"Excellent care given to my daughter"

My daughter had major abdominal surgery 9 weeks ago in Germany. On Sunday morning at around 3 am I took her to A & E with extreme and sudden onset abdominal pain, and soon after, regular vomiting. It was very busy but we were triaged quickly and taken into a bay.

Mohammed the registrar assessed her quickly and admitted her to surgical assessment unit. She stayed there until later that morning and there we met for the first time her surgical consultant Mr Kynaston.

Before I go on further, the staff in A & E were fantastic, quick, efficient and professional. And, the staff in SAU were also amazing!

Caitlin, a staff nurse, had something in common with my daughter and spoke to her for a while which made her feel so much at ease, as did all the other staff. Just a bit of background at this point. 

Due to previous terrible hospital experiences at Forth Valley, trying to get her to go to the hospital in the first place was a terrifying experience and not just for her but for us all. Anyway, she was moved up to B11, room 22 so that I could stay with her.

Nothing, and I mean nothing was a problem to any member of staff! They didn’t only treat my daughter with humility, they treated me, my partner and my daughter’s twin sister with the same respect.

Onto her medical needs. Mr Kynaston ordered an urgent CT scan, and thank goodness he did! She had a bowel obstruction, which if left untreated could’ve been fatal! This can be a side affect of major abdominal surgery, which he obviously knew. He started treatment immediately and checked in regularly to check that she wasn’t getting worse.

When one treatment (inserting an NG drain tube into the stomach to give the bowel a rest) did not work he gave her gastrografen to see if that would resolve the obstruction, and it did! However, if this treatment did not work only 48hrs later from arriving at A&E he was prepared to take her to theatre to resolve this and had organised vascular surgeons to accompany him as her previous surgery was to relieve multiple vascular compressions.  

Her condition quickly improved and after 3 days in B11 she was discharged, drinking and eating soft food. Mr Kynaston’s obvious expertise, professionalism and rapid action saved my daughters life! But more than this, restored my daughter’s, and our, faith in medical care in Forth Valley.

There was no hesitation in taking the appropriate action to help my daughter, and this has certainly not been our experience in the recent past. His manner I can only describe as gentle, attentive, thorough and professional. However for my daughter and us as a family, one of the most important traits he had was actually listening to her and believing her.

This was something that sadly, and not inconsequentially, lacked greatly with her previous treatment. His team including his registrar and junior doctors were fantastic also. And such a lovely manner, each and every one of them! Ward B11 was obviously very busy, so how the nursing staff managed to treat her so quickly and attend to her every need is beyond me.

I’d like to mention in particular Rohid, who looked after my daughter 3 days in a row, was just fantastic! The continuity of care was unexpected in such a busy ward. Each and every nurse was  excellent! Usually in any situation there may be someone who is not as great as others but not in this ward! Absolutely the best care was provided and for that we are so grateful. Further to all of this, the auxiliaries and domestic staff are the friendliest and most helpful we have ever experienced. It all seems to be too good to be true but trust me it is not!

They were all wonderful. Please could you pass on our sincere gratitude to all of the aforementioned departments and staff for their care that they gave my daughter, myself and our family please.

I cannot state how important this was to us and hope they are given the praise that they all deserve so much and how important they all were in my daughters recovery. 

Thank you