"Grateful to receive such great care and support"

My son was 16 at the time of being referred to the Cardiology Department at the Royal Hospital for children and young people by our local doctor. 

My son was receiving pains around his heart area throughout the day and even when he was playing football. The doctors had done an ECG and it had shown a different rhythm,  so they had referred us to the hospital and they said we should hear back from them in a weeks time. As you can imagine this was a worrying time for us, as we didn't know what could be causing this and my son was a very fit. Young teenager who was always out and about and playing football all the time as he had it for a subject at school and was in a football team. We kept a diary to see if there was anything that was triggering it.

Unfortunately a week had passed and I was starting to get more anxious.  I phoned the doctors to ask what was happening and nothing had been done, the doctor had been off the next day after we had been in to see them,  so hadn't sent the paper work on. This had me feeling so deflated as we were desperate for answers and not knowing what could happen to my son with these symptoms,  especially it being his heart.

We went up to A and E just to get a further check and they could also hear it as well. They then sent paperwork to the Cardiology team and we were then seen a few days after this. The A and E staff were lovely with us, they listened and carried out all the steps to reassure us and what to look out for in case it got worse. You can imagine how my son was feeling at this stage, worried, frightened and upset as he then couldn't play football until he had all the checks done by the professionals. 

Being referred to the Cardiology Department,  I could not fault the team one bit. From seeing our consultant, cardiac nurse specialist and the ones who took care of my son whilst he went for scans and a fitness test, they were outstanding. Made us feel at ease and explained in a very calm and clear manner what they were doing and looking for. 

A few follow up appointments with the consultant to speak over the results of the scans and tests over a period of a few months. Our consultant that we had was Dr Ferguson. He was very patient, very good at explaining things in a calm manner and always asking my son and me if we had any questions and were happy with his plan he had in place. He was always willing to help in any way as well. Even with a tearful mum!

We also had a Cardiac nurse specialist, her name was Hannah. She was always present in the room when we went to see Dr Ferguson and again she reassured us that she is there for us anytime we need her. We also got her works phone number if we had any further questions or if we wanted to ask anything that we were unsure of, ie if my son had developed another symptom or how to go about our day to day lives until we got to the bottom of what was causing the constant pain. She had also contacted my son's school to speak to the school nurse so the school could put a risk assessment into place for him and make all the teachers aware as well.

  Let's just say we definitely spoke to Hannah a few times to ask questions and to have that reassurance.  I thought it was great as a worried parent and child, to have her number and be contactable and always have a response either that day or the next again day, especially with still not knowing the cause. Hannah was very friendly, listened a lot and acted upon anything there and then for us. We have been very grateful to receive such great care and support through this whole process.

My son's last scan has shown to be all clear so Dr Ferguson is happy to sign him off to continue with sports and carry on with a normal life. 

The only thing I would mention is maybe the communication as I'm aware letters have been sent but I haven't been contacted and I had to chase up the last scan my son had as we hadn't heard anything after a few months of his scan to find out his results.