abuse from patients as our staff were from diverse ethnic backgrounds.

crunchymint I don’t deny it, it’s a disgrace though that this poor woman was left so confused and frightened. She clearly had needs that couldn’t be met where she was. Mental health “care” in this country is a joke.

DD2 was born at the start of the year at 27 weeks, after my EMCS, I was in HDU, they then wheeled a teenage girl, her baby and extended family to share the room. I went absolutely wild as I'd not even seen my baby, they freely admitted other rooms were available but this one was 'closest'

Other than that, had 3 days in SCBU near the end of DD's stay and it was strictly parents, siblings and grandparents only visiting. Indian family opposite decided this didn't apply to them, whole extended family turned up including school age Nieces and nephews (very high risk due the amount of bugs in schools). I complained and was told it was cultural! I said absolutely not, infection control has sod all to do with culture, went to the consultants office who was absolutely in agreement and removed them all swiftly. This was the same woman who swore at me in Punjabi (I speak punjabi) when she realised I was already attached to the breast pump she wanted to use. There is 1 per 6 mothers - we all had to share!

This is minor compared to others, but I was admitted to hospital with pre-eclampsia and was already very stressed. My previous baby had died following a cord prolapse and I was not in a good place mentally.
The woman in the next bed kept telling me that she could see a woman standing next to me and she had a message for me. She said the woman was my mother and kept harping on about the bloody message.
I wasn't interested, especially since my mother is still alive. I found it very annoying, but the woman who in the bed opposite (who was having triplets) was quite upset by it.

Girl next to me in induction ward bringing partner, parents, younger siblings, aunt and gran papa! Bringing in smelly food, mother moaning to get daughter examined.

I was very glad when midwife from midwifery suite took me away.

Idrink Agreed. Those with severe mental health problems often get poor physical care. Both are treated in silos which makes no sense for those with very severe issues.

noeffingidea Although difficult, many of those examples you give are of people with dementia. Yes nursing people with dementia is difficult, but it is not their fault. What we need is properly trained dementia nurses.

When DD1 was born, my neighbour from across the road had her DC. We were in the same ward together. We were also at school together. Her DC was early, and so her DH was still at work. He would arrive in at 10pm from his shift. she would go down to meet him leaving DC alone, which meant if DC cried, we had to ring for a midwife to come. I had a bout of baby blues, and whilst sequestered behind my bed curtains, this cheeky mare had the nerve to talk about me. When she mentioned she wished she had some tissues, i commented that I had some if she wanted and the silence was deafening! that made me feel better.

Another time, after an operation, I was placed in a ward with two older ladies. One of them found sleeping difficult, so would go to the toilet every ten minutes or so. I was in the bed by the toilet door, opposite her. Her light was constantly on and the final straw was when she demanded a cup of tea about 2am. she got it, along with a request to not talk so loudly (she always bellowed, so was probably deaf). Her voice always went up another decibel after the request. I had been told I could get out the following day, although they would prefer me to stay in until the day after that, but following my sleepless night (the other woman snored loudly) I talked the doctor into letting me go home.

I was admitted to hospital just before Christmas and in the end in for 3 weeks, seriously ill. I was in the surgical assessment ward, where all the potential emergency op patients were sent to.
On my second evening, a woman was admitted and place in the bay opposite me, bearing in mind I was in a lot of pain but making sure I didn’t disturb anyone. She on the other hand was on the phone telling her boyfriend (who wouldn’t visit) what she thought of him, mostly f ing and blinding. She then called every single person in her family (there seemed to be hundreds), telling that she was in hospital. She then spoke to her boyfriend again, having the massive row with him. The next morning she had 2 million (or so it seemed) visitors, including children who ran around the ward. Weirdly she was discharge a couple of hours later.
The next night I was moved to a different bay, next to the nurses station so they could monitor me more closely. The next bay was a woman who moaning and groaning all night, screaming in pain, vomiting, with the retching sounds.it was awful. Turns out she had constipation and wasn’t dying, as she thought.
I was thankful OH had dropped my IPad and noise cancelling headphones so I could drown out some of the other patients.
Not all of the patients were bad, I had a sweet older lady in the bay next to me who was really concerned for me, she was a real sweetheart.

Maybe I am lucky that I have always been in wards with old women who have always been lovely.

When I went in to have my youngest he was very ill and in scbu. So I was put in the side ward for scbu mums.

After five days another mum was brought in who proceeded to complain I had my curtain partly across because it blocked her light. Her mother and teenage kids were in constantly. Then she complained to the midwives and a midwife yankedled my curtain back as I was getting changed.

I ended up crying and making a complaint. I was in so much pain after a complicated c section and didn’t need the hassle. When we went to move my stuff the woman’s mum said ‘oh good you can have a bed by the window now’

Bitch.

My one experience in hospital as an adult was overall pretty positive. Most of the nurses quite liked me as I was self-caring, which allowed them to focus on other patients with greater need. One nurse in particular was excellent (hello Sinead from St George's if you're reading!).

However, two things made the experience more unpleasant than it could have been - totally minor compared to many on this thread but still not great. The first was a lady in the bed opposite who I think had dementia. She wanted attention from the nurses and so every time she exhaled she moaned/groaned really loudly. It made sleeping impossible. The other was a grumpy night shift nurse who accused me of making a fuss (I overheard her speaking to another member of staff) when I asked to have my canula changed: it had been in for hours and my arm was really painful by this point. I hadn't demanded it or been rude, I'd simply asked if it would be possible to get it changed when they had a minute!

Closed my curtains to get changed. Doctor comes in no warning. He panicked walked back out but then for some reason came right back in left the curtain open talking about DD.

The WhatsApp bing. Jesus I wanted to throw a woman's phone out the pissing window.

How much people had a go at the midwives on the Induction ward because they've been waiting ages. I'd been they're 36 hours they had been there 6.

cruchymint you will be drummed out of MN if you speak that sort of heresy ! Old women are evil ,greedy, nosy and what is more they selfishly live in five bedroom houses they should be giving to millennials for free.

I am medical and so appreciate how busy wards can be. Worst experience ever was being induced at Kings on the post natal ward. Woman across the bed from me had 14 visitors at one point. They even had the audacity to complain that their relative hadnt been shown how to bath their baby. My post natal experience was equally as bad .

Had DS2 last month and was admitted to the antenatal ward at 7pm the night before for induction. Another woman was admitted due to pain, severe SPD I think and was in the bay next to me. Despite this, she sat on the chair most of the night whilst her partner hogged the bed and watched tv without headphones all night

Was on the urgent care ward after having dd and was pretty unwell.
The nurse there tried to sell me some religious literature she'd written. Couldn't have been less appropriate.

The lady next to me on the maternity unit asking to be moved as she had heard my daughter's prognosis and thought I'd try to steal her baby if mine didn't survive. Fortunately I spent all my time at scbu with my daughter who turned out fine, so didn't have to deal with her to much. However, did have to put up with the smell of mcdonalds breakfast every day and whatever take out she fancied when I popped back to eat!

The woman next to me was induced as well, and started contracting straight away, she was in loads of pain.

She was, I think, a drug addict, and had a support worker of some kind with her. She was basically a bit loud and dramatic and the midwives just patronised her horribly.

"Oh this one thinks she's contracting already hahaha@

Then they shit themselves when they finally examined her and she was crowning. The poor woman's care was terrible, the snobbery on display was shocking.

mogon yanbu. I lost it at a student dr who came to "have a go" at taking blood from my dd when she was 1yo and very ill with an unknown infection that they were concerned was sepsis. After 6 unsuccessful attempts and a hysterical baby I told him to get away from my baby and find someone who knows what they are doing. if he had laughed about it (more than the nervous chuckle he was doing) I would have physically attacked him I think. Not my finest hour, but it wasn't exactly an easy time.