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"Let down by A&E doctors"

About: The Queen Elizabeth Hospital, King's Lynn, NHS Foundation Trust

I am really upset after two weeks of A&E visits for unexplained, horrendous abdominal pain. I was first admitted to A&E by an out of hours doctor who suspected either Appendicitis or an ovarian cyst. After a few hours, I was discharged home only to return a few days later in more pain than ever. By this point, I'd not eaten for nearly a week and couldn't take liquids because of the pain in my stomach and bowels. Again, I was discharged after a few hours. Third time visiting the next day as by this point the pain was so bad, I was worried for my life. Doctors finally sent me for one test (a chest x-ray?) and when it came back ok, I was sent home. I was then taken back that evening by ambulance in so much pain I passed out, completely dehydrated, still not been able to eat with severe, sudden weight loss and again I was sent home. I sit now at home, in bed, in agony with my local GPs shocked that nothing has been done. I am a rheumatoid disease sufferer on immune-supressing medication and currently being investigated for Chrons disease and Endometriosis. Your A&E doctors gave me one test - a chest x-ray - and dismissed me. I could be suffering with a whole load of issues (pancreatitis, stomach ulcer, intestinal blockage) and nobody cared to check. I am really disappointed that doctors did not attend to my newly anorexic state or my dehydration. I have now not eaten a single thing for 2 weeks and continue to waste away. I have not used the toilet in these two weeks either! I have not been able to attend work, drive or anything and my doctors at my surgery are horrified. All they can do is refer me to hospital but the hospital just sends me back home without investigating at all. I am not one to make a fuss when poorly but in this case, I am unable to live any sort of normal day to day life and this is an emergency health problem. Ambulance paramedics were amazing and both agreed there was something wrong with my stomach after examining it. A&E doctors barely touched it and gave me diet suggestions, completely ignoring the fact I haven't been able to eat a single thing. Being on immune-supressing medication, I have a lowered immune system and any type of infection could prove fatal. I was not taken seriously and now have absolutely no faith in the QEH. If I am still in this same bad way tomorrow we will be visiting Norwich A&E which is ridiculous that we would even need to consider driving an hour to another hospital. At the very least, I should have been given an IV of fluids to rehydrate me and a scan. Really disappointed.

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