"I could not have got to this stage without their care and empathy"

I was admitted to MTW following a hit & run, and was discharged after 11 days.

I can’t thank all the staff enough for their care and compassion in the immediate days after the worst experience of my life and throughout my whole hospital stay. The SCN Nicki and her amazing team did all they could to maintain my privacy and dignity and treated me with kindness and respect. Being accommodated in a single room also helped massively as I don’t think I could have coped otherwise, I appreciate this so much. 

A few special thank yous, and I’m sorry I can’t remember everyone’s names (was on a lot of medication).

To Nicki who is a fantastic SCN and her team are a credit to her.

To Tammy, who looked after me on my admission and discharge and helped me through a traumatic medical emergency/respiratory arrest.

To Nicole, who was a massive support in the first couple difficult days and was always checking in.

To Catriona, who was very kind, professional and helped me when I couldn’t do anything for myself.

To Abbie, for listening and comforting me when I was upset and frustrated, and for being so down to earth.

To Miklos, Simoné and Lori who are all great nurses.

To Ciara for absolutely everything.

To Tom who is so friendly, patient and efficient and for helping coordinate my rehab.

To all the CSWs and the housekeeper for being so caring, stopping for a chat, for endlessly filling up my water bottle and offering tea to me and my family.

To Andrea and Nadine who are amazing at their jobs and for helping me start to process everything and will continue to do so as an outpatient.

To Claire from H@N for being there and checking in throughout my admission.

To the Consultant I saw through my first full week (I’m very sorry I can’t remember her name) for being open, honest and transparent with me.

To Arganal (medical fellow, sorry if I’ve misspelt your name) for his care. 

To Ann for being a great consultant and ensuring everything was organised and I wasn’t left unsure about anything before discharge. 

The only negative I experienced, and this in no way reflects poorly on the nursing or allied health team on the MTW as they are all fantastic, was in an interaction with a major trauma consultant. I didn’t feel they communicated well with myself or knew about my care at that time.

The consultant stated they'd been talking about discharge, when prior to this a discharge date had never been mentioned as I was still working with physio (not discharged from them), needing more input from MH team, awaiting ortho plan, and still on high dose pain medication awaiting further input from pain team.

I highlighted the above and that I did not feel I had plans in place for other aspects of my care leading to discharge including some medications. The consultant left then returned stating that they didn’t appreciate that I was on such high dose pain killers, and that my pain should be improving by the 14-day mark, when I had only been in hospital for a week at that point.

They also asked why I hadn’t been getting morphine rather than oxycodone and I had to explain that I had a medical emergency/respiratory arrest following potential opiate toxicity from morphine and it had made me very sick and that was why my analgesia had been changed.

I feel the consultant should have known this information from my notes rather than me having to explain this. They didn’t apologise for their mistakes in this interaction, made me feel like an inconvenience, left me in tears and very anxious.

I hate to say anything negative about NHS staff as I know how difficult the job can be but feel this needs to be mentioned. I’m sure they are a good doctor in other situations but this was not the experience I had. Had I not been someone able to advocate for myself I feel this is somewhere where potential mistakes could have been made in care. 

I also would like to pass on a massive thank you to the Pain Team for their advice and for communicating so openly with me and answering all my questions

Being a patient instead of a nurse is truly awful and puts you in such a vulnerable position. I’m very lucky to have recovered enough to be discharged because things could have been very different. I still have a long recovery ahead of me but could not have got to this stage without the care and empathy from the team on this amazing ward. 

Please pass on my thanks and gratitude to them all.