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AIBU?

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Original poster

To be shocked a hospital did this?

64 replies

Honeyroar · 30/10/2018 21:26

My 77 yr old mother went for a pre op today. When they took her heart rate it was 150, so very high. She has had a history of ridiculously high heart rates in the last year, and has been admitted twice. The nurse doing the pre op had her taken to A&E in a wheelchair to be checked over. A&E was at the opposite end of the hospital and down a huge hill. She sat in A&E for two hours and by the time she was seen her heart rate had calmed again. They said they would write to her doctor and that she could go home. They then left her to walk back up the huge hill on her own. She was at a hospital that she didn't know, she didn't know where the car park she'd left her car in was, and was breathless and stressed when she rang me. Am I unreasonable to think that they ought to have wheeled her back up again rather than risk her heart rate going crazy again? They also told her they'd tried to ring me (next of kin) but I'd not answered, however I have no missed calls on my phone.

Thankfully she drove home safely and is fine.

OP posts:
happinessiseggshaped · 30/10/2018 21:47

Im not at all shocked. But then I have quite a bit of recent experience with hospitals!

Windgate · 30/10/2018 21:51

Sorry but should she be driving ?

Booboostwo · 30/10/2018 21:53

Did she tell A&E that she was on her own, needed to get back up the hill and needed help to get there? I don’t see how they could have known all that if she didn’t tell them. If she asked for help and they refused then that is a different matter.

AnchorDownDeepBreath · 30/10/2018 21:55

I suspect that if she told the hospital (or indicated to them) that she wasn't able to walk up the hill; they would not have been able to let her drive home.

Not that I'm suggesting that she was fit to walk the hill; or to drive home.

Are they aware of what is causing the peak in heart rates? Is there a solid pattern now which suggests that her heart rate does not elevate again once it's calmed; that could have led them to believe that she would likely to be okay?

brummiesue · 30/10/2018 21:55

Unfortunately once a patient has been discharged from a&e it is assumed they are able to make their own way home. Unless your mum specifically asked for assistance then the staff would have been busy with other patients and not thought to assist.

CherryPavlova · 30/10/2018 21:59

Does she normally use a wheelchair? If her heart rate had returned to normal one assumes she was no longer incapacitated. Why would they push a well person up the hill?

Gitfeatures · 30/10/2018 22:01

If she drove herself to hospital, there would be no indication that she required assistance to get to her car. The next of kin details would have be taken when she checked in - did your mother give them the correct number? Is there any reason she didn't call you sooner?

StepAwayFromGoogle · 30/10/2018 22:03

How on earth would everyone treating her in A&E know where her car was or that she'd come down a huge hill?

Original poster
Honeyroar · 30/10/2018 22:04

She had fibrilations and COPD. They've tested her heart a lot this year (following two ambulance trips to A&E with a HR of 190). The cardiologist says her heart is fine for her age, but it doesn't seem it to me, if she does anything she's exhausted and wobbly. We seem to get rushed into hospital, given things to perk her up, then shoved out again. Then we end up back at A&E.

Yes she should have asked for help, but she's that old school type that doesn't want to bother people and she wanted to go home.

I'm thinking I should get her a fit bit so we can track her heartbeat ourselves.

Thanks all. I just needed a rant!

OP posts:
Original poster
Honeyroar · 30/10/2018 22:06

Step away I'd have thought they'd know because she was referred there by a nurse at the top of the hill and not allowed to walk because of her racing heart.

OP posts:
DevonshireCreamTea · 30/10/2018 22:09

Is your mother incapable of taking some self responsibility and perhaps voicing her concerns to the HCPs?

Original poster
Honeyroar · 30/10/2018 22:09

The next of kin details were taken off her records from previous stays at a sister hospital in our town. I presume she didn't call me sooner because the nurses told her I wasn't answering.

OP posts:
Original poster
Honeyroar · 30/10/2018 22:10

Devonshire apparently she is - as the thread should indicate!!

OP posts:
GreenEggsHamandChips · 30/10/2018 22:12

Yes she should have asked for help, but she's that old school type that doesn't want to bother people and she wanted to go home.

I think there's your real problem. She was good to go when A&E released her, else tgey wouldn't have released her. Knowing your own limits and when/why to ask for help is a really tough skill to get right

hiddeneverything · 30/10/2018 22:12

Oh my, not much support for any OPs of threads I've been reading tonight!

AnchorDownDeepBreath · 30/10/2018 22:16

I'd double check that both hospitals have the right NoK details for you; just incase.

But otherwise I think you have to put this down to your mum being too proud to ask for help; which is not unusual; and that indicated to the HCP that she was okay. I'd be surprised if they didn't ask her if she was okay as she was leaving; even just in a pleasantries style; and they will take her answer at face value if she seemed okay.

Is there a compromise that you can agree with your mum? Maybe that if she doesn't want to admit her difficulties to the hospital staff; she calls you for help instead?

Hairyfairy01 · 30/10/2018 22:17

You weren’t worried about her driving home but you are annoyed she walked up a hill? Is your mother incapable of expressing her concerns? She could have asked for a porter.

TheStopAndChat · 30/10/2018 22:19

She had fibrilations and COPD. They've tested her heart a lot this year (following two ambulance trips to A&E with a HR of 190). The cardiologist says her heart is fine for her age, but it doesn't seem it to me, if she does anything she's exhausted and wobbly
Yet you don't seem to see a problem with her driving??? Despite having to 'rush to hospital' several times?
Perhaps that is where you need to focus. Your angst is misplaced.

Poppyinagreenfield · 30/10/2018 22:19

The hospitals are at breaking point. You should have gone with her.

JessicaJonesJacket · 30/10/2018 22:22

I wouldn't be shocked because it's fairly standard but I can understand why it surprised you. I think you're assuming the nurse who took your DM to A&E was taking responsibility for her and if they had then they would have taken her back to the starting point ie the pre-op clinic. But hardly anyone in the NHS has time for give that level of care.

Mishappening · 30/10/2018 22:22

It is not acceptable that she was not directly asked how she was getting home. That would certainly have happened some time ago when I was working in hospitals.

But it does not surprise me that she was not asked.

I have had two admissions in atrial fibrillation - on the first one, I was immediately put on a heart monitor, which remained on till they had managed to stop it and transfer me to cardiac unit.

The second occasion was two weeks ago. I woke up in fast AF, rang GP who said to get ambulance, which I did. Para-medics were brilliant. I was duly delivered into a cubicle and lay there on my own for 1.5 hours with no word from anyone. Someone then came in and took blood; and then - at last - did an ECG. By about 2 pm I had had nothing at all to eat; and more importantly nothing to drink - very relevant because of the blood clotting risk. I did not see a doctor till about 4.30 pm. It really is not great - particularly that no-one took the trouble to make sure I was hydrated.

Things are not good at all.

Starlive23 · 30/10/2018 22:22

It really wouldn't have hurt them to help her back up, but it not really a surprise sadly

LRDtheFeministDragon · 30/10/2018 22:23

I think that's poor.

I would expect with a 77 year old woman, they ought to bear in mind the possibility she wouldn't communicate difficulties. 77 is an age when you might reasonably expect a patient not to be able to tell what's going on.

Mind you, I am not surprised. When I was 19 I fainted and hit my head. I was badly concussed and someone called an ambulance because I'd not come round properly. At A&E they instantly assumed, since I was a student, that I was on drugs and not admitting to it. They tested and found nothing, and a few hours later they said since the tests for drugs came back negative, I was ok to go home. I spent a couple of hours wandering around a dark hospital site in the middle of the night, with no cash and no one I knew (and in the days before mobile phones), wondering how on earth I was going to get back to where I lived. Luckily my friends who'd been told to go home were sensible, and someone came to check on me.

Surely a 77 year old woman (or a teenager who'd been brought in unconscious) ought to be flagged as vulnerable and there ought to be a moment to question how they'll get home?

Gitfeatures · 30/10/2018 22:28

Do we know that she was not asked how she was getting home? For all we know, she may have been asked and told them that she'd be driving home!

Original poster
Honeyroar · 30/10/2018 22:31

Thanks for the useful/sympathetic replies.

To those being harsh - are you able to follow your elderly parents everywhere 24/7?? This was a standard pre op for a different condition. She'd seen the gp the week before who had said she was fine. All consultants have said she's fit to drive etc. All have ignored my concerns that she's not quite right. Plus she had, until this yr, been extremely active and independent. It's very difficult to deal with her.

I've been to hospital 6 times this year in ambulances between my mother and husband- usually A&E are the great part!

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