Thread: And you wonder about hospitals...

I haven't been here much lately as my wife has been in hospital for the past three weeks.

Those three weeks have seen a litany of errors and problems in dealing with her. She is in extreme pain requiring morphine and ketamine to try to alleviate it.

She needed a (very expensive - about $1300 per vial) infusion which had to run uninterrupted for 72 hours. On the first attempt the ward thought a vial would last 72 hours. (Simple maths would have told them it wouldn't). It didn't and they hadn't ordered any more in so the infusion was interrupted for about 6 hours.

Oh, the nursing staff hadn't read the protocol on administering the drug so my wife had to tell each new shift what they had to do (she's had it before). Not that they believed her - after all she's just a patient. I brought a copy of the protocol (that we got from the hospital last time) from home just in case. Admittedly, it is a rare drug protocol so nursing staff in a general ward wouldn't be expected to know it.

That meant the drug infusion had to be restarted again once more drugs were obtained.

After a few hours, the cannula tissued so the infusion had to be stopped. By this time it was evening.

A doctor was called to insert a new cannula. She couldn't - and then was called away - never to return.

The next day they decided to install a femoral central line and got the infusion going again.

Then she was taken to theatre for an angioplasty so the infusion was disconnected. When she came out, they forgot to restart the infusion. So the next day they started it again. Don't forget, we are talking about $1300 per vial here.

As she was in extreme pain (try watching your wife shaking and crying in pain ) they connected her to morphine and ketamine pumps.

Great. For a while. Until my wife said it isn't working. The response was effectively "No dear, the pumps are working ok and you're getting the morphine".

When my wife complained the bed was wet, she was offered an incontinence pad. What had happened was that one of the clamps on the central line (in her groin) had been released so when she pressed the button for a hit of morphine, it was being pumped onto the bed, not into her.

The next thing was to take her back to theatre (next day) with a raft of specialists and consultants to install a fine tube through her neck to hit the nerve bundle with a block. It worked! For a while.

Then she noticed the pain was returning and her back was wet.

Somehow, between theatre and the ward, someone had pulled the tube out - so the drug was running down her back and not into her - so the block wore off and she was in agony again. This meant a couple of hours before morphine and ketamine pumps could be set up again.

Tonight she was back in to theatre for another nerve block to be inserted.

She was sleeping peacefully when I left the hospital. I hope she gets a good night's sleep for a change.

One is reluctant to complain in case the ward staff take it out on her.

I hope Elizabeth maker a speedy recovery, Ron.