"Treatment after an operation"

My wife entered ST Heliers renal ward on the 3rd March having been treated for a severe blood infection (Sepsis) in the ICU at ST Peters Hospital that lead to major problems with her kidneys.

Since then she had been on various peritoneal dialysis treatment varying from nothing to full over night treatment.

On speaking to the consultant they indicated that at present this treatment was to reduce water retention and quite severe swelling on her legs which could impact on her heart.

I have no complaint about the renal treatment.

However as the swelling due to the kidney problems receded it was apparent that she had an inflamed swelling on her lower leg.

We pointed this out three weeks ago and after checking that it was not due to DVT they ignored it.

By last week the swelling was much worse and she was finally sent for another scan which showed it was quite a bad abscess which they considered needed immediate surgery.

After some delays this took place on Saturday 1st April.

We were told after the operation that due to the nature of the infection and the depth of the wound it was critical that this was re-dressed daily, especially as an analysis showed the cause of the abscess was E-coli.

Since then no-one has come to see her about the operation, let alone redress the wound,

Eventually on the 6th we demanded that the Renal nurse do something about this as the bandage had slipped to almost expose the wound and there was blood showing through it.

My wife had been due to come home over the Easter weekend and we had made arrangements for the wound to be dressed daily in the local practice as was required by the surgeons,

At this point, several days days later, she has still not been seen by the Tissue nurse ( we have been told there is a shortage!).

We have also now been told that the particular strain of e-coli can only be treated by intravenous antibiotics so she will now have to stay in hospital for several more days.

Given that all my wife's problems started with an infection the lack of urgency that has been shown over the last few weeks compounded by the current issues with the redressing of the wound has appalled me.

Professor Steve T