"No Voice…no one cares"

My Husband, who had Alzheimer’s and chronic kidney failure, had a fall which resulted in him having to go by Ambulance to the A & E Department of AAH. The ambulance staff were wonderful. I travelled on my own to the Hospital but was allowed in to be with my Husband because of his Alzheimer’s. 

The Doctors were rushed off their feet but the care and attention given to us that evening was second to none and I can’t thank them enough. We stayed overnight waiting for an ambulance to take us to the RVH as my Husband needed surgery on his hip but he was put in a small ward next to A & E  and was well looked after.

Next day my Husband was transferred to the RVH Ward 4C where the care he received was exceptional. He came through his surgery remarkably well and the intensive physio had him up walking the length of the ward, being able to go to the bathroom with assistance and sitting out in a chair watching all that was going on. His progress was amazing.  I was allowed to stay with him and did his night time dialysis as he was on manual dialysis 3 times a day which I did at home. The City Hospital Renal Dept did his morning dialysis and Extra Care his afternoon dialysis. It was so well organised. My Husband stayed in the RVH for 2 weeks and his progress was great.

I was then informed that he was being moved to C7, renal ward, at AAH as his Renal Consultant had agreed to having him. No driving to Belfast every day and he would be with the team who had been looking after him for almost 5 years brilliant, how wrong was I.

This whole experience was a nightmare. He was transferred late at night by ambulance while I followed in the car. When I tried to go in to the ward I was stopped and told I wasn’t allowed in. After pleading and begging to at least settle my Husband (I will NEVER forget the fear on his face), I was allowed to say goodnight. My heart was breaking as he was in a room of his own (he had tried to climb over the bed sides in the RVH but the other patients kept an eye on him and called a nurse). He was non verbal at this time and couldn’t ask for anything or say if he was in pain so handing him the buzzer to ring if he needed anything, they may as well have handed him a tube of smarties. 

During his 2 weeks in this ward I seen a Doctor twice, once on the first day when a Doctor came into his room told me their name and said they were Gastro but laughingly said there was was nothing wrong with my Husband’s stomach.

I told her he was a Renal patient but the doctor said he was put under their care, never saw this doctor again. His dialysis was a nightmare with untrained staff doing it from a sheet of paper (I do appreciate that manual dialysis is not very common but in a renal ward one would expect more).  I was allowed in to do his afternoon and evening dialysis and would gladly had done the morning one had I known what I know now. I spent most of my time looking for fluids, connectors, scales etc and when I asked a member of staff could they get me a connector they asked me what it looked like.

My Husband lay in that bed in that room day after day. I had a complete meltdown with the ward Sister as I begged for him to get physio. I am not medically trained but even I know that especially after surgery the patient has to be up and moving to prevent pneumonia. He was eventually given physio, well he was walked round the bed 3 times in all over the two weeks. He was taken for an X-ray about 8 o’clock one night. I assumed it was to check his hip surgery but when the nurse told me it was a chest X-ray I asked to speak to a Doctor as alarm bells were ringing with me.

No Doctor came until the next day and a young Doctor came and I was assured it was just routine. I never saw another Doctor again. I was my Husband’s voice and I let him down. During the 2 weeks he spent in AAH his he was just lying in bed all the time which was a disgrace after the progress he had made in the RVH.  On one occasion  I arrived in his room which looked like carnage, I called a nurse and told them I had been in cleaning toilets. I was then told that the young nurse who was doing his dialysis that morning had left him on his own and he had pulled his leads out. I learned they had never done this before and I was later told it was my fault as I hadn’t told them he couldn’t be left on his own.

 I eventually got my Husband home with a care package and can honestly say these carers, District Nurses, Marie Curie nurses and Hospice nurse were amazing. My Husband was looked after with care, dignity and genuine respect and I will be forever grateful to them all. 

I can’t begin to explain how traumatic this journey has been.

The excellent care he got in A & E and the RVH and when he came home is totally overshadowed by the 2 weeks he spent in C7. Lack of communication, lack of awareness of dealing with Dementia patients etc.  I have no idea to this day why my Husband was put in C7.

 I will forever regret not bringing him home sooner.

The final shock for me was reading his death certificate which said he died from pneumonia.