"I felt like I wasn't shown one bit of encouragement "

I was taken ill very recently; I was taken to A&E at the Royal Bolton Hospital where I was taken care of due to having really bad headaches and vomiting. I really felt like I was in a very bad state. I was taken for an MRI scan, after a while I was taken to a ward and as I reached the ward the porter helped me to get into my bed. I then asked the nurse to help me to go to the WC and they did. When I came back I realised that the bed had a big urine mark on it and the nurse said that it would be changed. I waited but the nurse never came back, so being in such a bad way I just got into the bed and tried to settle down. But no nurse came to make the bed.

Sometime during the late evening, I belled for a nurse to let them know I was in really bad pain. I was then told that the doctor was on his rounds and that when my turn came, he would come and see me. The doctor came and asked questions and I answered them the best I could. I was then told that they were going to do some investigations to see what was going on.

This doctor then left and a nurse gave me a dose of Morphine, it was more or less shot threw. I know I did not sleep well at all because I could hear a lot of the older generation calling for the nurses.

The next morning I felt like some of the nurses were very loud while doing their rounds. I heard some of them talk mostly about themselves and I felt that some were not paying attention to the patients.

As I lay there in pain, I was not able to eat or drink. So some nurses came but I felt like they did not show me one bit of encouragement like a nice smile or a kind word. So I did not eat because I was ill. I found the worst thing about it was that I was having a lot of problems with the light but the dividers around the bed were closed and there was no one to help me. I had 1 jug of water that I was given on the Sunday and I still had it on the Tuesday.

I saw a doctor each day that would come and say to me they were going to do this and do that, and the other, but in the end nothing was done. I felt that some of the nurses looked at me as if I was some kind of a big pain, but I was ill, and for me, very ill.

On one night, I saw 2 older women that were in my bay crying. The first told me because she was in so much pain as she was left in a sitting position for hours, and the lady next to me said she had had nothing to eat all day as she was to go for the camera in the stomach. I heard her asking some nurses what was going on, but they couldn’t answer. She then told me in the late evening that she was told the machine had broken down and that the procedure wouldn’t be taking place. As I heard her ask for something to eat, all of a sudden the machine was working again, she got taken down, and came back up. I rang the bell for her as she couldn’t reach to ask for something to eat but no one came. She was crying by this point and when her stats went low, the nurse and doctor came over.

I was in so much pain but from my experience I started asking myself what I was doing in this hospital. I felt as if anything should happen to me then no-one would know and this made me feel really frightened.

I was then moved all of a sudden to another ward where a doctor started asking me questions concerning swine flu and some other kind off illness. I was feeling so upset that the doctor said I could go home. I rang my parents straight away to pick me up. I think the whole time in hospital nothing was done to investigate what had happened to me. When my parents came, I rang for the nurse whilst I was still in my bed wear and dressing gown and I left straight away.

Having come out of hospital I still only 50% better, but I go to a good college and they have helped me out. I went to see my local GP and told him that I was dehydrated, and as every woman knows when she gets a bladder infection, it’s a very painful one. I am now still trying to build myself up since leaving hospital.