"Echograph experience"

A few days ago my husband who is 82 years of age was admitted to the hospital following a bad fall resulting in a severe bang to his head and cuts and bruises to his face. The doctor quite rightly recommended an echograph as he could hear a distinct heart murmur.

The nurse from the MAU went down with us and I am still feeling very distressed re how my husband was treated. The room itself was extremely cold, I do appreciate that it does need to be air conditioned but this was very distressing for my husband, the operator took no notice of his distress at feeling so cold. The operator offered no words of comfort, did not refer to him by his name or any reassurance and even seemed to be impatient when my husband could not understand her commands re the position he was to lie in- her tone turned to quite severe, he was not spoken to at all during the procedure the only time he was spoken to with the word 'sir' was when a male colleague came in to help the operator - nobody explained why, we were just invisible in the room. The operator wore gloves but then during her use of the keyboard she touched her nose and then her lip and went on to type. The nurse with me was as stunned as I was, I commented that we had had a master class of how not to treat an elderly frail patient who had obviously had a trauma, the nurse said she would feed it back to her dept. This operator needs urgent training re how to speak to and reassure patients, please consider the temperature in the room for elderly frail who feel the cold. If my husband needs another echograph when he is reviewed in 6 months I will definitely request that he is seen by the male operator who we saw briefly but at least acknowledged my husband's presence in the room. Needless to say the female operator uttered not one word to me as the patient's wife who clearly had been through a terrible trauma. Every other department treated my husband in an exceptionally kind and respectful way, that is in is Resus and the MAU - top marks to them. I hate to tell you this story but it was so upsetting.