"Treatment in A&E"

My mum was admitted by ambulance to A&E in December at approximately 5.30am after suffering severe lower back pain. She was in excruciating pain, she was clammy and her blood pressure was lower than normal (all of which, I have subsequently learnt, to a trained professional, are warning signs of an Aortic Aneurysm), but the consensus seemed to be it was a urine infection.

On admittance, blood was taken and she was connected to the blood pressure monitor. Apart from that, no other investigations were done. In the space of the 5 hours my mum was in A&E, the lack of urgency, care and compassion was disgusting. My mum was left suffering and quite frankly, no one seemed to care.

The nurses, especially the ones after the change over, made us feel like we were ‘bothering them’, they didn't seem in the slightest bit interested and showed no compassion whatsoever. The pain was now radiating round to my mums abdomen.

At one point, I thought my mum died in front of me so I was screaming for help and yet again, was looked at like we were an inconvenience. I continued to scream for help and eventually, one by one, with no sense of urgency, medical staff attended my mum. I was told that she had fainted due to the amount of pain she was in. Clearly I was relieved that she was still with us but yet again, she was just left and still, no further tests were done. I literally could not believe what I was witnessing.

About an hour later, my mums blood pressure monitor started bleeding loudly and I noticed that her blood pressure had dropped to 55 and you don’t need to be medically trained to know that something serious was happening. Even though the alarm was going off on the machine - nobody came. I yet again had to beg for assistance, panicking and screaming. One nurse told me when I asked for help, very rudely, that they were busy. I must add that there were many empty beds in A&E and in my opinion, the ward was not busy, in fact there seemed to be more staff than patients.

Eventually and again with no sense of urgency, medical staff finally made their way to my mum. At this point the doctor scanned my mother’s stomach and then and only then, did a sense of urgency, duty and care, kick in. The doctor told me my mother had an aneurysm and she would be taken straight for an MRI, then went on to say, she should have gone for one a few hours previous but this request had not been correctly sent. Unbelievable. It was less than an hour later that I was told my mum had hours maybe days to live. My mum passed away the next evening.

I believe my mum could have been saved if the staff did what they should have done but I guess we will never know that now. The pain of losing my mum is incredible and made so much worse with the memories and knowledge of what took place in A&E that morning. Her death may not have been prevented but she should never have been treated the way she was and she should never have been left in the pain which she was.

I am disgusted and appalled by the staff we came into contact with that morning. How people could behave in such an uncaring, unprofessional manner, is beyond me. It’s shocking and disgusting and needs to be highlighted. This has been an awful awful time, made so much worse by the staff that morning.

Thank goodness that when she was finally moved to ward B31, the staff there did what they were meant to do. They cared for my mum in her final hours with respect and with compassion and showed me and my brother the same care and compassion.

My grief is made so much much worse because of the staff and this seriously needs to be highlighted.