"ward 34"

Anything else?

i think the care of your elderly patients is terrible . when my mother arrived on ward with a bad water infection she was in sound mind and able . after a couple of days she was confused and hallucinating .and unable to talk properly .when i asked if she was on any drug that was causing this i was told no . because of the way she was she could not eat or drink herself her food and drink were put on the tray and then taken away uneaten as she was given no help to eat or drink . her husband asked if he could stay all day to look after her but he was told no .in fact they spoke to him very rudely the staff did not comb her hair or clean her teeth she was a mess . family members had to do this .after they realised that her teeth were all clogged up and had not been cleaned . her husband brought her food each day and managed to get her to eat and drink tiny amounts but she was struggling to swallow.

my mother had been put in a nappy the day she arrived ,she had had a permanant catheter for about 20 years but because the staff could not fit it they left it out so she was permanently wet which resulted in terrible nappy rash . she had bruises all over her back from the hoist they used to lift her out of bed into the chair . she also had her arm bandaged up because one of the staff cut her arm it was quite a bad cut. when i asked the staff about it they said they did not know how it happened because it had happened when the night staff were on duty ,so i asked could they check in the accident book and i was told it was on the computer and they had no access to it .

after about 4 weeks we were told that there was no hope for her and she was going to die in the next couple of days .

i had a look at her notes to see what drugs she was on and found out that she had been on an anti psychotic drug ( haloperidol) since she had arrived at the hospital .

when i got home i checked the drug on the internet and i was outraged when i found out the thing it can do . hallucinations, zombie like , causes problems with swallowing . all the thing that my mam was suffering from . i rang the hospital and told them to take her off it . they did has i said and when i went in to see her the next day she was actually able to speak and was managing to drink . the doctors said they were surprised at her amazing recovery but they said it was nothing to do with the fact that she had come off the medication .

i wish i had looked at her drug chart sooner because she i think that she would be alive now if i had got her off the drug sooner. but because she was so weak she just could not recover from all that she had suffered in the hospital . i could go on and on about all the things that happened . the ward needs looking at and sorting out .

i know you are going to say if your not happy ring this number to discuss it but its a waste of time my mams dead now . im writng this for others to read so they can keep a check on there relatives when they go into hospital