I took my mother (aged 82), here on holiday from Italy for half term week, in this unit on October 30, 2013, after she was falling over on a nearby playground. She hit her left arm at the height of her shoulder and would complain, apart from the pain, about feeling the arm "wobbly", i.e. not connected with the shoulder. They two x-rays, one of which was completely useless. The other one showed the displacement of the arm (I could see it myself, despite not being a doctor), but the nurse would describe it as "closed fracture", "minor displacement". The only thing they did was to put a loose sling around her neck to hold the arm. The arm was loose, not tightened around the chest. As a consequence, not only her arm got completely black and swollen, but when she flew back to Rome after 3 days, the orthopedic surgeon, who took another X-ray and a CT-scan saw that the arm was completely displaced, the bone had cut the veins, having caused dangerous internal bleeding that after only few days could have led to an amputation. N.B. the staff knew that I lived in Birmingham and thus they could have easily instructed me to take her to the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital straight away, instead of saying that she was perfectly fit for flying etc. My mother was operated in Rome 6 days after the accident occurred, with a serious operation to re-attach the arm to the shoulder. She is now finishing a very painful physiotherapy, but was at least able to keep her arm. This all would not have happened if a) the x-rays had been shown to a doctor, b) her complaints about the "wobbly" arm would have been taken seriously, c) the nurse would have tightened the arm properly to the chest in order to avoid any movement of the loose bone. We are seriously thinking about making a formal complaint. I have visited many countries in my life, and lived in three, incl. the UK. I have never experienced such an incompetence of the staff as I did in this case, although it happened several times with NHS doctors.
"Complete incompetent staff"
About: Tewkesbury Hospital Tewkesbury Hospital Tewkesbury GL20 5QN
Posted via nhs.uk
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