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My husband's cancer care

Posted By Mabameja4

"My husband's cancer care"

About: Forest Holme Marie Curie Nursing Service - Care at Home Poole Hospital / Palliative medicine South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust

(as a service user),

My husband was misdiagnosed by our local surgery (telephone diagnosis only - sciatica) and when he stopped walking two months later due to agonising pain we called an ambulance who took him to hospital.  The next day after scans he was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer, his pelvis with many small fractures.  

I cannot fault his hospital care, he was there for two months receiving radiotherapy and encourged to try to walk with a zimmer.  The only drawback being he could not be visited by our children.  He was eventually sent home and we had help from Marie Curie nurses for just over a month and he seemed to thrive.  However he rapidly deteriorated, not walking as much, losing strength, having trouble eating and losing his voice.  When he could no longer take his pills and kept trying to stand up we could not contact Pallitive care, being a sunday, nor the district nurse, we called out an ambulance the paramedics were amazing, feeding, rehydrating and getting his pain relief into him and when the district nurse finally turned up she obtained a place at Forest Holme where he died a day later.
I feel totally let down by the lack of care from my local surgery.  He was even told by the physio to ride his bike for half an hour a day before we were subsequently told about his fractures, this must have made them far worse.  I know his death from metastatic cancer was inevitable but he was in a great deal of pain for two months before being admitted to hospital.  I have only praise for Poole Hospital and Forest Holme.  
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Responses

Response from Saskie Dorman, Consultant in Palliative Medicine, Forest Holme Hospice, University Hospitals Dorset NHS Foundation Trust nearly 2 years ago
Saskie Dorman
Consultant in Palliative Medicine, Forest Holme Hospice,
University Hospitals Dorset NHS Foundation Trust

Doctor

Submitted on 02/09/2022 at 12:40
Published on Care Opinion at 13:34

picture of Saskie Dorman

Dear Mabameja4,

Thanks very much for writing. I’ve shared your comments with the team at Forest Holme Hospice – we all appreciate your kind words. What you’ve written has also been shared with colleagues at Marie Curie, and paramedic colleagues at South West Ambulances NHS Foundation Trust. It’s wonderful to hear how they were able to help when your husband was so ill on the Sunday.

You mention that you didn’t feel able to contact us directly on the Sunday. We have a phone line available 24/7, and a team of palliative care nurses available in the community and hospital every day, including cover at weekends. I’m sorry this wasn’t clear - your feedback is helpful to us to make sure this is easily accessible.

I’m sorry your husband experienced so much pain in the last two months before he died, and that you feel let down by your local surgery. I appreciate you may not want to share the details publically online, but if you would like us to raise the issues with your local surgery or the team in your local primary care network, we would be happy to do so. We can be contacted at forest.holme@uhd.nhs.uk or 0300 019 8115 if you would like us to do this. We will in any case discuss with the Dorset Palliative Care Steering Group at our meeting next week.

Thank you again for taking the time to write.

With best wishes,

Saskie

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Response from Deanne Hill, South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust 16 months ago
Deanne Hill
South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust

Submitted on 19/12/2022 at 14:55
Published on Care Opinion at 14:55

Good afternoon Mabameja4

Firstly, we would like to start by saying we apologise for the delay in responding to you and how very sorry we are to hear of the passing of your husband. I'm sure this has been an extremely difficult time for you and we are thankful that we were able to provide some support and comfort to you both during this time. Secondly, we'd like to thank you for taking the time to provide this piece of feedback on the service you both received, it is much appreciated and helps us to continue to provide our patients with the very best service.

For confidentiality, your patient information is redacted on this platform and so we cannot find the details of your incident. If you would like us to pass your message onto the Ambulance crew who attended, and you would be willing to share some additional information, please could you email plaudits@swast.nhs.uk with your name, date the ambulance arrived, address and thank you message. We will then ensure this is passed onto to the relevant crew.

Thank you again for taking the time to feedback and once again, we are so very sorry for your loss.

Kindest regards,

Sami and Dee

Patient Engagement Team

SWAST

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