"Mixed experience after surgery for aortic aneurysm"

I live near Bradworthy on the border between Devon and Cornwall and my local District Hospital is at Barnstaple, thirty miles away. However, they work with Musgrove Park Hospital, Taunton for some vascular surgery.

I had open surgery to repair an aortic aneurysm at Musgrove Park Hospital, Taunton in April 2025. Prior to surgery, I had been extremely impressed by the support and reassurance I had received for my condition from the Somerset & North Devon Vascular Network over a number of years as the aneurysm grew and I reached the threshold clinic.

In fact, I have nothing but praise and gratitude for the care and support which was provided by Mrs Darvall and her team (surgeons, anaesthetists and nurses) both before, during and in the Intensive Care Unit following surgery. The one issue which developed in the ICU was that my urinary catheter was removed too early and had to be put back.

After three days in the ICU, I was moved to the Montacute (Vascular) Ward. The staff here were very nice, but clearly under stress. Very often they would say they would go and do something but got waylaid by some other task and might not return for a long time. Those visiting me, found that if they asked a question, staff would go and fetch someone more senior to sort it out.

Again, in this ward, the urinary catheter was removed too early (in all I was given 4 catheters while I was in the hospital). I was discharged from the hospital at the end of April, having been sent back to the vascular suite in the Old Building for the previous night as my bed was needed for another patient.

I was sent to the discharge lounge around about midday, but I could not be collected until after 6pm as I didn’t have transport until that time. Anyway, the medications from the pharmacy were not sent out until about 5pm. So I had to sit in the Lounge with my urinary catheter for six hours and then be driven 70 miles home (another three hours) to my home near Bradworthy. This is not an ideal circumstance for anyone who has had major surgery and led to some bleeding from my urinary catheter that night.

When I left hospital, my discharge summary noted that my urinary catheter should be reviewed in two weeks time at a North Devon TWOC clinic and stated that the urology secretaries had been sent copies of the letter.

After nearly two weeks, I had heard nothing from North Devon Hospital about a TWOC clinic, so I had to telephone the hospital. When I finally got through to the urology department (the automated hospital switchboard is inclined to offer you the neurology department in preference, which might be more help when you start banging you head on the wall in frustration), they said they had no record of me and no knowledge of any appointment (said the first possible appointments wouldn’t be until June) and suggested contacting my GP.

After my wife and I had made some further enquiries, my daughter, who is a pharmacist, took over. In all, she made 32 phone calls, taking all day, to try and find out where and when the catheter should be removed. No one wanted to do it, because of the problems two weeks earlier.

Eventually, I was referred to the district nurses at Holsworthy Hospital (which is only 10 miles from home), who removed the catheter in mid-May. This was done on the understanding that I returned four hours later for a scan, which if it showed a build up of urine in the bladder, would mean that I might need to go to North Devon Hospital to have the catheter replaced. Fortunately, this was not necessary and I am extremely grateful to the sympathetic and efficient attitude of those nurses.

If we had not pursued this issue, I would still have had the catheter when I finally saw Mrs Darvall again at the follow up vascular clinic at Bideford Hospital in June.