This is a weird and long story and I really am not sure whether to make something of it or not.
Had a deep puncture wound with dirt stuck in it a couple of weeks ago. Went to get it cleaned out and patched up at a walk-in clinic. Was asked if tetanus boosters were up to date. They weren’t as I have terrible reactions. They sent me home saying if there was any sign of infection to come back. It healed up well after some initial swelling and pain but I thought nothing more of it...until yesterday morning when I woke up with my jaw in spasm! It only lasted a few seconds but enough to terrify me into thinking I had tetanus. I called 111 for advice and they told me to get to A&E ASAP.
Off I went. I was triaged and sent to a lady who introduced herself as Dr so and so, and then proceeded to tell me I had an “anxiety disorder”. I explained that I had a tetanus prone wound two weeks ago and that my jaw was in spasm when I woke up and she told me there was “no way” I had tetanus as it would have developed within 3 days and I wouldn’t be sitting there talking to her. I explained that I had read the NHS info on tetanus and it said 3 to 21 days for it to develop. She said “You seem to know a lot about tetanus” with a smirk. So then she starts phoning someone and asks if they need to see me, whilst chuckling to herself.. and then types “anxiety disorder” into the screen. I questioned this again and she claimed the computer wouldn’t accept “suspected tetanus” and she could ONLY put anxiety disorder. Next thing she does is examine the wound itself, and she started trying to pick off the scab! I asked her to stop it and she laughed and said “I’m just having a look at it!” and then she disappeared out the curtain and started discussing me with someone else whilst again laughing. She then phoned someone else to discuss me but this person asked her to send me to an emergency assessment unit. So I went there and was met eventually by a junior doctor who greeted me with “So I’m told you were here two weeks ago with a similar condition and you got us to phone the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine?”
WTF?!!
I had never ever set foot in the place! I felt like I was in the Twilight Zone!
They tried to find me on their system but obviously didn’t, as I had never been there before. They asked me about 15 questions and wrote down my answers. Then I was passed to someone else who asked me the same 15 questions and then disappeared. Then a nurse came in and asked me another load of similar questions...and then did a heap of blood tests and an ECG! They then asked me to sit in a waiting room. I was there from 8am until 6pm (along with some poor souls who were groaning in agony with various ailments) and then eventually the second guy came back and said I could go, because I’d had no further spasms, but if I had any other signs of tetanus to come straight back to A&E. He gave me the discharge form and I put it in my bag. As I was leaving he caught up with me and handed me another dis barge form and asked for the first one back. He’d changed “Initial diagnosis: Spasm in jaw” to “Initial diagnosis: anxious twitch in jaw”!!
I left.
I have been trying to process it and understand what on Earth happened. I don’t know whether to make a complaint to PALS or not. How do I even explain it all? Surely a case of mistaken identity? But to be so rude and unprofessional, trying to pick off my scab as if I’d stuck a fake one on... Laughing at me, claiming I had an anxiety disorder....
AIBU to make a complaint? It sounds so far fetched yet it actually happened!!