"Broken Hip"

Day one: My Grandma fell from her bed early hours in the morning as she lost her balance. Ambulance was called and she was taken to hospital ( Manchester Royal Infirmary) they suggested she had broken her hip. But X-ray was needed to confirm.

Waited in a/e department for a while so she could be transferred to the surgical ward up stairs, there were no beds available straight away. She was to undergo an operation the next day to join her Hip together.

Day two: operation was successful, came back to the ward. She was very angry but I just think that was the anesthetic.

Since the hip operation went well we thought it just will be a matter of time she will be home.

Couple of days have passed by Gran is complaining of pain and she is constipated. Nurses reckon it may be the effect of all the pain killers she is having. Just believed what the nurses were saying.

Day 4: She is really confused and is hallucinating. I spoke to the nurses on the ward asking why she was very confused and hallucinating, the response from them was ' is she always like this? '. This was very upsetting as my gran is a very strong woman with a very good memory and an active lady. It feels as if I had not mentioned anything it would have not been looked at. But they eventually said she could be sensitive to the morphine tablets and they would look to reduce it. At this point my gran is still complaining she is constipated and really uncomfortable. We as a family told the nurses on a numerous occasions about my gran being constipated but no one took it seriously.

It was hard, as we could not be around gran at all times due to visiting hours but just felt she was being ignored. It came to a point through the second week of being in hospital my gran had gone in a mini coma as her sugar levels were down to zero. As soon as the nurses did realise she was given glucose. My gran was becoming weaker rather than better at this point now.

At this point they decided to do an X-ray to find out what was going as well as a ct scan to find out why my gran was confused but unfortunately they are not clear and there was not another attempt to re do the scans. Also when the X-ray was done it was found that my gran was losing blood and she had a bowel rupture as well as internal bleeding from somewhere. She was given blood.

Day ten: I stayed with my gran for most of the afternoon with permission from the nurses and requested to see a doctor regarded her situation. Doctor arrived and I questioned them about my grans internal bleeding and what had caused all this. They suggested she may have an ulcer in her stomach due to all the medicines she is been taking and they would treat her with a medication which would create a lining in the stomach to help the internal bleeding, which they thought would correct it self and she was not serious at all. Due to being a bank holiday weekend they would not do an endoscopy to find out where the internal bleeding is coming from until day fourteen in hospital. The endoscopy would help to stop the internal bleeding. They also said they will try an enima to help open her bowls at some point. It's only taken over a week to do something about it. I feel that this should have been addressed a lot earlier. Especially now that gran has a bowel rupture too.

Day eleven: The next day gran is beginning to vomit everything out of her stomach, still no enema done yet. They have made her nill by mouth now. She is looking very weak.

It's was by the evening of day eleven they did the enema, which helped slightly with opening her bowels.

Early hours of morning on day thirteen we get a phone call from the hospital that my gran is very critical. We all rushed to the hospital. The docs had said she had not got long to live as all her intestines have swollen up and her internal bleeding is very bad. They did not want to operate on her as she only had a 20% survival risk. She could die on the operation table. All her medication has been stopped, even the antibiotics as they are not working. Why was I told only a few days before by the doctor that her condition was not serious, for the past week or so of being in hospital my gran had symptoms of confusion, hallucination, constipation, internal bleeding etc but she was just ignored. We even had to wait for an endoscopy after the bank holiday weekend. But now it's becoming too late. She only came in for a simple hip surgery.

Day fourteen: another doctor came round to ask my gran if she wanted the operation, 24 hours ago we were told that there is no point in the operation. Why 360 degree turn around now? This doctor said we needed my gran's permission and the nurses were told that my gran could go back on her medication after 24 hours of everything being stopped. I don’t think this was fair. However my gran decided she wanted the operation and it was the right decision by her and as a family to give her the 20% survival chance. Even though I personally think this should have been acted up a lot earlier, instead of guessing what is wrong with her all the way and just assuming my gran was weak. My gran was a fighter and she fighted until the end. However since it was all decided that the operation was going ahead there plan was to first do another enema to relieve her constipation and if that does not help they will do a key hole surgery and if that fails they will operate to find what is going on. If only this was done earlier.

Day Fifteen: at about 10am nurses came to change my gran's bedding and give her a little wash, but after this, my gran went unconscious and stopped talking to us. The nurses left saying they will be back in two hours to change her again and make her feel Comfortable. Two hours went by, 4 hours went by no nurse came to change her, I asked a couple of times if anyone would be coming to see to her, all I got told someone will be there. My gran's still unconscious and taking real deep breaths. It was about 8pm of when I said to the nurses I can understand your busy if it make it any easier I will change my gran. This is when two nurses followed me In and offered me to stay with my gran while they were changing her. I wished I never had agreed to stay, all I seen was her lying in a pool of blood. It was horrible. I did not realise how much she was bleeding. I felt she was bled to death. The nurse did say this maybe disturbing when I seen all this blood. The blood was just pouring out. I felt so helpless for my gran, someone who was so clean and needed a bath everyday had to be lying in this blood. How long had this been going on, I really don't know. Plus it was dark brown which apparently indicated that she was bleeding from the top of her body, according to the nurse. I think this was unfair, my gran was suffering. She did not deserve this. I think she should have been treated a lot better, she deserved a lot more care from the hospital. However the nurse said she would be back to change her again. But no one came to change her instead they came to give her antibiotic so she did not suffer from high temperature and she had fluids to keep her hydrated.

Day Sixteen: In the early hours of the morning I asked the nurse if there was nothing they could to help my gran to come round again. Just one try to give her life back, but the response was no sorry. In terms of how long she will stay unconscious was unknown as a patient can go on like this for days. So all I could do now was hold my gran's hand to let her know all her family is with her. Unfortunately my gran took her last breath later that morning.

I just feel my gran has been neglected, she did not receive the care she should have. I think that if action had been taken earlier, instead of what felt like doctors just guessing what is wrong with her she may have been alive and with us today.