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Devastation of a missed stroke

Posted By Brokenforever

"Devastation of a missed stroke"

About: Heartlands Hospital / General medicine

(as the patient),

I went to Heartlands because my legs went from under me. At A&E I was kept in because a Stroke was suspected, then put on the HASU ward.

When my symptoms worsened, the senior nurse decided I was pretending (copying the actions of "real" stroke victims), while my "suspected TIA" turned out to be an Evolving Stroke, and I lost the use of my right side.

It took a formal complaint (by my niece) to get a second scan done (a week later!), by which time a lot of the damage was greater, and more permanent than it should have been.

I am still battling to get my body, and as much as possible of my life, back.

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Responses

Response from Marie Helebert, Patient Services Officer, Patient Services, Heart of England Foundation Trust 7 years ago
Marie Helebert
Patient Services Officer, Patient Services,
Heart of England Foundation Trust

Work with patients & families to highlight and address any issues relating to patient experience.

Submitted on 17/02/2017 at 14:39
Published on Care Opinion at 16:05

Dear Brokenforever

Thank you for your post and your feedback regarding your patient experience at Heartlands Hospital's Hyper Acute Stroke Unit (HASU).

I am sorry to read that you experienced symptoms that were later determined to be an evolving stroke.

I note that you describe your niece submitting a formal complaint and feel it was this that secured the second scan which was done a week later and confirmed your diagnosis.

I do hope that the formal complaint response was able to answer your concerns appropriately, but if you feel that it would be helpful to discuss this further, please do not hesitate to contact either myself or a member of the Patient Services Team on 0121 424 0808 (9am-2pm, Monday to Friday with a voicemail service in operation at all other times) or by email: bhs-tr.Complaints-ConcernsandCompliments@nhs.net

Please note that this email address is case sensitive.

I hope this is acceptable and thank you for providing your comments, patient feedback is extremely important to us.

Kind regards

Marie Helebert

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Update posted by Brokenforever (the patient)

I wanted to talk after it happened, but you kept trying to get me to come to heartlands Hospital to do so! I was too traumatised to come near the place, and you would not meet at Solihull Hospital.

Response from Marie Helebert, Patient Services Officer, Patient Services, Heart of England Foundation Trust 7 years ago
Marie Helebert
Patient Services Officer, Patient Services,
Heart of England Foundation Trust

Work with patients & families to highlight and address any issues relating to patient experience.

Submitted on 17/02/2017 at 17:37
Published on Care Opinion at 22:14

Dear Brokenforever

I'm sorry to learn that you feel traumatised from your experience, and I'm so disappointed to read that you felt you were being forced to meet at Heartlands Hospital when you had requested to meet at Solihull Hospital.

In any case that a patient or family member would prefer to meet at one of our hospitals, particularly for a resolution meeting, Patient Services would do their utmost to ensure that any complainant was comfortable with the location.

I would like to investigate this further on your behalf and would really appreciate it if you could contact me at your convenience on the contact information above to allow me to establish some clearer information and hopefully offer some reassurance to you.

I look forward to hearing from you.

with kind regards

Marie Helebert

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