Hospital Notes

It’s been a bit of a weekend.

Rung mum on Saturday afternoon. No answer. Rung again later in the evening. Still no answer. After a third attempt, I got in the car to find out what was up.

Mum was on the floor, having fallen. She was conscious, thank God, but completely unaware of what was going on. From the newspaper on the doormat, it was clear she had been on the floor for some time.

The 999 call got a rapid response guy (‘Dave’) to the house within 5 minutes. An ambulance followed about an hour later; they were all tied up queuing at A&E at Nevill Hall. All of the ambulance people were great, including the operator who did a good job of calming me down. Good work, Welsh Ambulance NHS Trust.

So off to Nevill Hall Hospital. By this time it was around 11pm on Saturday night. Not a great time to go to A&E. Nevertheless, the A&E staff were excellent too, even though they were dealing with a wave of injuries and accidents. X-rays, blood tests, ECGs, the whole nine yards. Mum was put on an IV feed to rehydrate, as we tried to work out what had happened. Eventually (around 6am Sunday morning) when a bed is available in the Emergency Assessment Unit, mum was transferred to a ward.

Hospital staff today confirmed that mum has/had an infection, a common side effect of which is a confused state. But when this started and whether it contributed to the fall isn't clear. It almost certainly contributed to her not being able to get up from her fall. They don't think there was a concussion.

Antibiotics have been pumped in, and today she was lucid, chatty and clear-minded; an enormous step forward from yesterday when Cath and I visited (and which mum has no recollection of). She can't remember anything about the last 3-4 days, and has the vaguest of memories of falling in the kitchen and trying to shuffle into the living room to get up and/or reach the phone.

Today she has been moved from the Emergency Assessment Unit to Ward 4/4. They will continue her on antibiotics for a couple more days, and then start the process of assessing her fitness to go home. Then there will also be a referral to Social Services for them to do an assessment and work out what additional care she needs.

Whilst the hospital has been great in reacting to her admission, I'm more than a little miffed at the lack of action by mum’s GP over the past few weeks. That’s another matter for another day.