Is this how Health Care is meant to be?
I am writing this as my mother is in hospital waiting to die. I say waiting to die tongue in cheek. God forbid should anything happen to her. In a way it’s a dig at the health system.
The story so far:
About a year and half ago my mother complained about chest pains so naturally we went to the GP and as per usual he could do nothing and so subsequently sent her on her merry way to the local A&E, she arrived and after about 2 hours of excruciating pain they saw her and took a few X-Rays found nothing wrong so sent her on her way home. On arrival at home she still felt a pain in her chest, which was getting increasingly painful. She could not sleep at all that night.
Next day she collapsed, so off to hospital we go, again. This time she was admitted into hospital and after further tests and there was still no conclusion, as a result of this it was agreed to conduct an angiagram.
The Angiagram
It took some time, after lots of coercion, the doctors agreed to conduct the angiagram, on many occasions they would give some excuse as not to do it, my favourite one was a younger patient was in more need then my elderly mother, ageist or what? What happened to first on the list gets treatment, that is fine I guess as long as you are not old. The results showed there were blockages in her arteries and thereby requiring to have a triple heart bypass. She was now on the waiting list for the bypass procedure.
The Triple Heart Bypass
Fortunately she did not have to wait too long for the procedure. The procedure went well and she was still in hospital recovering. About three days later we found out that the wound got infected and she contracted MRSA septicemia, we thought here we go again, if it’s not one thing it’s another.
So after months of being in hospital she was discharged, great she can come home and we can look after her. For a few months it was great to have mum at home, she was feeling better and smiling again. We were happy and relieved.
The False Dawn (The Homecoming)
A few more months went by, everything appeared normal, we are joking and laughing, mum was enjoying being back with us her children and even more with her grand children. However, this was a false dawn, that evening she was restless and could not sleep.
The next morning she could eat, did not want breakfast. The health visitor came, everything seemed o.k. the medicine was being administered by the health visitor and then it happened, suddenly she stopped breathing, we did not know what to do, we called the ambulance and got her to hospital.
This seemed a little serious, it transpires that her heart was not pumping properly leading to fluid in her lungs and subsequently backing up into her kidneys. She has been in and out of hospital three times with this condition, and is currently in hospital.
The Health Care
All through this saga the attitude of the doctors in my humble opinion was appalling, they were condescending, arrogant and frankly failed to communicate the issues properly, this not the level of care one expects from doctors, there was one incident in particular which frustrated my mother and angered me a little, it was when my mother was feeling hot and asked the doctor to turn on the fan for her, he was no more than 1 foot away, he had the audacity to say I’m too busy I’ll get the nurse to do it, who was in the next room. Is this the level of care we should have to put up with?
The thing that annoyed me the most is that the doctors still don’t know the real cause. They are doing test after test and getting the same result, which incidently is giving a clean bill of health, clearly this is wrong.
The question I have asked is how can you do these tests if you don’t know what you are looking for? I feel all these tests already carried out are superfluous, they don’t have a diagnosis so what are the tests really telling you?
I am perplexed, my mother is in hospital and we really don’t know why? She seems to be in pain and has difficulty breathing. The answer we keep getting is it’s a combination of things. Is it me or is it for real the new generation of doctors are less caring, with poor people skills and less knowledgeable than the doctors before them.
Is this how health care is meant to be? Are we waiting to die in the hands of our illustrious health care system.
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Tags: blockages, Health, health system, Success, Wealth