To think my husband is gravely ill at the wrong time?

[MyOtherCarIsAPorsche]

Masses of confusion.

Husband spoke to GP yesterday morning and described his chest pain. He was advised to call an ambulance. My husband refused because he didn't think he needed one - thought he had chest infection or torn muscle.

He went to A&E - was sat in a corridor from 10.30am - he had ecg, x ray and blood test. He continued to sit on a chair in the corridor all day.

He was told he was waiting for blood test results. These came back at 6pm. Then he had to wait for a CT scan - then rushed to resus.

Dissected aorta from heart level to naval level.

I was called to be allowed to sit with him because I wasn't allowed to be in A&E. Was then told he was being blue lighted to another hospital an hour away for immediate surgery. I asked is this time critical? The answer was - yes life saving.

Paramedics arrived and told me to set off to this other hospital. There were three paramedics. One said 'I'm not taking him because I can't use that bit of kit, I'll lose my job if something goes wrong'. No advanced paramedics available and no doctor available to go in the transfer.

I was 15 min into the journey and then called back to the hospital.

No surgery.

Trying all day today to get him transferred. Nothing available.

He's critically ill.

I'm out of my mind with worry.

There's a saying about not being ill on the weekend. The standard of care is not the same. The 24hr cover appears to not exist.

I feel like we're being fobbed off with poor excuses big style.

Apologies I cross posted with your update. Fingers crossed for you.

I don't want to sound morbid, but take notes of everything. If he dies because the right action wasn't taken at the right time, you'll need as much evidence as possible. I hope that he does well, but the care and information sounds terrible.

The 'kit' that the paramedic refused to use was some sort of drip which was being altered quite frequently and I understand it was controlling his blood pressure.

The nurse was giving him some instructions on how to respond to increases in blood pressure. He went out to ring someone - then came back and said as there was no one available to accompany them they couldn't transfer.

At the moment he has some sort of wires up his vein/artery (idk) in each wrist which are monitoring his blood pressure constantly. They are different values. He said it took more than an hour for each wire to be inserted as they kept bending and it was excruciating even with local anaesthetic.

I hope your dh gets the care he needs. And I agree with the advice to do anything you can to shout for help.

Sadly the NHS is in total crisis and this type of experience is commonplace.

@ArabellaStrange

Look up the trust rather than the hospital and the executive team for the trust. Choose the person with the most unusual name, in descending order, the email will be [email protected]. If the executive team of the trust is all John Smith/Will Adams/Becky Jones type names then this won't work. But if you do happen upon a Sergei Wilbersmith type name (made up randomly) then the other email should get through to them and they can forward it on to the CEO

Scotland and Wales don’t use NHS.net.

Demand to see on call consultant to explain change in treatment plan this is unacceptable

Many Trusts also don't use NHS.net as the main email format. The advice to guess email addresses was just a waste of time.

Things so badly need to change and I hope your husband is soon treated and home fit and well.

My husband presented with obvious heart attack symptoms and by the time I got to hospital he had been there twenty minutes and nor triaged. I asked when and was told when someone was free. I waited another fifteen minutes and then asked for someone to see him now as he was looking and feeling a lot worse. Luckily a nurse happened to be walking by as the receptionist wasn't going to get anyone. Seconds later he was rushed through then eventually blue lighted to another hospital as they listened to me rather than just going by results. Heart attack.

The NHS is great but really there's so much that isn't. Same for the police. We waited an hour and a half for 101 to answer then hung up and rang 999 where we waited 15 minutes to speak to someone.

How can life saving surgery be called off on the say so of a paramedic?
Because they're saying that the risk-to-life of the ambulance transfer without someone accompanying your husband that's trained to use the critical piece of kit that could save his life during the transfer is greater than the risk from delaying the surgery.

They're telling you that the transfer is currently more dangerous to your husband than him remaining in IC at the first hospital.

@MyOtherCarIsAPorsche

The 'kit' that the paramedic refused to use was some sort of drip which was being altered quite frequently and I understand it was controlling his blood pressure.

The nurse was giving him some instructions on how to respond to increases in blood pressure. He went out to ring someone - then came back and said as there was no one available to accompany them they couldn't transfer.

At the moment he has some sort of wires up his vein/artery (idk) in each wrist which are monitoring his blood pressure constantly. They are different values. He said it took more than an hour for each wire to be inserted as they kept bending and it was excruciating even with local anaesthetic.

I work with paramedics. No clinician can operate outside their competence and not be subject to criticism by their professional body. The service is short staffed, under enormous pressure and so it’s entirely believable that there was not someone with the specialist skills available immediately.

This is British healthcare currently. (In Wales you would wait up to 30 hours for a red ambulance (real risk to life)). :-(

A colleague sat in an ambulance for 3 hours with a 27 year old having a stroke awaiting hospital assistance earlier this month.

Exactly. The paramedic isn't trying to be difficult, or a jobsworth. They don't want to kill a patient in their care, and they don't have the skills to avoid doing so in this case.

Another that says keep asking. Take care op

I work for the ambulance service. For an intensive care transfer we always have hospital staff travel with us. Intensive care patients are transferred on the hospital trolley with all of the hospital equipment attached. We aren't trained to use the equipment, it is different to ours, we always have a doctor come with us and usually a nurse too incase anything happens on the journey. I can't understand why they don't have staff available to go on the transfer, it is critical that they make staff available. It just doesn't seem acceptable at all.

@MyOtherCarIsAPorsche

He is in intensive care at the first hospital.

There's a place in intensive care at the second hospital - he was accepted for surgery immediately.

What I don't understand is how he needed this 'life saving' surgery last night and was on the ambulance trolley ready to go, then had to be transferred back to the resus bed and now he appears to be in limbo land.

How can life saving surgery be called off on the say so of a paramedic?

Since then I feel all we've heard are downright lies, back tracking and cover ups.

Surely the evidence from the scan yesterday and the significance of the rupture indicated emergency surgery - and now it doesn't?

Just doesn't make any sense.

So sorry this is happened to you.

Answering the paramedic bit for you- what the paramedic will have wanted was an escort to go with your husband- so an ITU nurse or a doctor- because he is obviously on some kind of specialist equipment (I'm guessing its a syringe driver or similar). We aren't trained in the use of hospital equipment so we can't use it er route. If it needs to still be in use, someone has to be with the patient who knows how to use it. Even advanced paramedics aren't trained in that kind of equipment- we are purely pre-hospital care and have our own equipment.

Where I am (London) we are usually never more then maybe 20 mins to half an hour from the specialist hospitals so sometimes the patient can be transferred without using specialist equipment for a short time- if you're somewhere with a longer journey, it'll need to stay on and therefore must have a trained escort.

As PP have suggested, get the site practitioner down and insist they provide an escort the the specialist hospital.

Best of luck to you both 💜

@DogInATent

How can life saving surgery be called off on the say so of a paramedic? Because they're saying that the risk-to-life of the ambulance transfer without someone accompanying your husband that's trained to use the critical piece of kit that could save his life during the transfer is greater than the risk from delaying the surgery.

They're telling you that the transfer is currently more dangerous to your husband than him remaining in IC at the first hospital.

Yes exactly, fair play to the paramedic for being honest and voicing that it was above their level of competency. Its obviously not ideal at all that lack of suitably qualified staff has led to this delay, but no one should risk their patient (and their career) to do something they aren't trained to do. Hope it's resolved soon OP, its a shitshow across the NHS unfortunately that's only getting worse, if anyone can afford private healthcare I'd encourage them to.

Paramedic here!

Sounds like youre talking about a rate controlled drip via a pump system which we aren't trained in most likely with a drug that we are also not trained in giving/have the legal rights to administer (which would be needed if expecting the crew to change the dosage in response to BP) plus the arterial BP monitoring which a normal road crew would not be trained in using, the hospital will need to send a transfer team - normally a critical care nurse - with the crew. Obviously depending on location that you're in can make a bit difference on what staff/services are available for the transfer.

Definitely kick up a fuss, they've had plenty of time to allocate staff and come up with a plan to transfer/treat and communicate it to your husband and yourself, fingers crossed he's all sorted soon and has lots of years to spoil your daughter's twins ❤️

DH has been waiting for "urgent" surgery (cardiac) since October as his medication isn't working ...... we were promised it was no more than a 6 week wait. We're phoning almost daily and getting nowhere. We've even tried the private route but he's having to go to an out of county specialist unit and the procedure he needs isn't currently being offered to private patients.

I think I'd start to threaten discharging himself and driving him to this hospital yourself tbh............... weekends have always been a black hole at our main county hospital and it's pretty terrifying.

They have mentioned rupture yes. I am trying to use terms I have heard them say to me. It's the length of the dissection which is particularly worrying me. It just seemed so bloody long when the doctor was indicating 'from here to here' on himself.

My son was also allowed to be with me for a short time when we first got to resus. I keep asking my son about what was said to make sure I've got it right. He remembers more than me. I don't think I was taking it all in.

The first question I asked was 'is this time critical?' The doctor said - yes lifesaving.

I've had no sleep lately - my brain is racing.

I've had to book a time slot to visit him today - I set off in an hour.

Hoping your husband gets the care he needs.

Unfortunately it will take being very firm and insistent to speak to the senior manager/consultant to escalate your concerns regarding time sensitive surgery, and get an up to date assessment of his clinical needs and options.

Being able to do this when you want to be with you husband is truly awful.

Hoping you can get to speak to someone soon who can push to get the care he needs. Sending every best wish to you both.

Just read your update. Best of luck. I agree with the poster above, kick up a fuss.
Take care.

Have you tried PALS?

Gosh how terrifying. I agree with making a noise and not being meek and polite. Twitter? Sorry not much help but I wish your DH a speedy recovery

@MyOtherCarIsAPorsche do you have anyone medical in the extended family. I’ve often found that other medics will speak properly to someone they view as a peer (if you can get hold of them
of course). Shouldn’t be this way but often is.

Good luck at the visit.

I wonder if it’s worth trying to get hold of your MP?