Young women dies - dismissed as a 'time waster' by hospital staff

[Highmoon]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c302e83vrv5o

These news stories seem more and more frequent. This time the young woman had her parents with her and she was still dismissed as a time waster. This makes me so mad. This could so easily be any of our daughters.

I noticed Mumsnet is featuring a petition on medical misogyny. I spotted this on the same day, proving how much a change is needed.

These events are harrowing. The only reason I got my chronic heart disease diagnosis after being dismissed as anxiety, was because my gallbladder symptoms were similar but the wait list was shorter for the heart scan. They didn't trust that I could tell the difference between panic and not panic, didn't even discuss it with me to see why I thought it wasn't panic. After the diagnosis, the heart consultant said not to worry because I can walk a good distance, no follow up even though there's a significant blockage in a main artery. They don't do anything about the blockage until that blockage is worse, but they don't monitor that, so how does that increased blockage get discovered. I'm on statins, but that's just based on blood tests by an HCA. So I have a diagnosis with no idea how to manage it except for Google. I have a real lack of trust in the medical staff.

What an awful experience 💐

I'm currently in hospital having had emergency surgery for something similar to what this poor young girl had. I was incredibly fortunate that A and E staff in my case recognised the seriousness and acted promptly as I would have certainly died without emergency surgery. It makes me so sad and angry that she was so very badly let down

I had my own “almost murdered by NHS incompetence” experience at the age of 30, as a single woman who was hilariously described as a “blue stocking” by some old duffer of a consultant in my medical notes. How dare I have a career, no children (at that stage) AND expect to be taken seriously by medical professionals! I was investigated for every possible std and referred for talking therapy by the clueless cunts on the surgical ward. CT scan and colonoscopy refused, so they found the huge bowel malignancy in theatre while removing my appendix “because we can’t find anything else wrong”.

And they wonder why their litigation payouts are so high. 😂

As pp wrote, NHS staff don’t seem to care what’s wrong, as long as you fuck off somewhere else.

I was told I couldn't have a kidney stone, because I was "able to walk and talk". I was told to drive myself to Out of Hours...Had to stop en route to throw up.

When I'd asked would I be safe to drive: "Why would you not?"

Yes. You’d have thought they’d have done it at the last visit.

Funny enough I was at the GP today and he was telling me about blood clots. I told him I was aware because of dd and he asked what happened. He seemed to think the lack of d dimer test the first two times was reasonable because she was such low risk. I felt like screaming.

People will continue to die while they either do or don’t do tests on an arbitrary whim.

And the worst thing I’ve seen (as an nhs staff member) is a consultant see a “frequent flyer” had returned. He said “ffs, why’s she back, she needs to fuck off, I’ve told her there’s nothing wrong with her”. Luckily a very junior dr wasn’t happy, did some blood tests and she was riddled with cancer. Died a few weeks later though so was too late.

Signed and signature confirmed via email. Thank you for posting this.

I suspect that many women do not know about the petition. Here's hoping that the Mumsnetters will boost the numbers.

@dudsville similar thing happened to my mum. She was fobbed off by her GP repeatedly with a ‘diagnosis’ of stress. It wasn’t until she collapsed in the street one day and was rushed to hospital that it was discovered her heart was barely functioning because of a defect which took five hours of surgery to rectify.

Bugger me if the same GP then fobbed her off again a few years later when she went with obvious signs of Parkinson’s disease. She was anxious according to him. Took four years to get a diagnosis which only happened after she saw a locum for something unrelated.

Don’t get me started on the pulled muscle diagnosis when my sister had a pulmonary embolism or the calf strain for my other sister’s DVT.

I have absolutely no faith in doctors or health care professionals any more.

I believe this is why I was dismissed also. I also had an infection with it (which at least I got antibiotics for) but dragged myself on two london buses to the walk in centre in the rain. And then back again.

I've been told by another refreshingly lovely consultant that I have a high pain threshold. Probably because I have to with the state of the NHS!

But you really can't win. If you are stoic and calm, there can't be much wrong with you. And if you're crying in pain you're 'hysterical' and having a panic attack.

When I went to see a (male, older) GP with the weirdest most excruciating pelvic/vaginal pain with mid cycle bleeding, he dismissed it as period pain. When I tried to advocate for myself and explain that in a decade of having periods I had never felt pain like it and that the bleeding wasn't like a period, he sarcastically said, 'try TWO paracetamol then' and sent me away, tearful and scared.

I nearly died from the ectopic pregnancy.

The day after my dad died, the board in the office where I went to collect his death certificate had 'NFR' rather than 'DNR' next to my dad's name. I always wondered about that.

I had POA for Dad and no one had discussed it with me.

I recall saying "NFR? What does that stand for?" and not getting a response.

This reminds me of my friend's experience. 2 years of feeling breathless, pressure in her chest, reflux. Told she was suffering from anxiety and getting herself too stressed, fobbed off by GP for ages.
Then she had black diarrhoea and went to A&E.
Fobbed off again, then she went back, this time with a sample in a jar.
Had a gastroscopy - massive hiatus hernia and a bleeding ulcer.
Now has a cancer diagnosis.
It is absolutely awful.

I've seen similar, frequent flyer is often used and it's so disrespectful. Good on the junior who pushed for more tests, I've seen patients suffer for no reason other than medics and nurses arrogance, feeling superior and not giving a shite.

Hopefully martha s rule will help prevent such tragic cases NHS England » Martha’s Rule share.google/7H7N4fwl3cuh5c2oo

I was told off when my arm was straightened after I'd been sitting in A&E for 7 hours for saying "Oh, bugger!" because of the pain. (I was trying not to scream.)

I was told that it was just a strain and sent home with a sling to wear for a few days. (I'd slipped on ice and had landed on my elbow.)

A fortnight later, I got a letter telling me to go back to the hospital. "Ah yes. The radiologist had a look at your x-ray and says that your elbow is cracked..."

I had driven myself there.

Absolutely. Similar happened to my wife: dismissed as “just” having a panic attack when it actually turned out she was having a sustained allergic reaction combined with a chest infection and literally could not breathe! I complained very, very loudly.

It’s one reason I always put “Dr” as my title when dealing with the NHS. Although I have a PhD it seems to really change how they speak to me and interact with me.

‘NFR’ is I believe another way to say ‘DNR’ (not for resuscitation) so hopefully that puts your mind at rest a bit.

This story, and those shared by PPs, is awful; I’m so sorry.

DH is a GP and I think quite good on the differential diagnosis front, partly because he tends to have at least a bit of relationship with most of the people he sees. I guess in A&E (and secondary care more generally) it’s easier to take a conveyor belt view of patients. I do sometime try to put the patients view when DH mentions something that’s happened at work, but he is so jaded by the level of demand and the rudeness and entitlement he gets from a majority of his patients, that he tends to see it as an attack.

You'd like to think so but after working with so many uncaring, thoughtless , dismissive and arrogant doctors and nurses in my 25 years as a NHS nurse I have little confidence that they won't continue to be behave the same way as some of them always have.

I cannot say what I really think because I will be deleted. Because the people that cause these deaths are almost never punished.

I don’t know what it will take to fix it. Because it happens over and over and over.

Womens pain is simply not believed and in the NHS with a reluctance to order any tests as these costs money and the desire to get rid of patients as fast as possible our healthcare system is uniquely set up for these types of disasters.

I believe that if a doctor causes a death in such a manner they should be criminally prosecuted. That might make some of them think twice - and eventually save a bit of cash from all the negligence claims.

The money somehow isn’t an issue when it is needed to pay the negligence claims yet is apparently a reason to deny care in the first place.

I actually have a list of the names of the individual medical staff that caused me harm - and yes it is multiple individuals. I made three formal complaints and none were upheld. It disgusts me to see how common this behaviour and attitude still is.

Just shows what a state the healthcare system is in. I'm not a fan of insurance based systems but when you look at other countries' hospitals they aren't staffed with yobs that in years gone by would have been drafted into the army, because they pay actual living wages and are run by people who give a single shit.

I have zero faith that a complete restructure of the health system would help if I’m honest. The first thing that would happen would be the creation of an entire new administrative layer to manage payments, billing and to deny care based on set protocols of treatment. In what world would that help? They (I know what party I mean by this but I won’t say it, also it’s probably not just one party) also cannot wait to introduce regional wages into the health system which would mean much higher wages in big cities but wages vanishing to minimal levels in less prosperous areas, to the point that there won’t really be health provision at all in rural settings.

In my view what’s needed is a real shift of funding from hospitals to GPs. The NHS is in trouble when GPs are in trouble, and it’s noticeable that revolving door A&E attendances makes these terrible events more likely. But that means actual complete service cuts in the hospitals. I do t know what secondary care services could possibly be cut any further tbh.

Thanks for sharing our petition @Highmoon and @HmmWhatNameToHave and thanks to everyone who has signed - we're really sorry to hear so many of you have had such terrible experiences.

You can find out more about our medical misogyny campaign here.

Thanks,
MNHQ

Thank you. At the time, I assumed that it was "Not For Resuscitation", but I have wondered since.

I'm very much obliged to you.

Very soon, this type of work will be taken over by AI, that doesn’t get emotional or moody, or lose concentration, or worrying about where it’s going after work! AI has proven to be very helpful in medical triage.
I’m sorry you had such a bad experience, and hope you’re recovering well.