"Visit to A&E"

In June 2012 my mum was admitted to the A&E at Derriford Hospital Plymouth with breathing problems.

From the moment we arrived, mum received excellent attention and treatment. Now getting blood from mum is always a big problem, she is 82 years old and in the past the veins kept collapsing and what blood did come out was not a large amount, add this to the fact that mum cries out in pain everytime they touch her you can imagine the scene that I was expecting to face.

Well the crying out when the nurse tried to get blood was still there, as was the small amount of blood (we think she does not want to part with it), no change there. Enter Dr Dave Potter who explained from the start exactly what he was going to do, he gave her an injection to stop her feeling anything, thus they were able to get a line in without further stress to mum.

From then on she was at ease as was my brother and myself. We were given a cup of tea and looked after until being transfered to the MAU ward at 00-30am, and we could not fault the kindness there from the two members of staff.

Mum was returned to her care home the next day, a chest infection was the cause of the problem for which she is on antibiotics and an inhaler.

Once again, thank you very much to all concerned in A&E Derriford Hospital.