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/

Its hard to know exactly what happened from a few tweets. Hopefully she will make a formal complaint.

Something similar happened to me last October.

I had some screws and plates removed from the front of my pelvis. The bone had grown around the plate and it had become embedded so they were difficult to get out and the surgeon manipulated my pelvis a lot. He later told me that the amount of force used was likened to jumping up and down on my pelvis.

I was given a Tramadol PCA for pain relief which was working well until about 10.30pm. (I had come out of theatre around 6pm). When the PCA broke the nurse called the on-call anaesthetist to come up to fix it. He didn't come up at any point during the night. When I had gone into hospital I had taken all my drugs with me which included oral Tramadol, which they put in a cupboard by my bed. In the early hours I asked for some, but the nurse said I wasn't written up for them, so she would bleep the orthopaedic SHO on call. I don't know if she did or not, because he didn't turn up either. I spent the whole night awake and in pain.

When the consultant came round in the morning I begged him to let me come home, because then at least I could keep on top of my pain and sort out my own painkillers. Fortunately he agreed.

I imagine the cuts don't help, and I am anti-cuts, but they are by no means largely to blame. This has happened to me, more than once, 8 years ago. It's the product of a professional culture in which patients are seen as stupid, as knowing nothing about their own condition/body/medical history, and as fit to be patronised, fobbed off and in some cases lied to, unless they make a huge fuss.

I think EightiesChick is spot on.

"It's the product of a professional culture in which patients are seen as stupid, as knowing nothing about their own condition/body/medical history, and as fit to be patronised, fobbed off and in some cases lied to, unless they make a huge fuss."

The suggestion upthread that the patient was "whining about pain relief" says it all, really. If that's how acute pain is going to be dismissed, what hope do any patients have?

If patients do dare to start making a fuss - especially to the media - hospital conditions might begin to improve for all of us.

@carernotasaint. No-one's arguing that, taking them at face value, this person seems to have been given shoddy treatment. Too many of us have had plenty of bad experiences with the NHS to doubt that. We're arguing that the problem will not have been caused by either cuts or workfare as you seem to suggest. Incompetence in the medical profession can happen at any time... and frequently does.

For the umpteenth time i didnt say that it has been caused by workfare. I said that things WILL get worse IF workfare is rolled out nationwide. At the moment it has only been piloted in 2 places.
I said things WILL get worse IF its rolled out nationwide.
I said things WILL get worse IF its rolled out nationwide.
I said things WILL get worse IF its rolled out nationwide.
I said things WILL get worse IF its rolled out nationwide.
I said things WILL get worse IF its rolled out nationwide.

I believe this. My mum has just got out of hospital after 6 weeks, the first week and a half was full of horrendous mistakes made by hospital staff (at all levels) not reading her notes or listening to her family who were telling them constantly that her chronic health conditions would be made worse by what they were doing. They eventually started to listen when they put her in a life threatening coma through their 'treatment'. She only went in for a broken hip.

Two weeks ago Woman magazine printed a story about the Heaton family and the fact that they are a big family who claim benefits. There are still anti benefit rhetoric comments being posted on their facebook page now. Guess some people (celebrity mag readers Daily Mailists) are STILL too damn thick to make the connections

Ive posted on the wrong thread Ignore that last comment. Sorry.

Arggggghhh! I just spent 2 HOURS to laboriously type a v long message and cyber-space has munched it :(
I'll just have to fire up my laptop and try again, but I bet it won't be so good.
If anyone can help with retrieving the original I'd be v grateful

Hello, back again.

Reading some of the comments here was obviously quite challenging, but TBH I don't blame those who are sceptical, I can hardly believe it happened myself.

But it did and it isn't by any means the first time.

I've been an in-patient for 5 weeks now and I've certainly seen examples of cuts affecting patient care, but CogitoErgoSometimes and others are right to say that my experiences post op were nothing to do with cuts, they were all about personalities. The NHS is a vast institution, crammed with the most vulnerable people, it's naive - absurd even - to think there won't be some - of COURSE far from all - staff that abuse their positions of power. Traditionally too, bad practice has always been hushed up, with staff simply moved to somewhere else. We see report after report warning of failures in patient or elderly care, but we just don't want to believe them. Our NHS is just too precious to us and any criticism at all is Not Allowed. This of course leads to dangerous practices becoming even more entrenched.

I can't say too much about the incident itself, as I am making a formal complaint ad I've also taken legal advice, but anyone who's come up against an NHS brick wall, with everyone closing ranks, will know that it is insurmountable. You can complain, plead, scream and shout - even beg, but you will not get past that wall. We had tried everything possible to get the ppl responsible for the mistakes to come and see me, to get managers or advocates or anyone with authority to come, but they refused. Can you begin to imagine being alone, just moments out of a general anaesthetic, surrounded by people who are pressurising you and giving a different version of events to reality, in the worst pain a human can possibly experience?

Anyone who's had their abdomen sliced open from top to bottom, cutting through every stomach muscle that you use for every movement, severing nerves, removing the entire bowel to measure it, then slicing it in three places and stitching it back up will understand that pain relief is NOT a luxury, that kind of pain and trauma will kill you if you leave it long enough. My life was at risk, I was in unspeakable agony and no-one would act. I don't think, in that instance it was at all melodramatic to ask my friends for help. In fact, I believe they saved my life.

"Anyone who's had their abdomen sliced open from top to bottom, cutting through every stomach muscle that you use for every movement, severing nerves, removing the entire bowel to measure it, then slicing it in three places and stitching it back up will understand that pain relief is NOT a luxury, that kind of pain and trauma will kill you if you leave it long enough. My life was at risk, I was in unspeakable agony and no-one would act. I don't think, in that instance it was at all melodramatic to ask my friends for help. In fact, I believe they saved my life"

Melodramatic? Noooooo, not at all [hmmm]

What a ridiculous and cruel remark pipsqueak
What is melodramatic about describing what actually happened?
I hope to god you don't care for people in any capacity.

Hope you get better soon sue

Will you report back and let us know the outcome of your complaint suey?

I think the NHS need to wake up as a whole to the fact that pain causes damage. I think the prevailing attitude is that pain relief is optional as pain won't kill you.

But, the NHS will be spending a tonne of money to put right the damage caused to people by inadequate pain relief. They will pay it in dealing with avoidable mental health issues, and the fall out from them.

Trouble is, if you've been given an opiate based (be it synthetic or not) pain killer, even if it is the wrong one, there has to be a window of time before administering another because of the risk of overdose.

Even administering an antidote such as a morphine antagonist will not allow a new opiate to be administered immediately afterwards. Was this explained to her?

Seems that there has been total miscommunication, negligence regarding her allergies and a lack of consideration and empathy in the dealing with the aftermath here.

Entropygirl

During my training I was taught that pain is what a patient says it is. You do not argue or doubt. There are many cultural, psychological, social, physiological factors at play in the way we experience and address our pain.

Pipsqueak, do you work in the NHS?

Atreegrowsinbrooklyn

This was nothing to do with it. They refused the agreed pain relief at all, it had nothing to do with what I may or may not have already been given. They refused on principle.

They actually said that they wouldn't give you pain relief 'on principle'?

Up until a couple of years ago I would have been one of the skeptical ones. I had a friend with a chronic lung condition and one afternoon she seemed quite breathless. She had raised it with the staff a few times but I think it had been dismissed as "having a bad day". I hassled them to check again and eventually one of them noticed that the flow rate on her oxygen had been turned down to half what it should be. My friend couldn't see the flow rate because she was bedbound and the gauge was behind her.

Now I can believe that sometimes healthcare staff really don't take patients seriously when they say they know something is wrong.

What do you mean 'On Principle', Suey What did they say verbatim?

Staff may unfortunately refuse a course of action without giving a satisfactory reason to the patient. I'm not saying this is right. But not giving a reason doesn't mean there isn't one.

"What a ridiculous and cruel remark pipsqueak
What is melodramatic about describing what actually happened?
I hope to god you don't care for people in any capacity"

I'm not for a moment suggesting that she hasn't had a bad experience and it wasn't intended to be cruel. However I have no idea of any of the actual facts, and to me the description that was posted was melodramatic.

Atreegrowsinbrooklyn I can't say verbatim for legal reasons, obviously. But I can assure you it was nothing to do with any other drug interactions. They gave a reason, and the reason was shocking

As for Pipsqueak, perhaps you simply don't have it in you to believe what I write, but that doesn't make my description melodramatic, it is absolutely factual with no exaggeration or hyperbole. Any bowel surgeon would confirm.

As an afterthought Pipsqueak, what happened WAS dramatic. Probably dramatic beyond most ppls possible comprehension. But that doesn't make it MELO-dramatic