My doctor sent me to hospital because of continues AF, the nurse at hospital asked me to sit on a trolley to give me a ECG.
When on the trolley I noticed my right hand had quite a bit of blood on it ( which didn't belong to me) I was then told by the nurse to get off the trolley right away and wash my hands.
At the Time I new it was not right, but because of what was going on in my chest I never complained not reilising the severity of the situation.
3 days later I was reading the daily mail, it had a store about a chap who had a similar problem in a haspital in Yorkshire and is now having to get test for HIV and others. I then complained, approx six week have now past ,I have had 2 replys after twice prompting the for answers. When looking back I feel they should have been some kind of risk assessment in place or at least examined my hand for cuts which never happened.
Just wondering has any friends had a similar problems
Written by
Hazbil65
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How long ago did this happen? You should contact PALS or the Quality Control team...its not too late!
I used to work for the NHS until I retired 18 months ago. I had an episode and ended up in A&E because my arm went numb and I lost the use of my hand temporarily. To cut a long story short, they sent me home again, saying it was probably an RSI...in fact it was a blood clot.....and I complained and actually got the trust to pay for the private appointment I had to have to get a proper diagnosis........the outcome could have been so much worse, if the blood clot had not gone down my arm!
You were put at risk...and should really complain!!!
Yes you should pursue this, but you should not be worrying about risks to your health. Even if you had a cut, your chances of picking up any infection (especially as you washed your hands) are extremely unlikely.
As a young nurse I managed to get a used needle injury from one I had used to give an injection to someone with a rip roaring bacterial endocarditis ( so yes it scared me as I remember it from 55 years ago, can even see which bed it was on the ward!) But no problem after washing hands.
First, if I was worried as well as angry, I would get myself tested. However the risk of picking anything up must be very small, if the skin was intact.
Second, if you haven’t already, put your complaint in writing to make sure there is a paper/email trail. Ask for details of the complaints procedure.
It’s possible (probable?} that this was logged as an “incident” by the A&E staff at the time. If so the nurse manager would have had to follow it up I imagine.
My personal experience, as a former serial complainer, is that when dealing with a large organisation, the whole process is likely ultimately to be deeply frustrating and bad for my blood pressure (-:
Personally I would either complain at the time or if there's been any length of time, just leave it. These things are better dealt with immediately. There's enough pressure on staff without going through historic incidents. The chances of you picking up anything assuming you do not have a bleeding cut are far smaller than breathing in an infection.
I did report it within 6 day after reading tha artical in the news paper.l have now had a reply (yesterday,) informing me I will get a written statment within the next 7days
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My Story - skip to bottom for AF question
One year on
I did have AF despite no one believing me
