"Recent stay following emergency surgery"

Our dad was recently rushed to Royal Cornwall Hospital Treliske for emergency colorectal surgery. We would like to express our sincere thanks to the paramedics and surgeon, as their dedication and skill saved his life. We do not know the names of the paramedics, but the surgeon was Mr W Faux. 

We would also like to thank the nursing staff on Pendennis Ward for their care during his 8 day stay in hospital.

However, we were very disappointed that a mistake was made with his aftercare, and feel that this needs to be brought to the attention of managers. Despite having had major, emergency colorectal surgery  he was offered and given food in the recovery ward on the next day and a further 4 times across this day and the following day, before a member of staff realised on the morning of day 3 after surgery that he should not have been having any food. My mum phoned to ask the nursing staff about this and was told that someone would investigate. When she phoned again later,she was told by the ward that there had been a mistake, but "no harm done". He was then not given food for 2 days, before he was then reintroduced to food at the correct time of his recovery. This caused a great deal of extra stress and worry to all his family at this already difficult time, as we were then concerned about all aspects of his care, knowing that such a fundamental point as whether he should be allowed to eat or not had been overlooked.

We understand that this was not detrimental to out dad's recovery, but it might well have been. We were also disappointed that, when the error was discovered, that a medical professional did not phone us directly, but instead left a message with the ward; this does not feel a very professional way of handling the issue.