"My wife’s treatment"

My wife and I attended the A&E Dept one morning in July with concerns around a swollen right foot which also had a blood blister on the side. She was seen by a ENP on her own as I was asked to take a seat in the x-ray waiting area. My wife explained that we had been on holiday abroad, she had hurt her foot about 10 days earlier but the swelling had gone down until the flight home. She also explained that she had been to her GP the previous day but what was a clear blister then had turned into a blood blister on the Saturday. The nurses response initially was very dismissive and all about the sprain and how my wife needed to walk properly, which she could not do due to the pain. The nurse then moved onto the blister, lanced it(which was the opposite advise from the GP the day before), bandaged it, told my wife not to worry about an infection and said don’t touch the dressing for 48hrs. We left with a replacement bandage.

That night my wife become unwell and through the next day had vomiting and diarrhoea which she put down to a bug. The day after I removed the bandage as instructed to find my wife’s foot was black and she had a hole in the side of her foot where the blister had been. Upon getting an emergency appointment with our GP I was told my wife was seriously ill and that I was to take her straight to the combined assessment unit.

When we got there she was seen immediately, treated for suggested severe sepsis and seen by an orthopaedic surgeon. The outcome of this was she had an operation on her right foot to remove all the dead tissue and muscle due to her suffering from necrotising fasciitis. She then spent 4 days in intensive care, a further 8 days in Ward 2d being treated for Streptococcus A and kidney issues.

She was then transferred to the Royal for plastic surgery which involved a skin graphed to repair her damaged foot. She continues to attend the Royal and has been advised that further surgery will be needed in the future.

Can I add at this point the treatment she received in the combined assessment unit, intensive care and ward 2d was outstanding and I felt reassured that everything was being done to help my wife.

What I would like as a result of this is some answers on what the A&E nurse should have done for my wife that may have resulted in her not going through this horrendous experience.