Ruptured ACL and torn meniscus.

[Em8725]

My DP tore his meniscus and suffered a complete rupture of his ACL in August 2019. As of yet he still hasn’t even seen an orthopaedic consultant, but has been told he needs surgery.

Is there anything I can do to speed this up? He’s been off sick from work for ages because he’s in agony, but no one seems to care.

I’ve tried speaking to every department involved, including the appointments team, but it’s just been one mistake after another, physio, waiting 10 months for a scan, Covid delays etc.

I think this is more of a rant than anything, but it feels good to vent. Has anyone done anything similar and can tell me what the timescale was from injury to treatment?

I had the same, it took quite a while of back and forths- getting an MRI etc. I think it probably was 3 years from the original injury before I had the surgery. By which point it was worse than ever.

Can you afford to go private? If not I'd consider starting the complaints process as it's completely debilitating.

I did phone the CQC and they’ve said to initiate a complaint.

@TrollTheRespawnJeremy I will try this, Thankyou. We can’t afford to go private, we could have done if we’d known it would take this long, but we aren’t in a great place now due to all the time off😫

I know exactly how you feel. I can only advise to keep nagging away at them. This is their bloody job. It is cruel to leave people in pain for this long.

@TrollTheRespawnJeremy I’ve just phoned the hospital and they’ve asked if they can keep chasing before we start a complaint. Hopefully they’ll get back to me soon.

Originally we tried to get into another local hospital where a relative works as they know the consultants there. Patient choice didn’t matter and we couldn’t go there. The whole thing makes me so angry.

Yes I actually tried the same as my sister works in a hospital, but we were told that we had to use our district hospital (even though it's actually much further from our house.)

Did they say how long they'd be chasing for? Try and get them to confirm timelines.

Does your DP meet with his GP at all? It might be worth exploring for some pain relief and also an additional layer of pressure for results.

In the meantime, I’d your DH wearing a brace on his leg? If he uses Ice, compression, elevation as much as possible this will also help.

There are also exercises he can do to build up the muscles supporting the knee which will help it be more stable and therefore less painful.

I tore (grade 3 tears) my ACL, MCL and LCL. I also had exercises to do to build up my hamstring to be used for the repair.

Great idea Thankyou, I will call back to get a timescale I think.

He’s on ADs as he’s utterly miserable, and struggling with anxiety and panic attacks. They just don’t care.

I’ve got an enormous folder with all correspondence relating to it, and I’m tempted to march in and dump it on the consultants desk, refusing to leave until we have answers but I know that won’t work. It’s exhausting.

I can’t believe you had to wait three years! Did you make a formal complaint in the end?

I had a meniscal tear (actually it was several small tears) and it was only about 4 months between seeing my GP and surgery on the NHS. Obviously pre-covid though. However I didn't have the ligament injury as well, so maybe more straighforward.

@AdoreTheBeach he was told to wean off the brace, so no longer uses it, although I do make him wear it if he’s doing prolonged periods on his feet.

He had physio but he’s concerned he’s going to make it worse by doing the wrong thing, as every professional he’s seen has told him to do something different, saying the previous person was wrong.

Thankyou though i’ll get him onto the GP to see another physio or something, anything will help at this point.

To be honest after it I was so focused on the physiotherapy and then getting back to work I didn't raise a complaint because I was so bloody thankful to be functioning again.

I didn't have a supportive DP though so was pretty swamped with day to day life.

@TrollTheRespawnJeremy sorry for the late reply, calling back for a timescale worked. They’ve got back to us with a virtual appointment on the NHS version of zoom to see the consultant next week.

It’s a bit awful how quickly these difficult to get appointments become available when you threaten to make a complaint 😔

I'm really glad it's some good news! Brightened up my afternoon!

Further update for anyone who’s interested. Operation was booked in yesterday for a couple of months time!