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"Not the greatest experience..."

About: Queen Elizabeth Hospital / Maternity

I was referred for an obstetrician appointment here when i was 4 months pregnant after complaining to my midwife about pains in my legs that's been causing me a tremendous amount of pain for a month. Person i saw was nice but was not concerned about my symptoms i was experiencing and discharged me from their care simply saying it was apart of pregnancy. 4 months later at 8 months pregnant and no longer having pains in my leg but in my lungs instead and feeling really breathless all the time but my own midwife dismissed this saying it was a part of pregnancy. But while i was at my midwife appointment they checked my urine and it had 3 plus of protein for which they sent me to the day assessment unit at Queen Elizabeth. There I was told that it could indicate pre-ecclampsia but checked my blood pressure that was borderline so they said they'll send me home but i'll have to come back every few days to get my urine and blood pressure checked. Next time i went to the DAU/ FAU my lungs was hurting even more and felt very breathless and i said this to the nurses and they said they get a doctor in to talk to me. Also had several blood tests done that week. Iron levels were low but other than that everything else was fine. Doctor came in, talked to me and said it was all apart of pregnancy. Went home yet again and they told me to keep coming in every couple days which i did and each time i saw a doctor and they dismissed all my symptoms as part of pregnancy. Now finally on my probably 8th visit to the DAU they get another doctor down to see me but before this i heard a midwife on the phone to the doctor or whoever to tell them about me, i heard this person call me a hypochondriac and yet it was them who asked me back there every few days not me. I don't want to spend money on the car park each time and spend hours in that hot oven room. anyway a doctor came in to see me and let me say this doctor probably saved my life as they took me seriously and referred me to lewisham hospital for a CT scan. Now the next day i went back to the DAU to get the results and they had no idea what i was talking about and its only because i remembered the junior doctors name that they told them about me and after 3 hours waiting did they finally find my hospital results revealing my blood clots in my lungs. Now i feel really let down as they failed me on so many different occasions. Going back to the obstetrician appointment now makes sense about all those pains in my leg was the clot but it was dismissed at the time cause my legs didn't feel hot to the touch according to the doctor there.. Apparently that was when it formed and why those pains in my legs disappeared and went to my lungs cause it traveled up... They risked my life there... Only reason I'm giving 4 stars is because of my great birth experience in the delivery suite and the way they dealt with my postpartum hemorrhage. A special thanks to staff member who treated me with kindness and dignity.

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Responses

Response from Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust 6 years ago
Submitted on 03/11/2017 at 07:17
Published on Care Opinion at 09:11


I am so sorry to read your comments but am grateful that you have taken the time to share them with us. Your feedback has been shared with both the obstetric and midwifery teams. Your Consultant and I would be very happy to meet with you to explore not only the thinking behind the clinical decisions that were taken but also to understand how this has impacted on the care you have received and your overall experience with us. If this is something you would like to do please contact the complaints department on: LG.ComplaintsTeam@nhs.net.

Sue Chatterley
Head of Midwifery QEW site
Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust

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