"End of life care"

In December 2017 my Grandfather had a cardiac arrest whilst in hospital for a fall that had occurred a few days prior. CPR was administered, and whilst successful, Grandad was left in a comatose state, from which we knew he would not recover. 

The Dr told us that he only had a few hours left, so he whole family rushed to his bedside to say their goodbyes. 

From the moment the family arrived, it felt like my Grandad was no longer a patient on the ward, and quite simply, he was ignored and denied any end of life care in the final hours he was with us. 

Firstly, when I arrived at the ward (not yet knowing the impact of Grandads heart-attack) a staff member on the ward simply told me where his bay was - as though nothing had happened. I was expecting to see him unwell, but still conscious. Fortunately, a member of the family who had arrived before me stopped me before going to his bed, and told me that he was not in a good condition and I should be prepared before I see him. Had my family member not seen me and told me this, I would have simply walked into what I still consider to be one of the most distressing situations of my life so far... I feel as though this was a lack of consideration and very dismissive of the member of staff. 

Secondly, we spent almost 5 hours on the ward with Grandad, because we were told that whilst there were private rooms available, there were not enough staff available to move him ''because it was Christmas time''. Once we were moved to a private room, where we finally felt we could grieve away from the public setting of the ward, 4 hours went by before a nurse even poked their head around the door. 

In the 14 hours he spent in a coma, not ONCE did a member of staff check his sanitary towel, check his mouth was not being irritated by the constant flow of oxygen he was receiving from an oxygen mask, or try to decipher if he was in pain from being laid in the same position. 

At 2 in the morning, after being at the hospital for over 11 hours, we asked the nurse on duty if we could have a bed, or blanket so that a family member could stay at the hospital. The nurse simply said ''we do not provide beds, and there are no blankets''. 

At a time that was incredibly precious to us as a family, it felt like even the basic end of life treatment that we, and more importantly my Grandad DESERVED were simply forgotten about. It felt as though they treated Grandad like he was already dead, and was one less patient to worry about.