"The process of fixing my daughters badly broken arm"

My daughter badly broke her arm while playing at the park. Her arm was obviously broken so I took her straight to A&E at Ninewells.

The ward assistant on the front desk quickly took our details, asked us to wait in the children’s waiting room while he immediately spoke to a nurse. We were very quickly taken through to a cubicle and the process of fixing my daughters arm began. A&E was very busy, it was obvious the staff had a lot of patients to deal with but each doctor, nurse, student and radiographer who looked after my daughter gave her (and me) their full attention.

The staff made a fuss of my daughter who was understandably very shaken, they even have her a wee toy to cheer her up. We were told quite early on that her break would likely need repaired surgically and to wait to see an orthopaedic doctor.

As the evening went on it became clear that the orthopaedic doctors were too busy to see my daughter so she was admitted to ward 29. The nurse, Linda, who looked after us overnight was wonderful. She settled us into the ward and spent lots of time making sure we were all ok and knew what was happening.

My daughter had never been keen on taking medication and found it quite distressing so Linda spent time helping her to take the painkillers she needed to control the pain. The orthopaedic doctor who came to see us on the ward was also very patient and took time to answer all our questions about the operation the next day.  

My daughter was first in the theatre list the following day, our lovely overnight nurse got her all ready and introduced us to the play therapist Wynnie. Wynnie was absolutely amazing, worth her weight in gold. What a wonderful role to have to support families through medical procedures. I though Wynnie was just there to help my daughter understand what was happening and to make the process a gentle one for her but as we went along to theatre I realised she was there to support me too.

Wynnie prepared me for what would happen as my daughter was put to sleep which helped to make it all less of a shock for me when the anaesthetic kicked in. The operation was much much longer than anyone had expected, unfortunately the nurse (who’s name I’ll not put in print) was less attentive that Linda.

I had been under the impression that the operation was an hour long, as the time approached two hours I went to ask the nurse if everything was ok. They dismissed my concerns stating they had no idea. No explanation or comfort given. The ward was very busy so I accepted this is just being overworked. When the op was finished, approaching 3 hours since I left my daughter in the anaesthetic room, the nurse took me along to meet my daughter.

The nurse in recovery warned me that my daughter would be very groggy due to the pain killers she had been given. We walked back along to the ward. The nurse put my daughters notes under a pillow at the foot of her bed. It took a while for my daughter to wake up once we were on the ward, probably around 15-20 minutes, when she did she was obviously in a lot of pain. Her nurse was no where to be seen so I went to look for someone to see if my daughter could have some pain killers.

I spoke to a physiotherapist who said they would find her notes and then a nurse. It was then I remembered that her notes were on the foot of her bed. Her nurse had not checked the notes when they returned to the ward. The nurse eventually came to her bed around 15-20 minutes with more pain relief, the whole time my daughter had been distressed and in pain. Again, my daughter was worried about taking the medication- the nurse simply told her to stop being silly and stuck the syringe in her mouth. We asked if my daughter could have lunch, the sandwich was never brought to her.

We didn’t have the opportunity to talk to the surgeon again to find out what happened in the operation so as we were being is discharged a few hours later I asked the nurse. They replied saying they didn’t know, as they had the notes in their hand I asked if there was something in the notes. They showed me the name of the pins that had been used to fix my daughters arm and said I could google them. 

We were back on two more occasions later for X-rays, new casts and to see the surgeon. The staff in the plaster room were great with my daughter, very attentive and made sure she was comfortable before removing her cast. They even made my daughters new cast glittery after she said she loved glitter. The doctor we saw in A&E was in the plaster room once and came to talk to us, again making a fuss of my daughter.

My daughter has recently had the pins removed from her arm in ward 30, the whole process was flawless from start to finish. The staff were so friendly and our student nurse in particular was brilliant, she stood in for the play therapist in the anaesthetic room and always made sure my daughter was ok and knew what was happening throughout the whole process