"Awful experience"

Worst treatment I have ever experience in any hospital in my life..

I was admitted to accident and emergency for a stroke on Saturday morning recently.

I was brought into a ward for initial tests by people who seemed too detached and busy to answer any of my questions.

I was asked several times if I had any allergies but before I could even respond the nurses would just walk off..

I tried to explain multiple times and to multiple people that I had a pre-existing and serious condition for anxiety and hypersensitivity to noises and artificial lights but was completely ignored by every single person including nurses and doctors..

I don’t know if you have ever had a stroke but the official and clinically documented post stroke side effects which I have read are:

“Sometimes anger is a symptom of post-stroke depression, which affects more than one third of all stroke survivors. Some of the symptoms of post-stroke depression are anxiety, irritability, and anger. ”

Any time I expressed even the rest hint of frustration or anxiety any kind I was immediately invalidated and simply told to ‘calm down’, ‘sit still’ and basically be quiet. I was made to feel guilty for merely asking any questions or the names of people that were treating me. You are punished and made to feel bad for the very symptoms you have been admitted for!

The sheer number of people moving all around me, the constant loud bells, rings, dings, and beeps, the bright lights and activity caused my heart to palpitate and by blood pressure to soar.. the very last thing a stroke patient needs.

I was left in this little cubby hole for what seemed like forever with no one reassuring me or informing me what was going on.. I was then taken up to Chestnut Ward which was even more chaotic and traumatic than the place I just left.

I was seen by maybe 5 different doctors in total each one is as much of a rush as the one before.. again all eager to ask you lots of questions but give very few answers. Even getting their names is almost frowned upon.

They wanted to keep me in for a few days but there was no way on earth I was able to stay in such a cacophonous zoo like environment without having a major panic attack, a probable heart attack and a 2nd stroke!

12 hours later I’m begging to be allowed to go home and to get out of there.. and finally after the Registrar seeing my intense anxiety agreed to discharge me and see me as an outpatient for Stroke Clinic.

I was told I would get my ‘critical’ medication and be booked for an MRI for my brain the next day.. ok.

It took almost 6 whole days to get the so called ‘critical’ stroke medication.. I ended up getting it from my own doctor because Chestnut Ward just could not get it together, it then took a full 19 days for them to give me the all important MRI brain scan to see if I had a clot or leading on the brain, ..

The other 4 essential tests and treatments are spread over the next 10 days..

So.. my entire ‘critical’ Stroke Clinic will take maybe 7 or 8 different and separate appointments spread over an entire month! And there’s me thinking a stroke was something serious! In Chestnut Ward it’s obviously not.

The stress I was put through and experienced in attending Lewisham Hospital and its various wards, dealing with it’s doctors, nurses and other staff has to have been one of the most unpleasant and stressful experiences in my life.

The lack of any genuine care, sensitivity, understanding, patience or compassion was breathtaking.. staff I came into contact with were mostly rude, arrogant, dismissive, and grossly disrespectful.

And if that was not all.. I noticed 2 days later that the Clinical Information / Summary notes only discharge papers was completely wrong! What should have been recorded by Chestnut Ward was my version of events that lead to my stroke. I recounted events with perfect clarity in lucid detail but what was written down was a rehashed and untrue version that bore no resemblance to the reality or truth.

I have spent the last 8 days trying every which way to get this corrected and so far it’s been an utterly impossible task. I am blocked and deflected at every turn by every person I speak to, call or email.

This discharge summary is a legal document and I need it to reflect the truth.. my solicitor also needs it to reflect the truth.

If it was not for the critical need to have this document corrected I would never step inside Lewisham Hospital again for as long as I live even of my life depended on it. Sadly it does. As soon as I am given a corrected and accurate discharge document I will seek to continue all my required treatments in a completely different hospital.

That’s just how awful this experience has been for me. Horrific.