"My experience after a major heart operation"

In November I attended Lagan Valley A&E with chest pains. I was admitted.  I was referred to the cardiac unit. I had to spend six weeks in the M A U waiting for a bed in the cardiac ward. During this time I had an angiogram. The result being I needed a quadruple bypass. In December I had my operation.

In early January I complained that my left leg was sore. A doctor said that they were talking about a ultrasound. This did not happen. I was discharged shortly afterwards.  Approximately one week later I attended the A&E at the RVH.  It was discovered I had a clot. If they had given me the ultrasound when I was in hospital the clot would have been discovered sooner. 

Another week or so later I was back at A&E  RVH complaining about my leg. A&E handed me back to the cardiac ward, who gave me four tablets.  Towards the end of February it was discovered that my graft wound was not healing. It was treated there and then. I was then referred to treatment room at Lisburn Health Centre to have dressing changed on a regular basis.  On one of these appointments my GP looked at the wound and saw that there was a suture still in the wound. He contacted the cardiac unit at RVH, who in turn asked me to attend A&E . 

I waited for nearly two hours before a cardiac came to look at the wound and remove the piece of suture. I am still attending the treatment room at my health centre to have the wound dressed.  The wound is 1cm long by 1cm deep. I know there is pressure on all medical units but in my case two  things were missed. One, the clot because the did not do the ultrasound. Two. the foreign body (suture) in my wound.

In January when I was discharged, I expressed my concerns that I was being discharged too soon. The only person to take note of my concerns was a nurse who  said to me that the doctor had advised that I was ready to go home.

Obviously in hindsight I was not ready to go home four days after a major heart operation.   My thoughts are that with more care these oversights could have been avoided.