Sorry long post, I’ve tried to shorten as much as I could!
I had a really poor experience during a recent hospital stay. I didn’t complain at the time because I was too unwell, but now that I’m better and have thought about it, I’m quite upset and unsure whether it’s worth raising formally or if I should just let it go and stop making a mountain from a molehill
Everything was fine until towards the end of my stay- I was then treated by a nurse who made it clear she didn’t like me. She kept saying I was too anxious and stressed and I had to relax and calm down. She also said I was just ill because I was so anxious and worked up (not at all true, I have a heart condition). She would literally come into my room to say this multiple times- I was sitting eating pringles, watching old love island episodes, chilling- I wasn’t at all anxious! It kept happening- I just brushed it off and counted down the days until I could get home
A few days later I became quite unwell overnight. I want to keep it anonymous so don’t want to give too many details but it was the same nurse again. From what I gather I was probably going to get several medications but the doctor was calling someone to double check before giving it (I think maybe the on call consultant?) I heard her say to the nurse to have the medications ready but she had to check something first. They both came back in, the nurse was putting the saline flushes through my arm so I could feel her working away but I wasn’t really looking, and the doctor had looked away for a minute to read my previous notes and then I started to feel really, really unwell. I started crying ‘something isn’t right I don’t feel well’ and the doctor was lovely, she immediately started asking questions, and then I looked over and the nurse was pushing something into my arm. I realised immediately whatever it was was making me feel unwell so I started to cry out to stop, then the doctor starting shouting out basically saying oh my god stop, that wasn’t supposed to be given like that, stop stop stop. The next bit was a bit of a blur and all I remember was suddenly a lot of people in the room, getting loads of other medication to fix it and being on oxygen for a while after. When I started to feel better it was several hours later and I asked the next nurse (who was lovely) what had happened and she said basically there had a been a mix up and I wasn’t supposed to be given the medication yet (we were still waiting on the consultants advice) but the nurse thought she was supposed to give it, and on top of that, it was given incorrectly (eg instead of slowly it was given very very quickly). She said it was a mix up and the nurse thought that’s how it was supposed to be given. Apparently my systolic blood pressure was down in the low 40s at one point
That night, the same nurse was on again and she continually kept coming in saying how I was anxious, and I had been too worked up last night and panicked myself about nothing. Eventually I got fed up and told her the only reason I was upset last night was because of her mistake, and that she made me really unwell. She walked out but kept coming back in telling me to go to sleep, I was too anxious and needed sleep. I just wanted wanted to watch love island in peace 🥲
After being discharged I put it behind me, but with hindsight, I’m actually really unhappy about it. I’m surprisingly less unhappy about the medication error (although it could have been very serious) than I am about how she continually gaslit me that I was anxious when I wasnt. I’d be very interested to know how many times the older men on the same ward were told they were anxious.
Anyway, is there a point making a complaint? Or will there already have been an internal investigation after the medication error? I don’t want to get anyone in trouble but equally I don’t want anyone else (especially another young woman) to ever be treated the way I was