"My mother was taken into the hospital ..."

What I liked

My mother was taken into the hospital on tuesday 22nd oct 08. Her symptoms were severe head pain and confusion. She was seen in a/e then moved to a ward. She was seen by 2 different doctors within an hour of being on the ward. Their initial diagnosis was a TIA or a stroke but they felt that a ct scan was needed before full diagnosis was made. This was done on Wednesday. The doctors spoke to us and said that they had seen something but would do an mri scan on Thursday. This was done. The doctor had told us to have him called when we got to the ward. He arrived very quickly, took us into a room, made us tea (himself ) and then gave us the bad news that my mum had cancer in the brain, their was no treatment and she could die at any time. Dispite the news being devestating, the doctor was very nice and very sympathetic and said he would organise for us to see whoever we needed to see. He also explained all about the cancer and that it was a secondary cancer so they would need to do one more full body scan to find the other cancer..This scan was done on the monday and we saw another doctor from the team who told us that mum had lung cancer but this was not the problem cancer. Mum stayed in hospital for a few days then returned home. The medication mum had been given took the swelling down in her brain, she was back to normal, no pain,no confusion just mum. She had 2 weeks of feeling great then her confusion returned, the brain was re-swelling, but she still had no pain, as she said she was ok. Mum lived for 8 weeks, the cancer finally got her on 18th Dec 08.

I would just like to thank the doctors who treated my mum.

What could be improved

The only thing that I found upsetting was that although my mum was dying we still had to abide by visiting times. It would be nicer if visitors could be with terminal patients at any time not set times. Not everyone is available to visit at these times.

Anything else?

Many people complain about this hospital and many others but I felt they were excellent on this occasion.

And Thanks again.