A hospital patient is refusing to leave her bed until she is treated after her operation was cancelled four times.

Patient refuses to leave hospital after operation cancelled
Article in the Sunday Telegraph

Extract:

"Irene Gannon, 68, was due to have gall bladder surgery in July but the operation was called off at the last minute.

The grandmother had her treatment cancelled twice more but was given a new appointment and doctors insisted that, this time, it would go ahead.

When it was, perhaps predictably, cancelled a fourth time, she refused to get out of bed and insisted she would stay there until the operation went ahead.

Mrs Gannon, who is at the University hospital of Wales, in Cardiff, has been fasting every day from midnight in the hope that a surgeon will find a slot for her the following day, as she cannot be operated on if she has recently eaten."

I'll bet this sort of thing doesn't happen in other countries! - I was in hospital a year ago with a badly broken arm and my operation too kept being postponed although I was in agonising pain from the splint, which caused radial nerve damage and lymphoedema and pain in my breast from the pressure. In July this year I learned that I have ulnar nerve damage too...)o: which really needs an operation to prevent the right hand from further wasting and further restriction of movement. - I don't know why the damage to the ulna nerve was not looked for/detected and treated long ago. - I have been reporting severe pain and constant pins and needles and restricted movement for over a year. I don't know what is to become of me. Although with great effort on my part the radial nerve damage in the right hand has largely been remedied, the left hand is very painful because of the strain of having had to use it to do the work of two hands for months. The left shoulder has also been overstrained and is very painful and restricted in its movement. My pain and difficulties get worse every day and I have to have carers come to help me to get ready/dressed in a morning.

I don't think any of these painful, difficult, long-term consequences would have happened if my badly broken arm had been operated on promptly. As well as causing terrible, sustained avoidable suffering for me, this is certainly not a sensible use of manpower and resources.

Our lousy, extremely expensive NHS! - It needs to be scrapped and let us have a system that deals with the needs of patients - that treats patients as human beings.

I've just been watching the first episode of "Cranford" on BBC1 and I envy the healthcare received by the carpenter who broke his arm in the 1840s...

The carpenter had his broken right arm dealt with as speedily as the young doctor could manage it, and in consequence he did not suffer radial nerve damage and so was able to use his hand again. Nearly two centuries later, having broken my right humerus at the end of August, I am still unable to use my right hand and lift my right wrist and am in very great pain with it. This is because I had to wait 12 and a half days before my arm was operated upon, and during that long, intensely painful time the hand and lower arm became extremely swollen because of the splint I had to wear, and the radial nerve was damaged. I now have to have carers come to help me get washed and dressed and undressed...)o:

There's been wonderful progress in healthcare since the 1840s? - Not in my opinion... - Not in the NHS, at any rate...)o:

Patient welfare has a low priority in the NHS...)o:

Lose weight and improve your health in many ways without drugs or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

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About my stay in Sheffield's Northern General Hospital (1)

I returned home last Friday after 4 weeks and a day as an in-patient in the NGH.

It is difficult and tiring for me to type this because I am having to use my left hand to do it, and I am right--handed.

I had a fall at home very early in the morning of August 30th (middle of the night, really) and broke my right arm and rang 999 and an ambulance came very quickly and took me to the A and E dept. - The 2 ambulance men - George and Steve - were excellent.

The fracture - in the upper arm near to the elbow - was not straightforward, so could not simply be set. I was told that I would need an operation, and so a backslab - a sort of splint - was put on my arm, along with a sling/collar and cuff, and I was given a bed, awaiting my op.

I'll try to write some more about this tomorrow.