"Broken ankle with no caring sympathy"

Age 17,

I broke my ankle on the Monday at my dance school, and i dance 24 hours a week and dance is my entire life almost. I landed on my ankle on Monday night on a landing after a split jump and my dance teachers believed it was just a sprain as i didn't scream or cry i was' just in shock'. The next morning i still could not walk on it or move my foot at all so i went to Winchester hospital. I have been many times to that hospital so i felt comfortable going there. When i arrived at A&E with my dad a kind person from an ambulance came out and put me in a wheelchair and took me inside. The waiting process to be seen was extremely short and well organised which was surprising to me but then again it was early morning and a school day.

The nurse who saw me seemed very kind in our first review and then they sent me to get an x-ray, i asked a different person if I was okay and they replied 'You will have to wait to be told by a consultant'. As soon as I got out of the x-ray room the nurse brought me into the plastering and fracture clinic without telling me anything before hand.

I was put on the plastering bed and a kind person began to wrap up my leg, the nurse then briefly and quickly said 'you have a broken bone in your ankle' I of-course then began to cry and could not stop after being told the news. I was in shock. They looked at me surprised and said to my dad 'surely you knew it was broken' and my dad seeing me crying said 'no, my daughter didn't have a clue. Dance is her life and this is why she is so upset.' The nurse did not have anything to say to me and did not sympathize at all and it was uncomfortable to feel as if they did not care for my mental situation in shock. I got a half cast put on and could hardly hear what the two members of staff were saying for the amount of crying i was doing. My dad was listening while tearing up as he felt sorry for me.

The nurse then left with still not much to say and i felt they did not tell me softly and carefully that my ankle was broken, if they had told me with more care it would most likely be that i would not have been in as much shock and did not cry as much. They also did not explain how to recover, i had to ask the plasterer for all that information. I also did not even see my x-ray which i like to see to be able to visual analyse my broken bone structure.

The process was very fast and well organised but the staff and mainly the nurse in the A&E department should have been more caring towards my emotions. My dad and family agree with this review strongly. I have to return next week for my full casting where I hope will go more successfully.