"My aunt and a leg ulcer"

Aunt is 85 years old and never had a day in hospital before. Has all her faculties, and lived independently with her 80 year old sister prior to hospital admission with pnuemonia.

After discharge fell at home, and about a week later was discovered to have what was described as "a wound" on her leg at the heel. The "wound" was later called an ulcer - but spread into the heel and became a gaping hole...

Aunt was taken into hospital (The Heath, Cardiff). For 7 months she was mostly confined to bed/chair whilst medics tried to decide what was best course of action - including amputation as ulcer continued to eat into foot. During her stay she contracetd several "viruses" which physically wipped her out.

Her ulcer has healed (!) and she has been discharged but cannot walk due to such a long period of no mobility and has no strength in muscles etc. She was independent - she now has 4 x care visits per day. If action/decisions had been made within 6 weeks of admittance - it could have been a very different recovery position now.

As she says - being in hospital has made me an invalid -and put such a strain on her sister attempting to supplement care that she has now gone into hospital.