To ask for your most awful hospital ward companion stories?

[stripeyronnie]

Currently on a postnatal ward. Only been here an hour. So far someone has eaten reheated curry which I can still smell. Next doors toddler is watching peppa feckin pig on loudspeaker and a different toddler is opening my curtain whilst playing with a fire engine with siren on. Luckily baby is used to being at home with similarly annoying siblings (we've been readmitted) so is sleeping through it all. DH has been dispatched home for earplugs and other things to keep me sane.

I work in a hospital and I’m amazed everyday by some of the things I see.

I will burn in hell for this, but I came round in ICU and the man in the opposite bed was writhing around and moaning in the style of Derek Acora. I had no idea where I was, how I had got there or who he was, and I wasn't very polite about it.

And once I was waiting in A&E, and a group of us had to stop an idiot from lighting his fag - he was sitting next to an oxygen outlet.

I had to go into the local hospital whilst up visiting my terminally ill Dad as I had had a Pace Maker put in but they had forgotten to take some threads out and it had become infected!
An elderly woman was admitted and it became clear she was not of sound mind. She had no idea where she was and kept shouting out. The nurses put the sides of her bed up to stop her climbing out.
Unfortunately that didn't stop her and I awoke to find her trying to take my drips out and get me out of bed as she thought I was an intruder in her house!

The next day my Dad was admitted, he was in the same ward but a different room - just through the wall from me.
He wasn't at all well obviously and at one stage the next night began shouting for a nurse. The man next to him kept shouting back at him 'press your buzzer, press your buzzer' but doing nothing himself! So I pressed my buzzer and when the nurse came I directed her to my Dad. It happened again about an hour later so I got up and wheeled my drip with my round to the next room, went over to my Dad and pressed his buzzer for him. I sat with him for a while and made it very clear that any woman would just have pressed her own buzzer to get the nurse and not shouted at a dying man.

DS had a bit of a funny turn in the park, we thought heat/migraine but as he has underlying issues we took him to kids walk in. They checked him, did a CT scan, all fine, agreed just bad migraine but would need to be discharged by Paeds. Off we go to Paeds, forgotten for two hours so take ds to find someone and some water as unbearably hot. Nurse sees and goes mental that they've deemed him an infection risk and he's quarantined. No explanation. Anyway, over 3 days they kept us in attempting a lumbar puncture as they think he could have bleeding on brain, despite the CT being clear. Attempted five times with no anaesthetic. DS left terrified. He eventually had it under anaesthetic, I said I didn't think it necessary but they threatened to involve Social services if we refused.
After the anaesthetic, they asked me to go collect him from recovery. Went with a nurse. He was utterly nuts, shouting that he needed the loo but his sister wouldn't get out the bathroom so clearly high as a kite. I ended up sat on his trolley trying to calm him down, he kicked me and slapped a male recovery nurse who I kept apologising too but who kept laughing that it was fine and telling me stories of others who lose the plot coming off anaesthetic. DS then rips his gown off and throws it, and the gown falls into the female nurses feet.
She went mental! Going on about reporting it as an assault and demanding the head anaesthetist comes down. He laughed at her too
All the way back to the ward she was getting annoyed.
We were told results would be back in under an hour. After 4, I went to ask her what was the hold up as he desperately wanted to go home. She starts again, then turns and said something in a foreign language. So I walked after her and asked what she had said, and told her her attitude was disgusting- at which point she slammed a door on my wrist, giving me a sprained wrist

When I had my first, back in 1982 I was in for a week. The woman next to me seemed to snore alot and nap a lot. Not complaining about that. She delivered her third, a large baby, and after visiting nodded off holding the baby and the baby fell on the floor. This scared the proverbial out of me and then I couldnt sleep, as she was showing all signs of repeating the incident. When I was a child my mother used to joke about "he was dropped on his head when he was little..." there it was playing out in front of me.

I feel your pain @stripeyronnie- the day after I'd given birth (ECS), another bloody mum joined us (5 other new mums)- she was Skyping her family in North Africa ALLLLLLL fcking night. It was horrendous- her baby was crying throughout but she was ignoring it and constantly calling the nurse over to ask her to make the baby quiet. No one uttered a word to her. I called the nurse myself to complain but the nurse looked sheepish, smiled and said 'yeah, we can hear her too but what can you do?' It took quite a few loud tuts and shushes on my part to get her to (relatively) quieten down but she still didn't end the call- even when her baby puked up mucus. She pressed the emergency buzzer and was screaming, with her female relative screaming behind her, until the nurse took the baby away. She then continued her call.

There was a Chinese mum next to me the night before whose baby cried the entire night but she refused to pick her up. She had another female staying over with her (nanny?) who also didn't pick the baby up but tried to quieten/soothe it through very loud/firm pats. It was distressing hearing a newborn cry/whimper all night.

I probably annoyed the lib

Sorry, posted too quickly:

... I probably annoyed the living daylights out of them all by having a gorgeous saag ghosht (lamb spinach) curry for lunch the next day. I don't regret it.

Recovering after an ectopic pregnancy on a gastric ward (which was a bit weird in itself).
The lady opposite had clearly been in a while and had a stack of audiobooks with her, but not, as it turned out, headphones.
This didn't stop her listening to 50 Shades of Shite through a stereo speaker though.

I fear I was the nightmare neighbour on my postnatal ward though. DD woke up crying every 20 minutes or so and I couldn't get her to settle. Other new mothers complained to the nurses that "that woman won't shut the baby up and MINE is sleeping perfectly". Story of my life for the next 12 months...

Not even finished reading the first page and.... oh my word 😳.

I had a lady in the bed opposite me. She kept crying and asking for her boyfriend. Her family came to visit and she carried on asking for him. They tried to remind her that she had buried her husband two days earlier. A few minutes later she was off again wanting her boyfriend. The poor sons kept on telling her that they had only had her husband’s funeral on Tuesday. After they left, the nurses told me that she did have a boyfriend. Luckily her sons put it down to dementia!

when i had my youngest daughter almost 6 years ago by c-section i was sent to recovery room with 3 other ladies . The lady facing had twins and didnt really hear or speak to her or the lady in the far corner. The lady next to me was from africa so didnt have many family around . She took a phone call at 7am one morning on speaker phone while all her family talked and then sang to her and her child. It went on for around 50 minutes . After breakfast a group of visiters came to her bed and they had clearly never met before and was introducing themselves to her. It was very strange , but made my 1 night stay entertaining

Whilst visiting a friend in hospital recently for a few days: son comes to visit his elderly mother and she promptly gives him the low down on all the other patients very loudly. Of the large lady opposite who was recovering from kidney surgery whilst tucking into her second dinner "All she does is eat! There is nothing wrong with her. She's just in here for the food!". Of my friend and I "THEY ARE LESBIANS. YOU KNOW- WOMEN WHO HAVE SEX!". Every time that I helped my friend to the bathroom and returned to the ward, she would announce loudly, "THEY'VE JUST HAD SEX AGAIN! THEY DO IT IN THE TOILETS!"

I have read a lot of these. I think when we get an established government, it should be forwarded to the minister of health. We keep getting told his fantastic the NHS is. Not on this thread, though. The wards should be properly managed.

Was about 15 years ago, got hit by a car (hit and run) I was on a ward full off old people and this old lady opposite me kept pooping herself and it stunk the ward out. It was horrific.

So my grandparents came to visit me and we were watching eastenders on my bedside tv and I let a silent but deadly one go... and my grandad whispered oh no that lady sh&t herself again

While in overnight with my second baby I had a "neighbour" in the next cubicle. She spent the night talking to the midwife about how she knows someone from her "street" was also in having a baby. I had never met the woman and dont know how she knew me. I wanted to speak up but it was the middle of the night.

Maternity ward after the birth of my first. Trying to establish breastfeeding, next cubicles child kept coming into my cubicle while I had my breasts out trying to feed my son. I was shattered after a difficult birth and too mortified by it all to say anything.

@Mammajay

What are your suggestions for “properly managing” people with dementia and those with lifestyles different to our own? These two groups are the prevalent themes after all...

Manage sleep would be a start. My first baby the ward was busy and noisy all day and night. Second baby, bliss. In the middle of the day we all had to rest for a period of time. The sister would come round and ask us to get into bed and rest. I would almost always fall asleep. Having babies is very tiring

In having ds1 strictly 2 visitors, 4 bed side ward with 3 of us in there, 2 days after Christmas, and the lady in the next bed had got the window open, (they only open a bit and have like bars across the opening) and was trying to pass her newborn through the window to the rest of her family who were waiting outside at 7.00 at night.
With ds2 I was the ward snorer! Was in with 4 fab ladies and woke up to find one stood over me with a pillow😂 bloody woman reminds me of this all the time!

Sorry queen I didn't read your full message. I think many of the posts are about noisy people.

@shithappens123. The NHS isn’t free. It’s paid for by taxpayers

I had an awful experience in for a week with #2. No ones fault though. I was in a four bed ward and a nurse sternly told me that the two ladies opposite had babies in NICU and that they normally try to put them somewhere else but the hospital was very busy. I took that to mean every time my baby cried would be distressing for them and I should keep it to a minimum. Not fun for me worse for them.

Never saw the occupants of the fourth bed at all but the whole room stank like a sewer. We asked for the windows open etc and if there was a plumbing problem and generally bitched about it.

It was only later I overheard the nurses talking with patient #4 that I realised she’d obviously had a horrific birth injury that had left her doubly incontinent she must have been sitting there listening to us moan about the smell which was coming from her. I felt so bad.