My dd nearly died waiting for an emergency ambulance... the nhs is broken!

[finallyahappygirl]

Last Saturday my dd 8 woke up extremely poorly. She had a temperature of 39c and was complaining of a sore throat, I rang nhs 111 at 7:30am and was told I would be called by a nurse and I should not take her to a walk in centre or A&E due to the risk of her being infected with covid-19. Fast forward 12 hours my dd tried to get out of bed but collapses straight on the floor, she could not bear bright lights she couldn't not move her neck and everytime she spoke or cried she was screaming in total agony with the pain in her head. Her temperature had risen to 41c and she began losing consciousness.... I rang 999 and was advised that it sounded like meningitis and I was to strip her clothes off and try and cool her down. 5 minutes later I was rang back by a first responder who talked me through what to do and how to keep her safe, he then told me she was top priority and they were coming blues and twos but.... there were no available ambulances and he didn't know when one would become available. I totally lost it at this point sobbing down the phone that my baby is dying I don't know how to save her. He apologised profusely but said she is top priority and they will be with us when they can.... 5 minutes later she lost consciousness completely and we couldn't wake her at all even nipping her ear she didn't come round. I frantically dialed 999 only to be told very rudely there was still no ambulances and what were they meant to do. I said I would take her in my own car and they said that was too dangerous due to the state I was in and the likely medical treatment she needed immediately. 1hour and 20 minutes later the ambulance turned up my daughter still unconscious my eldest dd in hysterics thinking her baby sister had died. My partner in complete shock!!! My daughter has meningitis and thankfully is now on the mend but the outcome could have been so different it does bear thinking about really.
I totally appreciate we're in a pandemic but surely the nhs shouldn't be this broken where children's lives are being put at risk!!! Wtf has happened to this countries priorities?? Why have the government let things get to this point??

Why have the government let things get to this point??

People voted for the government. The system is broken. Worse times are ahead of us unfortunately with CV19. Sorry to hear about your daughter and hope she is better now. I do panic as I dont drive, if something happens, I have no idea what I will do :(

Also she wasn't completely unconscious for the whole time

That would have made a difference in the priority of the call. Delerium as a response to fever is not quite as serious as unconsciousness, not denying it must have been scary and awful though.

And OP you did the safest thing at the time by not taking her. Your terrified state driving could have killed you all accidentally x

I had meningitis as a toddler too

I was left deaf unfortunately as the doctors didn’t diagnose it in time

My ambulance service is the best in the country too!

I know people that are repeatedly calling ambulances. Yes they have conditions, but often they're calling unnecessarily, but the crews have to respond because the person has a condition. They also have MH conditions, some addresses call 999 multiple times a day.

My mum lay dying for over two hours before an ambulance got to her, after a brain haemorrhage.

When we were in A&E, a drunk man who had tried to cut his wrists (but actually hadn’t- he’d scratched them a bit) came in with two ambulance crews and a police van. He was shouting and swearing whilst my mum was dying.

If I ever saw him again, I’d punch his fucking lights out.

My DD has functional seizures and doesn’t need an ambulance, but her college protocol demands one is called if she’s seizing for over 5 minutes. We’ve sent in evidence from the neurologist to say that it isn’t necessary, but the first aider at college apparently knows better. They called 3 in one week.

The ambulance service needs to be used more responsibly, especially now.

That first responder should be ashamed of themselves though.

I don't think that's a fair comment if she was following procedure and the resources just weren't there.

Agree with a PP's comments that we need to stop blaming individuals for structural failings.

The op didn't do anything wrong by waiting because it's usually safer to wait for an ambulance. Unfortunately, there is not one person in the UK who can now rely on an ambulance to attend for whatever reason at all, including respiratory or cardiac arrest. It's pot luck as to whether one will come and we all need to realise this so we don't think we can rely on them.

Op so glad your dd is better but unfortunately, there will be collateral deaths in this utter chaos.

Unfortunately the NHS isn't just underfunded there are endless problems with it that spending more money on, wouldn't be solve.

After all ten + years of a labour government left us with massive midwives shortage, everyday papers headlines were filled with one horror story after another about maternity wards.

The tories have actually put funding into our local hospitals but I want the whole NHS to be radically over hauled.

Run on different systems like Germany primary somewhere.

Anyway, what's done is done. Will all the "Why didn't you" posters just STOP! OP has just nearly lost her child. Saying things like you're all saying could have a serious and damaging effect on OP's mental health going forward.

Think before you type please

Yy pervious poster.

We all need to realise there is no back up at present from normal sources.

I wonder if walk in places or those smaller hospitals are going to be repositioned as places people can go for help, leave the hospitals for the really big stuff?

I don't think posters are trying to guilt the OP. They're trying to give advice so if someone else gets ill they consider making their own way to hospital rather than waiting for an ambulance. Ambulance wait times have been in crisis for a very long time and as a PP said, it's down to the people voting Conservative. Those voters can make all the excuses they like but they voted for a party that has decimated public services and infrastructure.

After blood test and a lumbar puncture they said it was bacterial meningitis. She's been on iv antibiotics and this will eventually change to normal medication when the infection is under control. then we can hopefully plan for her coming home. She's not herself and I don't have any guarantees that she hasn't suffered permanent complications but she is on the mend now and I'm looking forward.
I only posted now things have settled a bit I'm very traumatised by the whole thing so I thought venting a little frustration in the post would help.
I naively didn't think I would get other people blaming me for listening to medical advice. I posted to help myself not to feel worse.

All those saying why didn't you take her instead of waiting all that time - it's not as if the operator said "it'll be an hour and a half," and she sat there and waited, she would have been thinking and hoping for all of that time that the ambulance would be there any minute!

OP I hope your DD is ok

I now know I should have taken her myself but I was in a state of panic, so stupidly follows advise I was given!

You couldn't possibly have known that an ambulance would take 1 and a half hours Happygirl - God forbid anything remotely like this happens again, but if it does, you'll know what to do.

I would say though, if it's anything like suspected meningitis, DON'T take your child into the hospital - hog in yourself and explain and they will come out for her to protect other patients.

I do hope she is well soon - it is a horrible thing for you to have had to cope with.

Glad your daughter was ok but this is going to happen more and more. Bear in mind that we are no where near the peak yet.

This has nothing to do with people calling ambulances when they don't need them and everything to do with an existing lack of NHS resources that are already stretched and will collapse under this increased demand. Do you really think the ambulance service would not treat an unconscious child as a priority? If there are 100 urgent priority cases of people facing death who need ambulances and 10 ambulances, what is going to happen?

Another example here - this man sadly died.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8135809/London-barista-28-died-malaria-failing-coronavirus-overloaded-111.html

Dear OP,

I've been in a similar situation to you, many years ago my DD aged 7, began seizing on a Saturday morning. I called the GP who said bring her in so I did. I stuck my seizuring child into a car and drove her to the GP. In retrospect I should've called an ambulance but I didn't because I knew from past experience that we'd often waited 30 minutes for one when she'd been blue and unresponsive with her asthma so I did what my panicking brain told me to do and called the surgery. Now I know that was stupid. I should have called 999. I ^should not" have put her in the car while she was seizuring but I did. My DD had encephalitis, she continued to seizure for another 2+ hours and spent time in PICU but has made a full recovery. I hope yours does too and that you can let go of what, in hindsight, you'd do differently. Be kind to yourself, you did what you thought was best on the advice of 999.

Why have the government let things get to this point??

Partly to do with the government. Partly due to all the people unknowingly spreading the virus through our communities by insisting their dcs should keep going to school. or sending their dc out to play with friends in the park, or agreeing to their teenagers playing football, or taking their elderly parents shopping, or planning to visit their mum tomorrow or dropping round to friends because they're lonely. Each one of those simple acts could be responsible for 1, 10 or 100s of ambulance emergency calls as the virus spreads.

If we ALL took social distancing seriously the ambulance services would have more chance of helping any one of us when we need them.

I'm so glad your dd is recovering OP.

@finallyahappygirl it was shock at not being upgraded not a comment on what you did OP, you did everything as you should have with the advice given. I hope she is recovering well.

Can't really blame OP for not driving, she'd be thinking what if it's on its way and then you miss it. But the important thing is her daughter is recovering.

Our NHS is bloody amazing unfortunately we are in the middle of a pandemic and it’s stretched as far as it can go!

It’s at breaking point however to have paramedics, nurses, doctors free at the point of delivery is a god send to many.

Well, where to start on this one- our health services are hugely abused and have been for used. Just look at some of the 999 call programmes and what people ring up for (though tbf there is also a huge MH provision shortage that contributes to this)

Firstly, we shouldn't legislate for the lowest common denominator. Secondly, if the social care system was funded to the degree it needed, there wouldn't this pressure on the NHS and the police.

Why have the government let things get to this point??

Well because there is currently a worldwide pandemic going on, people are dropping like flies and things are just a tad stretched at the moment. That's probably why the OPs situation has occured. I'm not saying that the government hasn't severely underfunded the NHS for years because they have (and other completely different factors which have resulted in the NHS being decimated in recent years, however that's a completely different thread altogether). But at present, yes, there is going to be shortage of ambulances, shortages of nurses and doctors and yes, people are going to end up seriously harmed...and worse.

The government are currently doing all they can to help the health service deal with this ie unprecedented levels of NHS recruitment across the country, facilitating the return of retired/out of practice doctors and nurses, working with professional bodies to temporarily relax the registration requirements of student nurses and doctors. But none of this will magically fix everything. Hold on to your hat, because we are in for a really rough ride over the next few months.

OP my thoughts are with you, I can't imagine how bloody awful a situation that must have been for you. Best wishes to your wee one.

I wish that I could also say that the Tories put more money into our local hospital. You must be v lucky. Ours has had years of cuts. No A&E, closed the walk in, lost the local ambulance hub, (kept under wraps until after the recent election), reduced maternity, no anaesthesiologists etc etc etc....

Btw, Germany pays much more for its health care through higher taxation as does Canada. I'd say be careful what you wish for because a Germany-like system is not on offer. Keep asking for a NHS 'overhaul' and what we're going to get is something like the US system. Would you be happy with that?

When we were in A&E, a drunk man who had tried to cut his wrists (but actually hadn’t- he’d scratched them a bit) came in with two ambulance crews and a police van. He was shouting and swearing whilst my mum was dying

If I ever saw him again, I’d punch his fucking lights out

@Shockers - for you - how awful that must have been for you both, and I get why you feel that. But again, should we not be addressing the lack of any help for many with MH/ addiction issues. And I say that even as someone who has taken a full on punch more than once from similar patients (even though I'm an adult not MH nurse).

On one day a couple of weeks ago, on a general acute ward (22 patients) we had to nurse one patient who had a good go at cutting his own throat whilst on the ward - we waited 2 days for a MH nurse. Same for a woman who took over 750 tablets then hid from the police (so a hugely serious attempt). I was threatened by 2 different patients with schizophrenia/ other MH issues as we couldn't get hold of their usual meds, one of these - had TB and was actively trying to give it to us (literally throwing shit as us). This is how some of us were working, and this was before COVID19. (I've changed a couple of details here for confidentially but if anything I've played things down not up).