"Ignorance in A&E"

One Sunday in May at approx 7.05 pm, a wall at our house fell on my legs damaging my shins & crushing my feet I was in agony & couldn’t move or call for help my husband found me & rang 999 for an ambulance as I lay bleeding on the floor crying in agony.

After an hour still no ambulance my husband managed to lift & carry me to the car drove me to Great Western Hospital A&E Swindon He stopped & ran for a wheelchair then I was left waiting by the front door while he parked the car. 

We had to sit in the waiting room over 2 hours I was crying in agony my legs were bleeding & on display I was actually embarrassed to be there while young children ran around screaming & playing around me. My husband went & asked for pain relief twice & was told they would be out soon but they were not.

Eventually a nurse called me in & I explained what had happened they said I would need a doctor to see me. A paramedic came in put pressure all down my legs to see if my shins were broken as I was still bleeding, the pain of the paramedic doing this was excruciating & I screamed as they put pressure on my damaged shins & feet.

They then said I’d needed an X Ray. 

My husband wheeled me 100 ft  round the corner to the X-ray waiting area where I sat still crying in pain for an hour

When I asked why people were going in before me I was told that I had not been put on the system yet!

My husband walked back to the A&E dept & asked what was happening they said I was on the system. 

He came back to the X-ray dept they said yet again I was not this went on for the next 40 mins.

I pleaded for some pain relief still no one returned.

I found an old pack of paracetamol in my handbag & took the last 2 with No water as I hadn’t any.

Then I was called in by a member of staff who worked in the X-ray dept who still said I was not in the system & took my details for the 3rd time

My husband wheeled me back to the waiting room still with screaming children running around spitting at their parents & abusive people arguing with each other. 

I was eventually called back in & told no fractures were visible so I waited another hour while a very squeamish nurse tried to clean & remove pieces of cement from my shin who then asked  a friend to do it instead. 

We left at 1.30 am still with no pain relief from the hospital my husband carried me to the car we paid £2 to get out of car park & went home 

I phoned the local doctors in the morning & the answerphone said no app available please phone tomorrow morning at 8 am maybe there’s a cancellation or it’s a 5 week wait for an appointment if I want to hold the line to book it. 

I am absolutely appalled at this whole affair my husband bought some pain relief the next morning.