Sue Marsh (spartacus report author) has been treated inhumanely.Forced to tweet for help from hospital.

[carernotasaint]

www.latentexistence.me.uk/sue-marsh-given-wrong-drug-and-nurse-refused-to-change-it-agony-instead-of-pain-relief/

No one is saying the nurses gave it ffs

They were still in the wrong to not try and do anything about it! She was wearing an allergy bracelet and they were going to leave her to suffer.

And it's not bashing nurses to think that it is disgusting, it's bashing those particular nurses and of course whoever administered the drug

How can those tweets sound offensive softly ?

When in huge amount of pain post op and suffering the effects of being given a drug that you are allergic to you tend not to think very clearly or logicically.
Every minute feels like an hour and when the people around you who are supposed to be there to help and nurse you are refusing to help desperation takes hold. You can end up feeling like you are dying and the sense of hopelessness and fear becomes over whelming, you will look anywhere for help. All she had was her mobile so she reached out. She probably did also reach out to people she knew but if her experiences are like mine she would know that family will also be fobbed off, on the occasion I talked about in my first post my Mum called the ward to see how I was doing and was told I was well and resting comfortably, sadly at that time I didn't have access to a mobile phone.
The way the tweets were written were desperate, her earlier tweets about staffing were more politically motivated in my opinion (although she made valid points about staffing) but the ones begging for help were different, I don't think she was thinking about how this would promote her campaigns but was desperate for help and knew that journalists follow her and they could possibly have the effect she needed, for the hospital to start sorting out their error.

I admit I don't know anything about her and my opinion is coloured by my own experiences as a chronic pain sufferer but the fact I have been through similar experiences show that there is a problem within the system. It is not a new problem though and it isn't as simple as just funding cuts, it is much wider and more complex then that, funding issues and staffing levels are a part of it but so is training and a culture of treating all chronic pain patients as drug seekers.
I am probably not explaining myself very well at all :(

Yes, it was slightly dramatic to tweet it, but if you don't use twitter then you might not understand. These are her friends, her supporters and her allies. It is not just posting to anonymous strangers on the internet, many of her personal friends are on Twitter. And yes, it was a way of making sure that attention was drawn to the problem, when she and her family were not getting anywhere.

She wasn't just a wee bit allergic to the med they gave her. She had a severe adverse reaction to it. here is her account

And those who are saying it is nonsense - have you read the posts from MNetters who had similar experiences?

I had day surgery recently. I have an allergy to a drug, with very serious consequences if it's given to me. Every other time i've been admitted to hospital I've had a red wristband with my actual allergy written on it. This time I just had a red band with 'allergy' written on it. So the HCP would have had to check my notes in theatre to make sure they didn't give me something I shouldn't have, rather than just being able to read my wristband.
If this is common practice now I can see how such a mistake could happen.

I've had similar experiences to Sue. If you have chronic pain you are at risk of being bullied and ignored by medical staff. Pain is treated as a mental health condition by many nurses doctors (not all thank goodness) and that includes post-surgical pain.

Hi, we've moved this to In the News. Thanks.

My Mum recently had a triple heart bypass. The pain she was left in after day 3 was disgusting. And they wanted to send her home on day 4

If this was a private hospital I bet the problem would have been fixed a hell of a lot faster - just saying...

Actually that isn't always true MrPants. Private hospitals do not by law need to have Drs on duty 24/7.

If you need pain relief and a Dr is not on duty you are stuffed. I know someone who threated to call an ambulance for their wife unless the nurse called a Dr in. This was during the night.

Of course it's partly down to the cuts - as the RCN has pointed out today, thousands of nursing posts have been cut over the past two years, with more to come. Does anyone really think under-staffing doesn't affect patient care?

Can't belive how callous some people are being - a post-operative patient given a drug that they are allergic to, and denied pain relief, is accused of doing something wrong by begging for help? Good grief.

If posts had been cut the person at the heart of this would be complaining about being abandoned or left unattended. She appears to have been attended but the treatment was allegedly incorrect or denied.

quick that's true BUT you try getting a doctor upon the ward in the middle of the night in an NHS hospital - next to impossible ime.

Actually Mr Pants, if it was a private hospital she would have been shipped off to a NHS one as soon as she had a non-typical response.

Giving her the wrong drug, one that she is allergic to is a terrible cock-up and simply should not have happened. She really needs to complain asap. Terrible treatment by the ward staff afterwards as well.

I went in for day surgery recently and was a bit at the sheer number of people who came and asked me the same questions before the OP - at least 5 different people sat down and asked about allergies etc. Better too many than not enough.

sardinequeen I had that too, but it was explained to me at my pre-op that I would be asked the same questions several times by different members of staff. So that was anaesthetist, two nurses on the ward, the surgeon, the lady who prepped me for theatre in the holding bay and the two staff members in the anaesthetic room.

Well softly softly colour ME skeptical but if they were so damn sure of who she was i think she wouldnt have been allowed to keep her phone near her. To all the callous (and so obviously right wingers who dont like being proved wrong) on this thread who called her petulant and offensive well i hope it DOES happen to you.
And i didnt say it was anything to do with workfare. What i said was it has been piloted in 2 other hospitals and IF its rolled out nationally things will get worse. Cant believe some of the responses on this thread. Is the MSE forum down or something.

It did feel like overkill queenrollo!

I have had stuff done before and there were less people asking.

Like I say, better safe than sorry though.

carernotasaint

You think that the staff could have taken her phone from her?

I have an adverse reaction to one of the drugs that is usually given for pain relief during a particular procedure. I had a meeting with the consultant anaesthetist pre operatively (in addition to standard pre op clerking) & he agreed that he wouldn't used that drug but that the alternative was less effective & I would need far more post operative pain relief than was usual. This was all agreed & written up in my notes & again in the surgery/anaesthetic notes & again on my drug chart - the comprehensive plan.

What happened after surgery? The nursing staff refused to administer the 'extra' pain relief, they said I shouldn't need it Basically they couldn't be arsed to read the chart - dh & I pointed out the drugs plan & they still refused to administer it (the extra was written up as prn - i.e. when required - rather than on a schedule & they decided that gave them the right not to administer it). I insisted they call the anaesthetist, she mumbled something, wandered off & three hours later I still had not heard anything, no drugs, no anaesthetist, they sent the HCA around rather than a nurse when I tried to find out wtf was going on. When you are in really really bad pain after surgery a minute feels like an hour.

In despair dh called my mum who works, in a fairly senior clinical role, in the same hospital - she had the anaesthetist there within an hour of dh telling her what was going on & I got my pain relief. I self discharged the next day (was supposed to be in for three) - my GP prescribed the necessary drugs when I got home.

I imagine it happens all the time.

If they had had any idea who she was they prob would have taken her phone from her especially after giving her the Fentanyl which they knew she was allergic to. If they had had any idea who she was they prob wouldnt have dared to give her the Fentanyl in the first place. I bet she was given that drug because it was a cheaper one.

Do you think it would have been legal for staff to reove her phone in that way?

I think we can see that they are not too concerned about legalities by the sort of "treatment" she has had. They gave her Fentanyl when she was wearing an allergy bracelet saying she was allergic then refused to administer the pethidine. So i dont think they are too concerned with legalities do you.

Oh, poor Sue :-(