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So happy to get out of hospital alive
• COLIN Ludlow’s experiences very much echo my own, when I spent time in the Royal Free in 2006 (‘I went into hospital for 10 days, but stayed for five months, contracted MRSA and nearly died’, January 31).
First, what turned out to be a large but thankfully benign brain tumour was entirely missed initially when I spent half a day being assessed at the neurological department.
When this was finally diagnosed it was only after I was forced to pay for a private MRI scan, my family being told that the waiting list was up to three months.
This undoubtedly saved my life as even benign brain tumours can kill and mine was very big by the time it was diagnosed.
But what happens to the people who can’t afford it?
I was admitted and had a major and, touch wood, entirely successful operation to remove the tumour.
The surgeon obviously did a magnificent job, but some of the post-operative care was terrifying.
The majority of the nurses in a very busy neurological ward were rude, uncaring and there is one moment which haunts me still.
The woman in the next-door bed, very very ill, rang her bell endlessly to be escorted to the toilet, didn’t make it in time with the obvious consequences – she had been trying to get help for 20 minutes.
When the nurses finally came, they just shouted at her for making a mess which they would have to clear up.
This was just one of a number of appalling things that happened. For example, on my last night there, most of my bed (that is, the top and bottom section) was removed because they were short of beds in casualty, and yet the next morning I was accused of lying about having a fully constructed bed!
Like Mr Ludlow, I tried writing about it as therapy, but found it too painful to get any further than chapter one.
I was just happy to have got out of there alive but some of the moments were, quite honestly, like being in prison.
There are a lot of committed and caring people in the NHS who I have encountered before and since my time in the Royal Free, but on the whole the nursing and the attitude towards patients were shocking.
The hospital tried to discharge me 10 days after surgery, partly to avoid MRSA, but I had had an epileptic fit after surgery (again quite normal) and my family were not happy to take me home without having some advice on what to do if this happened again.
I also was far from well, and ended up twice in casualty when I collapsed at home during the first two weeks.
The doctors in casualty (excellent) told me I had been discharged far too early and that normally I would have been in for a couple of weeks.
Despite my need for regular blood tests, my GP practice initially refused to do this at home, despite the fact that I could not walk very far.
Cherry Cookson
Address supplied
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