So just a little story of outstanding service and utter professionalism.
Whilst this story is centered on myself, I am in no way the
hero, the heroes are the women and men of our fine NHS, a uniquely British
Service of which we should be immensely proud.
On Boxing Day, I became I'll and began vomiting blood, a
little initially, so it was ignored and put down to Christmas excess,
However
over the next day and 1/2 I became steadily worse until around 6 am on Sunday
Morning,
After covering my partner Maureen from head to toe in Blood and struggling
for consciousness, it was time to call an Ambulance.
Maureen dialed 999 and was still on the phone to the
control center giving my details when the Fast Response Paramedic arrived
within I would guess less than a minute.
After his initial disbelief at the amount of blood in the
Bedroom and bathroom, he quickly performed his initial assessment and called
for backup in the form of a fully equipped Ambulance with a Fully Trained
Paramedic, this arrived with 5 minutes.
After initially fighting to keep me conscious they loaded me
into the Ambulance and had me on a Crash Trolley in "Resus" at the hospital within 10
minutes.
The Doctor assigned to me whilst young (early 20's) looked
initially shocked and extremely nervous, did a fantastic job, she managed to stabilize
me and managed to get enough blood into me for me to remain conscious (I seem
to remember her squeezing the bags to try to get the blood in faster).
I was put into a cubicle to allow some more blood to be
administered and for general observation.
After 3 hours of observation, I was deemed stable enough to
be handed over to the High Dependency Unit, this is similar to Intensive Care,
but is for patients who are not in a coma.
Care in the HDU basically comprises of each patient being
allocated two nurses, one for Day Time and one for Night time on a straight 12
Hour Split, proper one to one care.
(Remember this is the NHS, this is FREE).
I spent three days in the HDU with two IV Cannulas in each
arm, being pumped full of blood (I counted 11 Units) and drugs on a drip. I was given at least three
other Drugs by IV at least hourly to start with but even towards the end it was
only down to every 4 hours, all the while hooked up to an ECG 24 Hours a day.
During My Time in the HDU, I had to go for an Ultrasound
Scan, no mean feat when you are under the care of HDU, you have to be
transported on a “Crash Trolley” with all of your Drips, ECG Machine, own
Oxygen Supply, defribulator and various other bits and pieces, your assigned Nurse
must accompany you at all times outside of the HDU.
After the scan it was established that I had a two burst
veins in my Stomach (2014 has been a bit of a stressful year, the last 3 months especially).
This would again require all of the equipment listed above
as well as my Nurse to accompany me to the Endoscopy Suite.
(Anyone keeping tally on how much all this one to one care, Equipment
and drugs would cost in the Private Sector, I can’t begin to Imagine).
I had the Burst Veins Sealed with the Endoscopy Procedure
and was dispatched back to the HDU.
After receiving 3 Days of One to One Care in HDU, I was transferred
to a General Ward.
Again my Care was to be administered 24/7 just not quite with
the same intimacy, it was now down to the Sisters and Staff Nurses of the
General Ward to administer Care.
I was now also allowed to eat, the Auxiliaries did a
fantastic job of feeding me up trying to get me back on my feet, and all four times
a day, Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner and Supper. I must point out at this stage that
the quality of the Hospital Food was excellent. Obviously not gourmet just good
old fashioned stick to your ribs build you up food, casseroles, sticky toffee
pudding and custard, Roast beef , Fresh Veg and Roast etc etc.
So after a further three days of round the clock care and
feeding up, I was sent for a CT scan to establish that the Bleeds had indeed
been stopped.
Once the results came back, I was discharged on Friday
Afternoon, from near death to almost fully fit in less than a week.
I for one will never hear a bad word against the NHS,
especially from Muppets like Jason Manford who not only publicly whinges about
having to wait over two hours for his wife’s appointment, but feels he is so
important that he feels he must remonstrate with the Prime Minister.
Well Jason, next time you are waiting, remember the NHS is
Free and if you are having to wait it is probably because some inconsiderate
person such as I, required the resources a little more urgently than your
wife, if you are too important to wait in line, go pay privately.
To Sum up I cannot fault any part of my six days under the care of the NHS, The service was Prompt, professional and efficient, I was kept fully informed about my condition, which drugs were being administered and why.
From initial contact to discharge, I would give the whole experience a resounding 10/10 and let me tell you not many people get 10/10 off me in the work place.
