"Untreated Fracture"

I injured my ankle whilst away on holiday in August 2017. I believed it to be badly sprained. One of the friends I was away with is a  physio and between us we took good care of it, iced, elevated, compression, used my walking poles to minimise weight bearing, only walked to the pool! By the time I returned home some 10 days later much of the swelling and bruising had reduced but I had what felt like a bony pain remaining and the lateral malleolus was painful to touch. I went straight to my Gp who sent me for an xray at my local community hospital. The radiographer informed me straight away that the ankle was fractured and I needed to go to A& E, the nearest being Broomfield. So I went straight there.

Everything was very good initially I was seen really quickly by the triage nurse and then sent through and saw another nurse who looked at my xray and went through what had happened. They said yes the ankle was clearly fractured and would need a plaster cast and gave me a card for the fracture Clinic. I then went to the plaster room where the nurse there questioned, understandably, whether I needed a cast or a boot. The fracture was 2 weeks old by now. After a debate with the original nurse they both disappeared and then the first one came back in the room and said there had been a change of plan.

The nurse said they had phoned a consultant upstairs and the consultant had said ‘as I had been walking around on it for two weeks to tell me to go away and get on with it’ so they were not going to do anything. At that point the nurse took the fracture Clinic card out of my hand and put it in the bin saying I wouldn’t need it. I was a little bit taken aback, I asked whether or not I would be getting a follow up xray they said no, I asked about what activities I should/shouldn’t do to Which they replied ‘ just get on with your normal activities and elevate it if it gets swollen’. I asked about any exercises I should do, rehabilitation etc to which they replied ‘you said you had a friend who is a physio, perhaps they can give you some exercises’. They then apologised for keeping me an extra 15 minutes. I left feeling rather bemused by the whole thing. I thought clearly it mustn’t have been that bad. However, I did think I should be conservative in my movements, elevate it at regular intervals and used some strapping to support my ankle and decided that I would need to go back and see the GP in a few weeks as I wasn’t happy just to leave it and I needed to know if it had healed properly before trying to strengthen it.

I did this and the GP agreed that a follow up xray was clearly needed. I left the two weeks they recommended before it was done (so the fracture was now 8 weeks old)I went back to the same community hospital and had it re-xrayed. When the report came back it showed the fracture had not healed and has actually worsened. The GP has now had to refer me to the fracture clinic and I am clearly in a worse position than I was some 6 weeks ago! ! I feel very upset and angered by the casual attitude and approach to the treatment of my injury received at A& E.