"Additional injury from attending A and E!"

On Thursday July 20th at 6.00pm I attended your A and E department with a dislocated shoulder having fallen whilst walking in the dales. It had taken over 3 and a half hours to reach the hospital and I was understandably in considerable pain.

The nursing staff were attentive and kind.

The doctor, aided by the nurse with a sheet, put my shoulder back with nothing but gas and air. I am still black and blue 3 weeks later and the pain in my arm and elbow from where they pulled is terrible. No doctor I have seen can believe that I wasn't given a sedative. Apparently my shoulder having been dislocated for that length of time meant the muscles were tight hence the damage. A consultant I saw in London said there was 'no excuse'. I am waiting for an MRI scan. A friend who was an army doctor was shocked at the state my arm is in.

I had dislocated my other shoulder in the past and when it proved difficult was given something that meant I had no memory of the reduction. On that occasion it was reduced within an hour.

The trauma of the reduction and injury that caused to my arm is proving more problematic and painful than the shoulder itself.