The son compared the emergency room to a “wartime field hospital” after his elderly mother, hospitalized with suspected sepsis, spent the night waiting for medical help among bedridden and vomiting patients.
Dave Wynn, 57, took his mother to the hospital on Tuesday, December 27, after he was told an ambulance would arrive in 14 hours.
Around 5:00 p.m., he said he arrived at the emergency room of the Countess of Chester’s hospital and saw a “scene from hell” with a waiting room filled with people, including some critically ill patients.
“I can’t believe this is our National Health Service – it’s completely falling apart,” Wynn said. Ias he gasped while recounting a “traumatic” experience.
“I found it absolutely shocking. I don’t understand why parliament is not recalled,” he added.
This comes after the chief executive of the NHS Confederation announced that emergency pressure on the NHS is expected to continue for the next three months, with more critical incidents and disruption to patient care expected.
I reported that at least 10 NHS trusts are currently experiencing critical incidents, meaning they have to cut back on regular services to meet demand. At least three other trusts have withdrawn warnings in recent days.
Mr Wynn experienced the crisis personally when he brought his mother to the emergency room with suspected sepsis just after Christmas.
He had to put his mother, who is in her 90s, into a wheelchair to get her to the hospital, which was much faster than waiting for an ambulance.
They arrived at 5:00 pm on Tuesday 27 December and waited four hours for his mother to be tried. She was eventually taken to the emergency room at midnight, but she did not see a doctor until 7:30 am.
The expectation made Mr. Wynn fear for his mother’s life.
Describing her experience in the first waiting room upon arrival at the hospital, he said, “I didn’t feel like there were very many people there that shouldn’t have been there.
“There was a man with severe abdominal pain and anxiety. He entered the room with his family and just collapsed into chairs. He moaned for about 20 minutes. According to.
“They couldn’t sort people fast enough when they arrived. There were many older couples. There was vomit on the floor.”
He continued, “All the seats were taken. Then people appeared on the floor. I think there were about 50 or 60 people there.
“There were people with breathing problems, there were people with stomach pains. Some very bad looking people came in, ambulances lined up outside, and a lot of them came alone.”
One night, Mr. Wynn was waiting with his mother as she “wept in pain” from being confined to a wheelchair for so long.
He said there were up to eight people on carts in the corridor outside the emergency room exit, and he heard a nurse say that eight people were waiting outside in ambulances for cardiac arrest patients.
The transition from the waiting room to the main emergency room is “one of the most shocking things I’ve ever seen in my life,” he said. I.
He said: “The toilet was completely clogged. I had to push my mom in a wheelchair to help her get to the toilet.
“I heard the nurses say, ‘Let healthy people join those who can’t lift their glasses to bring water.’
“A woman came in, she had serious problems with her throat and breathing, and anxiety was heard in every voice. In fact, it crashed right there at the nursing station, so they have all the tubes for intubation right next to the nursing station.
After doctors made sure that Mr. Wynn’s mother did not have sepsis, she was given intravenous antibiotics for a serious respiratory infection and was eventually discharged.
A spokesman for the Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust said: “Like many NHS hospitals, our Emergency Department (A&E) is very busy with a large number of people present daily, meaning that some people have to wait a long time. Our clinical teams work very hard to see and treat patients as quickly as possible based on their clinical needs and the urgency of their condition.
“Despite the fact that we are very busy, we are still here to take care of everyone who needs us. Our emergency team wants to see everyone who needs help after an accident or emergency, but please only go to the emergency room if absolutely necessary.”
Source: I News
I’m Raymond Molina, a professional writer and journalist with over 5 years of experience in the media industry. I currently work for 24 News Reporters, where I write for the health section of their news website. In my role, I am responsible for researching and writing stories on current health trends and issues. My articles are often seen as thought-provoking pieces that provide valuable insight into the state of society’s wellbeing.