"Coronary angioplasty"

When I arrived at the cardiology day ward I was greeted by a nurse who said they would be looking after me. I was shown to a bed and asked to change into a gown and they went through my notes. They then said they were going to insert a cannula into my left arm to take blood and explained it would be used to give me a sedative and pain relief when in the theatre.

They found a vein and proceeded to insert the cannula straight into my arm at 90 deg. to the vein, tried to take blood and when nothing came out said my blood was gloopy as I hadn’t been drinking enough water so I would have to drink a jug of water so they could get some blood. I explained that they wouldn’t get any blood as the needle wasn’t in the vein, they dismissed that and said she would try again in 30 mins after I had drank the water. They went off and I could see them just standing around talking to their colleagues. 20 mins later they came back and said they would try my right arm, I asked if that would be ok as the doctor would be working on that arm. Why would the doctor be working on that arm when he was fitting a pace maker was their reply, so reminded them that I was in for stents. They then decided that they didn’t need and blood so wasn’t going to bother trying again. I asked them if they or another nurse could fit the cannula correctly and was told it was fine.

When I went to theatre I said to the doctor and nurses what had happened and was told it looked fine. A nurse then gave me a sedative which I could feel spreading around my arm and was told that was normal. The doctor started the procedure and halfway through asked how I was feeling, I told them I was experiencing great discomfort, so they asked the nurse to give me some morphine and on doing so observed it going straight into the soft tissue and said the cannula wasn’t in the vein so it wouldn’t help with my discomfort. The doctor then carried on with procedure and when finished commented on how well I had done without sedation or pain relief. When I asked them why they didn’t believe me when I said the cannula wasn’t in the vein they wouldn’t comment.

The following morning when I was being discharged I asked for the nurses name and was told they didn’t know their name as they were only there for two week’s finishing their training.