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Susan Melo |
Nurse threatens to sue own hospital after op that ‘almost claimed my life’
A NURSE is threatening to sue the hospital where she works after she almost died following a routine operation.
Susan Melo, who has worked in the trauma and emergency theatre at Whittington Hospital in Highgate for three years, has criticised the hospital over her treatment earlier this month.
She believes the only reason she is still alive is because of her own medical knowledge.
The 47-year-old mother-of-five, who lives on the Peckwater estate in Kentish Town, developed life-threatening blood clots in both lungs hours after being discharged following a hysterectomy, the relatively common procedure to remove the womb.
Hospital chiefs said on Tuesday they had launched an investigation after Mrs Melo’s husband, Jean Pierre, made a formal complaint on her behalf. The nurse, who was discharged from the hospital last week, said: “It makes me ashamed I belong to this kind of organisation. If I hadn’t been a nurse I would have died. I wouldn’t have been able to challenge them.”
Mrs Melo, who has high blood pressure, claims the hospital:
• prescribed a painkiller that can be dangerous for patients such as her with a family medical history of DVT (deep vein thrombosis);
• repeatedly ignored her pleas for help;
• failed to check – and then lost – her medical notes;
• discharged her before she was well enough to leave; and
• prevented her family from being with her and left her unattended when she was near death.
Mrs Melo said that she had since been visited and contacted by several senior members of staff, apologising for what had happened to her and asking her not to complain about her treatment.
“I was told it was one of the potential risks of surgery, that I should take it as a warning to look after my health and that I’m lucky and should be happy,” she said. “They’re trying to convince me to deal with it internally, but internally they will just cover their own tracks and other people will suffer.”
Mrs Melo’s older sister died of an embolism – or blood clot – three years ago.
Although medical staff were allegedly informed of Mrs Melo’s family history of pulmonary embolisms, she was given a numbing epidural painkiller after her operation. It stopped her moving her limbs for three days, during which she believes the blood clots developed.
She claims a drip was placed in her back, causing great pain until it was replaced with a morphine pump the next morning.
And the nurse says she was discharged without receiving her prescription of Fragmin, an important blood-thinning drug which prevents clots. Her home medication was also not ready, so she was sent home with nothing, she claims.
“I started feeling very giddy when I got home so I lay down on the bed,” she said. “My body was shaking. Around 10pm I couldn’t breathe but they had driven me out of the hospital so I did not want to go back.”
She later collapsed in the bathroom unconscious and her last memory is of being held by her daughter, struggling to breathe. Mrs Melo was taken by paramedics to Whittington Hospital, where doctors found two large clots had moved from her right leg to her lungs – a condition that fewer than 2 per cent of patients reportedly survive.
Her husband, Jean Pierre, said: “My main concern is that she could have died. I could have lost my wife just like that. The hospital must care for patients properly.”
A hospital spokeswoman said: “We are sorry that Susan Melo felt she had poor treatment at the Whittington, the hospital where she works as a nurse.
“Mrs Melo was discharged from hospital late last week and has submitted a formal complaint about her treatment. In the meantime when she was in hospital and senior staff became aware of her concerns they visited her on several occasions and a formal investigation has begun.
“We will include Susan in this investigation and let her have the conclusion when it is complete. We wish her a speedy recovery.” |
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