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these professionals scare me

16 Replies

i was in hospital for a week last week because my c02 levels were off the scale....for those who have this you know how confused and muddled up you can get

during the night a nurse came in to do my obs and saw my sats were low so she reached behind me and ""wacked up my oxygen to give me a blast ""as she said thats what i needed...

i dont expect everyone to know everything but as i was on a respitory ward i assumed she would know what she was doing

i reported this to another nurse who agreed it should never have happened but im so sick of people who are meant to be professionals making these stupid mistakes.....im losing my faith in them all

16 Replies
Toci profile image
Toci

She should work on the same ward as the nurse who told me 84% saturation was "excellent" (on 2 lpm), the respiratory registrar who said that nasal cannulae cause CO2 retention so I should use a mask and the person who checked my spirometry and then disconnected the oxygen from the cylinder to take me back to the section where I would wait to see the consultant, because it was a "nuisance" when negotiating the double doors. It defies belief sometimes.

Is shocking how cart blanch

They are when it comes to our heath treatment .. if it was there's would things be different

frose profile image
frose in reply to

yep and you can also shove in the nurse who maintained I was just panicking when I kept saying I wasn't getting any oxygen from the bipap - it took another nurse to point out to her (nearly an hour later) that the oxygen wasn't connected ... whilst id been doing my best impression of a dying goldfish flapping around out of water!

in reply tofrose

A nurse in a&e forgot to add in oxygen to nebuliser and I was suffocating .... glad I had energy to take mask off ... thought I was a gonner and didn't realise this action would save me. !!!

helingmic profile image
helingmic in reply tofrose

Poor you. They bring in these junior trainees who don't know much. When there aren't many nurses around this is shocking to be left to a junior nurse.

When I was in hospital, and a junior made a mistake, I reported the fact to the doctor who came on his ward round and ask what it should be. Nurses have to listen to what the doctor advises.

PollyP profile image
PollyP

Tales of woe! I know you feel lovelies, and I also know how wise many folk with lung disorders become about treatments and managing their conditions, so become even more wise, read and learn, ask and ask again......become knowledgable, look after yourselves and I wish the best of health to you all.

Offcut profile image
Offcut

One of my GP's put a finger o2 meter on and saw my at rest and said you do not have a problem at all! He did not like my reply of "Well if I just sat in your surgery for the rest of my life I would be fine, it is the other things in life I have a problem with like stairs and walking and 101 other things!"

Be Well

in reply toOffcut

Thats good en that fella :))

a must of took it literally as thats what av been doing

A just laugh myself now beats crying

undine profile image
undine

sorry to hear of your hospital experience - I too have recently been in for nearly 2 weeks this time and got to learn which of the staff I could trust and which I had to check up on - like forgetting to turn the oxygen on again after changing from the nebuliser etc. - unfortunately they are only human - you got to watch them - although god help you if you are too ill to monitor them xx

out-for-lunch profile image
out-for-lunch

I did the transplant assessment walk test up at Queen Elizabeth & was told that I'd managed nearly twice the distance than the previous year & that because I'd improved so much they felt they ought to take me off the transplant list. Fortunately I'd noticed the nurse had not reset the walking wheel distance counter back to zero before my test started so my results included the distance walked by the previous patient.

OK, simple mistake by a junior nurse, but could have been catastrophic had I not noticed it ....

oh blimey

i wonder how many people have been made to suffer because of these mistakes that are made

Talking of mistakes, the following is a letter I have just written to my Consultant - note, I was diagnosed with fibrosing alveolitus in 2001!

Your Ref: DGF/sjb/2108578B, April 2014.

My Ref:Full01 15 Sep 2014

Dear Dr ...........,

On 21st January 2014 I had one of my regular 'clinics' where I told your Registrar that I was feeling much worse. She arranged for a full lung function test which took place on 21st February. For this reason I could not understand why in your letter above you stated my last test was in 2012 where my FVC was outside the NICE range for Pirfenidone.

On the 10th of July 2014 I had another lung function test in preparation for my next clinic, due after 6 months, in July. I finally had this clinic on 1st September after my GP, Dr. .........., rang your secretary on 28th August. At this clinic your registrar was unable to locate my July test results but did find my results from February which he said showed my FVC was 80%, which I believe is just within the NICE range. We discussed a referral to Wythenshawe which I am in favour of and wonder if this can be progressed? He was surprised that I had never had a CT scan, which he arranged and I had this on 6th September, again I would be interested in the result.

Not knowing the results of my July function tests, or the CT Scan, my obvious concern is that the procedure for getting results back into my notes is somehow failing in certain areas. Hopefully I have not passed straight through the NICE range between the February and July tests as within that period I seem to have deteriorated as my oxygen Sats are much worse and I have to be on oxygen 24/7 as my 'on air' at rest is around 78-81% whereas in February I was only using 15 hours daily.

Having, so-to-speak, got the above off my chest (no pun intended, ), I do hope you had a good holiday and hope to see you in the near future.

Yours sincerely,

oh dear dear dear

im starting to think some of these people bought their degrees online....i thought i was having problems with my gp but that is shocking and not ok in any way

I should point out that at the time of my January clinic I was NOT on oxygen and able to do most tasks, slowly! Between then and the Lung function test in February I had a complete collapse and had to be blue lighted to hospital with sats around 70%. So my lung function tests took place after the collapse.....while in hospital awaiting for home oxy to be arranged, not one doctor from the respiratory department came to see me..........

like you i feel let down by a lot of people but my consultant Helen Davies isnt one of them she has been a rock and if it wasnt for her i dont know where i would be but someone needs to be help accountable for whats going on with you and i would get some legal

advice

my sats were 75 when my doctor last looked at them and he ignored it as he thought his pulseometer was broken.

in reply to

I am keeping the legal aspect in mind, it will all depend on the sort of reply/action that I get in response to my letter.

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