Would you make a complaint about these paramedics?

[WatermelonWaveclub]

I went to my GP the other day as I kept fainting when coughing. The GP said my HR was sky high. Then I coughed and fainted in front of the GP. Afterwards I couldn't move my legs properly. She phoned the hospital who said I need an ambulance. The GP got someone to get me in a wheelchair and take me to the nurse's room where I was put on a bed in a cubicle.

Anyway a few minutes later the ambulance crew turn up (3 of them). They did an ECG - ok but tachycardic. I said my legs were feeling ok by then. They did a lying and standing BP and checked I could feel both sides of my face, could hold both arms up, checked pupils etc. So they say they need to take me to hospital. They start heading off and so I follow them on foot. They're all walking ahead of me, chatting away, not one seeing if I'm ok. So consequently we get into the car park - I have a coughing fit and next thing I know I'm waking up on the car park floor.

I can't stop thinking about it. Were they at fault? Should they have used a wheelchair or at least someone walked with me? At the hospital they wouldn't even let me go to my scans etc in a wheelchair, I had to be taken in my bed. So if GP and nurse wouldn't let me walk was it right that the paramedics did?

It's not unusual when you have whooping cough! The coughing is triggering the vagal nerve.

Separate to that I had a brain bleed due to coughing.

They shouldn't have walked ahead of you imo, but I wouldn't consider it significant enough to make a formal complaint. If you're upset by it (which is completely valid) you can feed this back via PALS and ask that it gets to their manager. I guess you'd just be asking that the practitioners reflect on this, as it was an avoidable accident

I bet you wouldn't complain if a car mechanic cut your brake line and you had a horrible accident where you were in the hospital for a week, would you?

She DID NOT randomly faint before she reached the hospital? Did you bother to read the thread, or were so you intent on showing off your lack of knowledge and class so overwhelming that you had to reply right at that second?

FFS! The level of stupidity on this thread is almost laughable, if it weren't so dangerous, reckless and horrifying.

Thank you and I hope you are ok too.

So, they "chatted" in the ambulance that they didn't think adults got whooping cough?

Those three are obviously not the brightest bulbs in the chandelier. facepalm

I am so happy that you are recovering. I hope you are getting a lot of rest and not doing too much exertion too soon.

Their lack of knowing how to treat a patient could have ended very badly for you.

Of course at least one should have walked with you or used a wheelchair. They’d been called for a reason and everyone with even the most medical training knows a health situation can change in an instant.

@WatermelonWaveclub I had better care when booking an “Animal ambulance “ to get my dog home from a veterinary hospital.

The driver walked alongside me and my dog, carefully lowered a ramp for her to climb up ( with us on each side) and she drove home so carefully so as to not cause any distress or discomfort to dog.

I do personally think leaving you to pass out alone was pretty negligent.

Heck, I volunteered at a Hospice and patients were always walked next to and arm supported if they was a tiny chance they might fall.

Whooping cough is nasty
The dog above had kennel cough (Related to Whooping cough)and I remember her paddling about on the floor on her side, unable to catch her breath between coughing jags- and vomiting up thick catarrh and she was very Ill with it.

I’m glad you are feeling better now, and do put a complaint in- it’s not good enough.

Haha - yes, it certainly is!

It's truly mind-blowing. And very, very disturbing that people could feel that way.

It explains SO much of what is wrong with the world.

I am pretty sure these same people would say Ted Bundy's victims should have been smarter and got what they deserved.

I wouldn't complain but I would feedback

Exactly!
A GP is not going to call an ambulance for the fun of it, so obviously the patient needs care- Especially if they have passed out before.

It’s completely unacceptable behaviour to leave someone out of sight ( Patient walking behind them) and to not be supporting someone just in case they pass out again.
It’s not hard, surely to get the trolley out an for the patient to be sitting/ lying on that.

I was taken downstairs on a trolley years ago because I couldn’t walk properly- the Paramedics were lovely.

Most are.

These sound like they need improvements.

It may seem really negative but that is sometimes where my brain goes.

If course I feel gratitude. Gratitude for the excellent care in hospital, gratitude for my GP acting so quickly, just gratitude to be alive and be with my children.

I'm not sure exactly what 'concentrating on getting better' looks like. I sleep a lot, take lots of meds, rest, don't do much.

But I think especially when there's not much else going on we can worry about things, wonder why and sometimes get angry. And I think that is ok.

*most basic medical training

I know and it makes me worry! And think what if...

But yes, thank you I am 😊

Well yes she should complain. They are paramedics they aren't untouchable. The 3 of them let a seriously poorly patient walk to the ambulance without any assistance or even one being by her side. Now to me you don't have to have medical training to see how ridiculous it is. She fainted in the doctors office, she fainted on her way to the ambulance and she had been fainting at home. So really common sense would make me think she needs to be helped. Your comment is really mean. I hope you never need this kind of help.

Some of these comments are ridiculous. If I was a paramedic and posted the following on MN I would have my arse handed to me. I would be called negligent at the very least!

"an ambulance was called by a GP because a patient was repeatedly fainting and had high HR etc. I checked them over and they seemed fairly OK at this point but still needed assessing so myself and two other colleagues said she would need to go to hospital. Despite the previous fainting her legs seemed a little better so we all walked to the ambulance. Colleagues and I were ahead chatting and the patient trailing behind. Suddenly we turn and realise she is on the floor after having fainted again. This patient has now made a complaint that we should have stayed with her and at least wheeled her to the ambulance. AIBU? I don't think a complaint is necessary"

Oh, I think the posters telling you to not focus on the lousy care you got from THREE ambulance workers but to, instead, feel gratitude (of what? That they didn't kill you?) and concentrate on getting better (because? They think you are concentrating on how to achieve world peace, control inflation and lower the interest rate instead? Or concentrating on how those three won't kill the next patient unfortunate to be stuck with them?).

It's just a way to try and tell you to "know your place". Too many twat waffles commenting about things they couldn't understand if their life depended upon it, even though, sadly, someday it might.

I agree. They should have had at least one walking with you, preferably one on each side.
I'm baffled by the replies on this post. I would definitely raise this! As a training issue minimum.
What if you had seriously hurt your head when you fainted? It's a stupid risk they didn't need to take!

I'm quite shocked at the amount of People who think this is OK. Paramedics are health professionals so they shouldn't have let this happen. You shouldn't have been left unaided getting to the ambulance. I don't know how people are getting that the obs were OK. They were not, and that's why she was being taken to hospital.

⬆THIS💯

Heck, common sense tells one that with zero medical training needed.

Common sense seems to becoming a very, very rare commodity these days.

So you are a grown adult who was conscious and fully aware of your symptoms when you decided to get up and follow them on foot. Yes they may have been the worst team, and should have taken better care, however when will you take responsibility for your own actions? Why didn't you refuse and insist on a wheelchair?

Yes! I would be writing a letter!
I wouldn't sue though.

@EnglishBluebell yes because those Paramedics are responsible for safely transporting the patient and they failed completely to do so. So yes, she's right to complain as they failed in their duty of care to their patient.

Read OP updates. They held the door open for her.

If you feel that complaining is what you need to do, then, of course, you should do it.
I don't think you are 'making it up' or were 'faking' but I do query your recollection. You've said numerous times that you were 'out of it' that it's 'hazy'. You seem to 'remember' things as you are reading and being encouraged to complain. I'm not going to make assumptions or suggestions about what people thought or 'may' have been doing. I will say that I have been unwell enough to be totally out of it once in my life (conscious and able to move etc but just not THERE) and it was really really hard afterwards trying to piece things together.

I also don't believe that anyone is above reproach so it is not a case of thinking the paramedics can do no wrong but I just don't understand how they can be walking so far ahead that they do not hear the coughing fit that led to your fall. This would not have happened in silence and, if they WERE aware you were behind them, I just don't believe that out of 3, NO ONE looked back at you whilst walking or heard your coughing fit. Even the fall itself would have made some kind of sound.

You should start with your GPs surgery. Did no one see you walking out of the surgery? If they did, did they just let you go even though the paramedics were walking ahead?
So yes, contact them. Ask for some clarity and some answers for your own piece of mind