"I feel totally let down"

Up to birth the care I received was brilliant, however it went downhill from there.

In ward 47 I received possibly the worst care I have ever had. Started off when I came up from labour ward after an emergency c section - I was full of pain medications and was really out of it. I am a first time mum. I didn’t have the mental capacity to look after myself never mind my new baby and was just left to it. I didn’t get any information on the ward or where anything was.

I was then diagnosed with sepsis and told I needed iv antibiotics at certain times to ensure I didn’t get worse. They continually didn’t give me these on time and when they did I was left hooked up to it hours after it was done despite me asking if they could take it down I would be told they will do it in a minute and no one would return. I also had a lot of blood coming out and down my legs I couldn’t bend down to change this myself and asked for someone to help me - they said they’d be back and never returned. I stood there feeling degraded and completely broken.

I had to stay in the ward longer due to sepsis. I used the shower in the room I was in which then flooded the full 4 bedroom. I told a care assistant, who degraded me in front of the 3 other patients and their partners by asking whether I could read signs, as it said not to use that shower, as it’s broken. When I told them there was no sign on it and someone used the shower yesterday, they told me there is a sign. I told them to go show me this sign as they didn’t believe me. They went and checked and there wasn’t a sign. They then came back over and shouted at the nursing station (in the middle of the full ward) that I had just used the broken shower, no one’s to use that shower, it’s now flooded everywhere, and they couldn't  believe I'd used that shower. This totally embarrassed me and made me feel even worse than I already did.

The same care assistant brought round milk the next day for breakfast but missed me out. I was in the toilet and my partner told her that they'd forgotten to give me milk. They then shouted that I'd drank it,  when he assured them that I hadn’t and he had been sitting there the full time they  were adamant that they'd definitely given me milk, and I must have drank it. My partner asked if they could just get me milk instead of making it a big deal, to which they were rude to him and said fine - it took them ages to then actually bring a cup of milk.

A midwife told me not to feed my newborn longer than 30 minutes as it was pointless as the calories they used to feed that long outweighed what they were taking in. I then asked the breastfeeding community team when I got home who were shocked I had been told that and said that is absolutely not the case and extremely damaging!

I was on anxiety medication which is on my file - I have been on this for years. I wasn’t given this medication and I didn’t notice (due to just being handed a cup of pills every morning and not being told what they were). I heard another patient being told that they weren’t giving out mental health medication because it would take too long to get from pharmacy, this is when I realised I probably wasn’t getting mine in the pills being given to me each morning. I therefore had went 4 days without my vital medication.

Myself and my partner felt a burden whenever we asked for anything and it was as if we were bothering the staff. He was also told he could use one of the toilets in the ward (as the ones in the room are for patients only) to then be shouted at by another person the next day for using the same toilet.

A doctor came round to check my baby and told me he’s on antibiotics as well so will need to check how he’s getting on. When I said he wasn’t on antibiotics they said they just assumed. That severely worried me that they could just assume that a 3-day-old baby was on certain medication without checking and concerned me that they would make an error and give him something he didn’t need!

I continually was told my sepsis markers weren’t improving, which brought my anxiety up even more (especially after not having my anxiety medication for 4 days). I finally had enough of the ward and how they were making me feel so I discharged myself. I had to continually ask for updates on my health (results of blood tests etc) and was given mixed messages by different people every time. Then my discharge letter confirmed that my sepsis markers had indeed went to a third of what they were originally - despite several doctors telling me they hadn’t changed.

I recovered from the sepsis and made a huge improvement when I got home and I seriously believe this is due to me feeling happier being at home than how depressed and degraded I felt in the ward.

I will never come back to this hospital due to the substandard care I received in this ward. There was no care or compassion especially for mothers who have had a traumatic birth (like I did). I feel totally let down.