"No care, no support and left feeling..."

What I liked

Leaving.

What could be improved

Everything.

Anything else?

I had been having stomach problems so I attended A&E at Darenth Valley 5 times in the space of a few months. I was given a different diagnosis everytime, 1 time it was a mass in my stomach which was a build up of waste so I needed to take lactose for 3 months, another time they said it was gas which was obviously very embarrassing as I would not attend A&E with simple gas pain. Finally I was seen by a student Dr who actually took the time to sit down & talk to me and from doing that he discovered I had gallstones. The surgery to remove my gallbladder was booked for the 29th April. On the 14th I was contacted to say that my surgeon was on holiday that day so I would now need the surgery on the 16th April, in only 2 days time. This was problematic for me because of my work and fears regarding the surgery but I agreed as I did not want the pain to continue. I had to be at the hospital for 7.15am & I was told I was last on the list as I had been added at the last minute which wasn’t my fault. I didn’t go into surgery till almost 3. I was kept in a room & had no communication with any of the staff to let us know what was happening. After surgery I was in a lot of pain but the nurse would only give me paracetamol which wasn’t very helpful as I was vomiting a lot. My partner noticed that I was bleeding very heavily through my bed covers so ran to get a nurse who just put new bandages on top of the already soaked ones. After this, blood started to leak through the dressing a further 3 times I was very scared so a nurse told me that she had called for a surgeon to come, this was about 6 but no surgeon turned up till 10pm by which time I was very weak. He told one of the nurses to apply pressure while he went to get a 2nd Dr the nurse ignored this advice & just put a new bandage on. The 2nd Dr didnt turn up till 11.30pm. All in all my care was disgusting I was left to bleed for hours which led to me developing anemia. I also discharged myself as I could not stand to be there