"Fractured ankle"

I have been taken to a&e at Ealing Hospital by an ambulance after I got hit by a car. I waited 4 hours to get x-ray of suspected ankle fracture and an hour more to see any doctor. Finally had a cast on in around 7-8 hours which had to be replaced the next day. It took around 22 hours from getti there to getting a bed (which is understandable under such high demand).

So the first few days I spent at a day surgery unit which was great - nurses were all very nice and attentive and everything seemed to be fairly organised. Then I was moved to orthopaedic ward.

I’m only in my early twenties so I can take care of my needs most of the time by myself even without one foot but the ward was full of old people and I could not be horrified more by the care they received. Ladies were waiting for anyone to even check on them after pressing a button and shouting for 30-40 minutes, completely ignoring their needs and pains.

I had to get orif surgery and on the day it was schedueled I was crippling down to the toilet with my crutches when I started fainting. I sit down in the toilet and as my vision and hearing was disappearing instarted pressing the emergency button and as much as my strength allowed I shouted for help. It was early morning and not busy as most people were sleeping. Nurse was sitting at the desk, another staff memeber was walking around the corridors. I didn’t fall down, fortunately, but thrown up on the ground and the fainting started to go away. I was crying for help for 20 more minutes in that toilet fearing to faint again and fall into the puddle and no one showed up. Once I got back my relative strength to walk out on my own and complained nurses pointed fingers at each other. Some carer s could not care less about dignity - starting to strip me down without asking to wash me and comparing my broken ankle to her broken nail. I found it a horrifying experience.

As per doctors, ever since I was admitted to the hospital I barely ever saw the same doctor twice. Post surgery appointments take around 2-3 hours to be seen and I only got around a minute of doctors time and a minute more after complaining about not answering any of my questions to other staff. It has been 6 weeks post ORIF and I still have no idea about prognosis for my ankle, when am I likely to recover or how I should take the best care of it due to the amount of time staff is able to allocate to explain those things.

Having said that, there were some brilliant nurses that did an exellent job restlessly that I really admired. Especially working under such poor nhs funding/conditions.

I feel far from confident about it and it is early to say but I truelly hope that despite not being very attentive surgeons did a good job with my ankle - as I theoretically have decades to go with whatever job they have done.