"It upsets me that they treated my mother this way"

As it is coming up to three years since I lost my mum I feel compelled to tell you of her experience and more importantly my family and my experience of Ward 110. My mum was admitted as an emergency to ward 110 with acute renal failure following a prior hospital admission for a severe chest infection. Unfortunately for most of my mums stay I had also been in hospital. As her next of kin I feel that I was not sufficiently kept up to date with her progress despite the nurses on my ward kindly telephoning everyday of my stay to enquire on my behalf.

My family (who were doing all the visiting whilst I was hospitalised) found that the staff they spoke to on the ward were quite hostile and unhelpful when they asked about various aspects of my mums care. My daughter was appalled when she witnessed a member of staff shouting at my mum when she had asked if she could help her get up from her chair in order to go to the bathroom, she was overheard saying that she was unprepared to help her and she could do it herself or use a commode at her bedside. It seemed that every time my family went to the nurses station they were told that nobody there was working either on that side or the particular room my mum was in.

They also witnessed my mum begging for gavascon for her heartburn. I think it is pretty barbaric to have to beg for medication to make you comfortable. It seemed like staff also had insufficient training in recognising and dealing with diabetes. My mum suffered from hypoglycaemic episodes which were only spotted by my family, on one occasion her blood sugar level was so low it took several attempts to raise it.

When I was discharged and able to visit my mum I too was appalled at my mums care. On more than one occasion I went in to find her buzzer pinned on the wall, inaccessible for my mum who by that stage was bed bound. To be honest there was no point in the buzzer being beside my mum as the staff never answered it anyway when she buzzed for assistance. I feel that the staff we came into contact with couldn’t be bothered. I understand that my mum wasn’t the only patient on the ward requiring help and there may have been a problem with staff shortages however it is what they are paid for at the end of the day.

I also found analgesics on her bed as well as on her table along with dirty swabs. Two days before my mum passed away my daughter had been in to visit in the afternoon and told me that a student doctor been trying to take a blood sample from my mum without any success, after several attempts my daughter asked them to stop as my mum was distressed.

Then a renal doctor came to see her because her eyes were glazed and she was very confused, she asked the students to leave. She asked how long my mum had had a rash on her body, said she was very worried when she learnt that my mum had had the rash when she was admitted to the ward, she said she was away to order tests.

At 2pm just before my daughter left a nurse came to give her an injection of heparin. My daughter told me that they had been trying to get a blood sample from my mum but hadn’t been successful as her arms were pouring serous fluid instead of blood. When I arrived to visit at 6pm that night I noticed that her bed cover was covered in blood, I assumed the blood sample had been taken however when I asked my mum she said that she didn’t think they had managed. I pulled the sheet back to discover my mums nightdress covered in blood, on closer inspection I found that her wound  was still actively bleeding, my son ran to get a member of staff. Whilst he was away I found a piece of gauze on her table and applied pressure to the area. When my son finally got someone to come (a doctor from another area) they said that they were satisfied I’d stopped the bleeding and they would get a nurse to come back and change her nightdress and bedding. We sat with my mum for the whole of visiting time and nobody came to do so. When I was leaving I spoke to staff and they assured me this would be done as soon as possible. The following night the woman opposite my mum told us that they hadn’t changed my mum until the following morning.

Also my mums arms, stomach and hands were leaking serous fluid and their idea of good care was to place Inca pads on the areas, I accept that these acted as a good way of soaking up the fluid in order to keep her dry however the night before my mum passed away her bedding was soaking wet and it had appeared that it had been like that for a considerable amount of time. As myself and my husband were leaving we spoke to a staff nurse about our concerns regarding my mum including the fact that she was lying in a wet bed wearing a wet hospital gown, I even told the nurse if she gave us the bedding we would change my mum ourselves. I also commented that I thought my mum was giving up, the nurse in question shrugged her shoulders at the comment, turned on her heel and left us standing in the corridor.

The following morning I called the ward to enquire how my mum was doing, I was told that they were going to be moving her into a single room, I asked why and they said it was to give her a bit of privacy as she was quite confused. I asked if they would pass on that I had called and that I’d be up in the afternoon as I was wanting to speak to the medical staff. We also had the intention of taking some photographs to prove the state my mum was left in.

Approximately 45 minutes later I received a call to say that my mum had passed away. In fact the conversation went as follows, “is that Mrs? I’m calling about your mum? ” I said it was her daughter and she said “yeah well sorry to tell you but your mum passed away”. The nurse never enquired whether or not I was alone or had someone with me. I can not understand why at the point of my phone call the staff never asked me to come up to give me the option of being with my mum in her final hours. As you can imagine this has upset and angered me considerably as I will never get back that time. When I arrived at the ward shortly after with my husband and daughter we were met by a staff member with looked like they had just came back from a night on the town. I told them who I was and they replied that my mum was at her bed space and to just go in. We were never asked if we were ok, whether we were going to be alright seeing my mum or we wanted someone to accompany us.

It is very sad that the only member of staff who showed us any compassion was an auxiliary nurse who walked us out of the ward following our visit. I am a nurse who has had to retire due to ill health and I am utterly disgusted to think that some of the staff on that ward had the same registration as myself. In my opinion they lacked care, compassion and basic skills involved in being worthy of the accolade of being a nurse. I feel they failed my mum.

When I told my mum I was going to complain about her care she told me not to because she said that the staff would take it out on her when we weren’t there. It has taken me so long to write this because it angers and upsets me that they could treat a person like they did. I never took legal action against NHS Grampian as I’m an avid supporter of the NHS as a whole, I just feel deeply disappointed in the treatment my mum received.