Hello, hoping someone can help.
I have a young female relative (niece) who received treatment in hospital for a heart problem. She said that the nurses and docs have been amazing towards her, however she had an incident with a nurse and called me about it as she was really upset.
I’m not too clear on the exact details but from what I gather she was getting a medication which slows down your heart and makes you feel terrible. She said it is usually given quickly but that she is always warned before they do it so she knows to expect it. From what I gather, they were trying a much bigger dose as her heart issues are quite complex (she said it was 24 of it? No idea the context or if it was 24 ml or 24 g but she said it was a 24 dose) She said that as they were about to do it, a different nurse came in and insisted on taking over giving this medicine. I’m not clear on the exact details but she said that everyone was getting ready and they were not supposed to begin yet as they were fixing the computer, but she began to feel extremely unwell, and that she started getting hysterical as she felt she couldn’t breath. She said the other staff were brilliant with her, and they suddenly realised that the nurse was giving the medication very slowly (it wasn’t supposed to be given at all yet as they were fixing the computer watching her heart) and there was immediately a lot of shouting and panic from the other staff about making it go in quicker and the fact it shouldn’t be given so slowly. Meanwhile the other nurse was saying it’s fine and she thought it was ok to be given slowly. She said the feeling was horrific and she’s had it lots of times before but it was significantly worse this time because of how slow it was and how long it lasted, whereas usually the feeling is very brief.
she admitted that afterwards she was completely hysterical and she said the other staff were brilliant and helped her calm down. But the nurse who did it was apparently not exactly apologetic and sort of shrugged and said she thought it could go slowly then left. And the same nurse then had the nerve to repeatedly tell my niece how she was too anxious and had to calm down
She’s fine now obviously, but still really shaken afterwards and when she called me she said she was terrified about that same nurse doing it again if she ever needs the same treatment again. I told her to mention to the other staff about how she was scared about it happening again and she did and said they were apparently unhappy about it too and agreed it shouldn’t have happened. She said the other staff have been absolutely amazing.
I told her she should have spoken up and complained but she completely refused as she said she doesn’t want to be difficult and that the other team involved were amazing. She’s an adult so that’s her right and my opinion on it is irrelevant. Obviously she’s my niece so I’m unhappy on her behalf but I’m not going to overstep the mark as it’s her choice. But does anyone know, will this incident be reported internally within the NHS by the other staff? I feel like the staff member should possibly require more training in this area, will the other staff automatically fill in an incident report type thing and report it internally?