"I should have spoke to someone with medical training"

In February my husband had to call 111 for me twice, due to me feeling very ill and having a high temperature. The advice we were given was to just take off my clothes and put a fan on. I had a temperature between 38 and 39 degrees.

Because I am a nurse I knew something was not right and eventually insisted they sent an ambulance.

I was sent by ambulance to Mayday Hospital. I was not impressed with my care at Mayday and felt I had to direct my own treatment.

I was finally transferred to Kings Collage where I was diagnosed with Endocarditis and had open heart surgery for inflammation of the heart. I remained at Kings Collage for 3 and half weeks. In total I was I was hospitalised for 54 days.

I did not have a good experience of the 111 service; I felt this was due to the person on the phone not being medically trained. I think it would have been better to speak to a retired nurse, for example. Because of my training I knew something more serious was wrong with me but the person on the phone was unable to recognise this.