"Treatment for when I had an asthma attack"

I unfortunately had a stay in the RAH last month due to continuous asthma attacks after catching a cold which I was unable to shake off. I ended up in many different wards from Resus, HDU, ICU and then ward 14.

I would like to say i cannot fault anyone in Resus, after being brought in by ambulance, everyone was so incredibly reassuring and made me feel at ease, especially a nurse called Katie, she was amazing, along with Dr McPherson.

I then was transferred to HDU where again I cannot fault the care, amazing staff there who met my every need and made me feel so at ease, especially Joy, Charlotte, Alan and Connor! I cannot thank you all enough! I also believe a nurse from another ward called Connor who helped me and he was amazing as well!

When I was moved to ICU I was incredibly scared and mid-asthma attack, the staff who greeted me were amazing, they explained exactly what was happening and what they were doing and this incredible care continued throughout my stay in ICU. Nothing was a problem for them, everyone had such amazing spirits which kept me uplifted in a scary time. Heather, Helen, Sally, Smitha, Erryn, Senga and Gemma, I cannot put in to words how grateful I am to all of you. Everyone I met in ICU from the Drs to the domestics are absolute gems and deserve a medal for what they all do each and every day! To the senior charge nurse who always came in to a room with a smile, I am sorry I missed your name but thank you for always making me smile!

I was transferred from ICU to ward 14 where sadly i have to say my care experience quickly went downhill. When I was brought to the ward, a nurse was in the room where I would be continuing my stay, There was no greeting or introduction to the ward. My observations were taken without so much as a hello and that was it. A few hours later, I had become sore and asked for pain relief where I was told everything had been stopped and they could give me 1 paracetamol and get the Drs to look it over and organise more pain relief. 4 hours went by before I asked for an update on my medication where I was informed again that a Dr was looking at it. This continued till midday the next day until i eventually broke down in tears from the pain. When the nurse saw this, I was told that I should have asked for pain relief and not to get myself in a tizzy despite the fact I had been continuously asking for pain relief since about 11pm the night before which left me feeling judged and humiliated.

This situation was bad enough that a patient in the bed beside me had made comment how they had noticed I had been continuously asking for pain relief to no avail for hours.

Some staff were unhelpful within this ward, I myself work within a hospital setting and know and understand the demands on staff however I regularly found myself assisting other patients who were struggling and despite asking for help, were either slow to receive it or forgotten. I assisted anywhere from feeding patients to adjusting their masks to fit their face if it had fallen off. Tasks i don’t feel should have been left to fellow patients.

I also sadly witnessed an incident with a patient who was very elderly and vulnerable. No buzzer to hand, left to feed themself which they could not do when they had stated to the auxiliary present they would need help. They later unfortunately fell out of bed in the middle of the night, hitting the floor so hard it woke myself up. I listened as they accosted the patient for trying to move out of bed and unfortunately they were swore at for wakening up the other patients. This saddened me deeply, especially when they were left crying out not to be left and that they were scared. It was a traumatic experience to see this go down.

I was desperate to leave this ward and was so relived to be discharged when i was due to the care in ward 14. There was two auxiliaries who i unfortunately never caught their names who are a credit to ward 14. They were a shining light in that place.

I would like to say I am incredibly grateful to every other area I was a patient in and that when I needed it most I was luckily enough to be under the care of such exemplary staff in the Resus, HDU and ICU departments!