Dad, 27 dies days after discharging himself from A&E over fear he’d catch covid

[OrangesAndLemons2]

metro.co.uk/2021/01/21/dad-27-dies-after-discharging-himself-from-ae-over-covid-fears-13940963/

I really think the media needs to be held accountable for this. The complete blanket reporting on covid and the constant doom stories are keeping people terrified. Yes, awareness needs to be raised so that people follow the rules and guidelines. But when it comes to something like this, somebody, a young person, too scared to get help for another potentially life threatening issue, then it becomes a big problem.

@TriggersBroom I am so sorry for your loss

Thank you mylovely

@TriggersBroom

My DH caught covid in hospital and died.

I am so sorry

@triggersbroom I am so sorry, that is just awful.

OP - I don't think you can blame the media for reporting the facts. Besides 'the media' is a totally meaningless statement. Various different outlets are reporting on it differently.

This is a horrible story about a horrible situation but no one entity is to blame here.

@TriggersBroom that's awful I am sorry for your loss

@TriggersBroom

My DH caught covid in hospital and died.

@TriggersBroom I am so sorry for your loss .

My husband went into hospital for life saving surgery Covid negative and has come out Covid Positive. He was in ITU at first and was tested negative every time.
He was then transferred to a 'clean' ward and put in a side room. He didn't come out of his room for the whole week.
The day before he was discharged he tested positive.
This caused great distress as I am clinically vulnerable.
But I decided he must come home. The other option was he would be put on a full Covid ward. And as he is post op the other bugs on there would be dangerous for him.
He is asymptomatic and we are now on day 7 of isolation- I am sleeping in the spare room and wear PPE ( gloves, high level masks, face shield and disposable apron) every time I go into his room.

I am sticking to excellent hand hygiene and wiping everything I might touch after I have been with him. I wash all of his pots separately in as hot as it can go water with wash up liquid. Also separate teacloth and wash cloths. I don't use his stuff even after washing.

All clothes etc are bagged up, sealed and left for 4 days before being put into washing machine... none of my stuff goes in.

DH did not want to come home... he cried with fear and frustration. We still cry.

It's hard work.. I am lucky as I have no kids at home I doubt I would be able to do all of this if I had some at home and was home schooling!

Fallox But he wasn't on a Covid ward. I don't see how you would read that article as suggesting you could

• present at A and E to have chest pains investigated

and

• end up admitted to a Covid ward

I really don't.

He feared that - apparently - but people fear all sorts of things.

There have been plenty of media articles about how hospitals have separated Covid wards from other areas of the hospital (which is partly why the NHS is so stretched).

Plus why would chest pains be treated on a Covid ward?

The story is tragic but I don't think you can blame the media for this.

If anything, I suspect it may be an argument that mainstream media is more careful and truth-grounded than hearsay and Facebook posts.

@TriggersBroom @Avondklok

Sorry for both your losses.

I think that its important that nobodies stories (on either side) is described as scare mongering.

And, yes, it's tragic. And I'm sorry for all the people affected by this.

It's truly awful.

(But I don't think it's the media's fault.)

@Bythemillpond

Why the hell was he placed on a Covid Ward whilst awaiting his test results

I think I would have walked out too.
Who even thinks to do this sort of thing.
It is no good doctors and nurses crying about Covid and for people to be careful if they then go and put someone who hasn’t tested positive for Covid on a ward full of people with Covid.
That is another level of stupidity. Even if he had tested negative he could still have caught it in the time he was on the ward so his negative test meant nothing

Good point. Winter pressures perhaps? Also hospitals have different specialties so sometimes there’s no other choice but to mix patients with a Covid area if the point may need a heart monitor on or something.

I doubt the nurses are doing this deliberately and hospitals moves are not down to the nurses it’s site matrons who tend to give direction and the nurses just follow the lead.

@thecatfromjapan

I don't particularly believe he was on a covid ward, and posted upthread about my experience of red vs green zones.

I was trying to explain that it was an aspect some pp had focused on

I'm so sorry for you loss @TriggersBroom

It's difficult, because the rule breakers need to realise how much shit we are in. Plans are being prepared to protect doctors if they need to start choose who lives and who dies. So I don't want the media to stop reporting on hospitals.

This particular hospital needs to assess whether someone who hadn't received his covid test results needed to be put on an actual covid ward with people who were all positive and investigate whether or not they can handle similar situations differently going forwards (e.g. put people waiting covid test results somewhere else). I personally wouldn't have liked being put on a covid ward without testing positive myself.

who they try to save and who to not treat I mean

I really think the media needs to be held accountable for this

Stop it. It's not the media fault. He was a grown man who decided not to stay at the hospital. And its not staffs fault there wasn't enough room to put him somewhere better.

If you want to blaem someone maybe start with all those who won't wear masks, won't stop mixing, won't stop looking for loopholes in every rule. They're the ones making this all as bad as it is

@thecatfromjapan

The article explicitly says that he began to worry that he would catch the virus after being put on a covid 19 ward while waiting for test results.

He was probably placed on an orange ward, with patients awaiting covid results.

If he was admitted the hospital obviously thought he needed treatment, they will have done investigations prior to admissiom. Normally when a patient self discharges you would talk to hem, explain the risks of self discharging etc. Someone will have spoken to him before he left, so he will have known what he was doing. If someone wants to self discharge you cannot stop them, people self discharge against medical advise every day

The problem is that hospitals are overwhelmed, and the general public really don't understand what this statement means. Hospitals in the SE have been overwhelmed for weeks, if there's no beds there's no beds. Your options maybe keep someone having a heart attack in A&E for days or admit them to a covid ward.

A huge number of people are dying daily of covid. An example = more die from covid in a day that suicide for the entire year. That's why covid is dominating the headlines it is massive and all over the earth.

@OwMyNeck

I really think the media needs to be held accountable for this

Stop it. It's not the media fault. He was a grown man who decided not to stay at the hospital. And its not staffs fault there wasn't enough room to put him somewhere better.

If you want to blaem someone maybe start with all those who won't wear masks, won't stop mixing, won't stop looking for loopholes in every rule. They're the ones making this all as bad as it is

This - it's not the media's fault. He was an adult male.

Agree blame the idiots that think covid is not real, the idiots who cannot be bothered to SD etc so this is going on longer and longer. Hospitals are swamped in some areas so please don't blame them.

DH was taken to hospital with what turned out to be acute heart failure. While waiting for his Covid test result he was placed on a Covid ward (until he had to be intubated and go into ICU). What this meant was that he was treated by staff wearing the highest level of PPE and observing the most stringent cross infection controls. It didn't mean he was shoved right next to people with Covid and doomed to catch it. They treat patients with Covid and patients who are not confirmed to be Covid negative in the same way - basically when you arrive in hospital they assume you have Covid until you get your negative test(s - DH has to have 3 negatives 12 hours apart before they considered him Covid free). Once he was confirmed negative he was moved to a non-Covid ward.

Unfortunately he died a few weeks after leaving hospital. Not from Covid but I do think the poor care he received (from his GP, not the hospital who were wonderful) contributed to his death, and some of that was because of Covid. But unfortunately it's inevitable when you have an underfunded, understaffed health service and are faced with unprecedented demand.

@TriggersBroom I'm so sorry for your loss. There's no good time to be widowed but this has been a particularly cruel one. Solidarity.

@Fallox

I don't know what the alternative is really. People have always left a+e when they shouldn't, because they want rest or because the wait is too long.

I don't think the media can be held to account for reporting what's happening in hospitals. One of my local wards for mental health patients for example has a 100% covid rate, which is just the truth

yes that may be the truth, but perhaps lets not tell people IT WILL KILL YOU and YOU WILL DIE. The papers have made it seem like it kills 99% of people, not that most people have it mild and are fine afterwards - which is also just the truth.

@OwMyNeck

I really think the media needs to be held accountable for this

Stop it. It's not the media fault. He was a grown man who decided not to stay at the hospital. And its not staffs fault there wasn't enough room to put him somewhere better.

If you want to blaem someone maybe start with all those who won't wear masks, won't stop mixing, won't stop looking for loopholes in every rule. They're the ones making this all as bad as it is

This. People need to deal with their own fear and their fearful reactions and stop blaming others. Every adult has the ability to choose what they read and listen to and make choices.

@TheUndoingProject

1,820 people died yesterday. It is a doom story.

But many, many more people recovered from Covid yesterday. No body is reporting about that.

It's a problem of hospitals being so overwhelmed that people without Covid are being placed on a ward with people with Covid

Hang on - it doesn't sound like they said "oh, you definitely don't have Covid but we have no beds so we'll put you with people who definitely do have Covid", it sounds like they were treating people who haven't yet been confirmed as being negative for Covid as if they have Covid as a (sensible) precaution and this person was understandably concerned about the implications of this if he turned out to be negative for Covid.

It's a very sad story (and I know first-hand how stressful it is to be put in the red area when it could risk loved-ones' health if you catch Covid), but I don't think it's unreasonable for hospitals to assume everyone has Covid until proven otherwise at the moment. Not in terms of letting all the patients share the same bedding, obviously, but in terms of PPE and other Covid precautions.

[quote Fallox]@thecatfromjapan

I guess it depends on how younread this story

You could either see it as a story that encourages people to seek medical attention when needed and is a good reminder the risks of leaving concerns

Or you could read it (as some have mentioned above) that you'll be left on a covid ward and its dangerous[/quote]
Exactly. The facts don’t change just because of perspective. Regardless of whether you think it’s scare mongering it still happened.