Good old NHS - friend had a fall and....

Perissa

Perissa

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My friend came off her horse 8 days ago, thanks to 4 loose dogs.

She phoned me to ask if I could go and pick her horse up as she was waiting for an ambulance. She complained of shoulder pain - really bad shoulder pain. After gas and air she was duly carted off (I got there before the ambulance by the way).

They xrayed her arm and said she had badly sprained it and bruised her ribs, and sent her home.

She went to her GP who made an appointment at the hospital. 8 days later they find she has a shattered scapula and broken coller bone which will now require major surgery. They said that if they had xrayed her shoulder she would not now require surgery.

Why didn't they listen to her in the first place, she told them repeated that her shoulder was agony and she could not lift her arm without feeling extreme pain and crunching......
 
You gotta love hte NHS! One of the lads came off and landed on his feet, slipped on the ice and then the wonderfuly caring horse stood on his ankle just to make sure he did some damage! Took him up to the hospital where they looked at it, said he had sprained it put a support bandage on it, patter him on the back and told him to be brave and walk on it. 2 days later he took himself to another hosipital where they x-rayed it and told him he broken his ankle in 3 places and had major ligament damage duie to this.

Well I guess that's what you get for free health care!

I hope your friend gets sorted soon and has no long lasting damage!
 
Good old NHS, underfunded, understaffed and trying to treat people with (sorry to say this) far more serious injuries. There isn't a lot of sympathy going for horse riders either. I'm sorry she's going to have the (free at the point of administration) major surgery but she'll recover well in a clean hospital ward with top class care...

Sometimes, people get things wrong. My sister is now the bionic woman- massive etal plate in her collar bone, put in a year after her injury. She was in pain for nearly an entire year before the op was done. No point complaining- they did it, and did it well.

Sorry, but think the NHS gets very short shrift from people when it does serve 99% of people very well indeed...
 
So sorry to hear about your friend and hope she gets well soon!

The nhs are under strain at the most of the time but that doesn't give an excuse NOT to xray! Who was she seen by????

If its anything to go by I fell over and landed on a step-I heard my hand crack at the time. Was seen by a nurse practioner (my hand was 50x its normal size and BLACK). she said as she prodded and poked it's not broken she says but as its quiet we will send you to xray!

Needless to say she came RUNNING to find me straight after xray as it was broken in 2 places!!!!

I think us horse people are more hardy than the normal and unless we are screaming and wailing over a broken finger nail then we don't get taken seriously at all!
 
I take your point Lolo but by trying to save time and money in the first place it is now going to cost them a lot more.

If they had listened to her in A+E........

The consultant she saw said one xray would have alerted them - he described it as a spectacular break.

Oh and the hospotal she is going to have the op at is top 3 for MRSA infections...
 
Lolo said:
Good old NHS, underfunded, understaffed and trying to treat people with (sorry to say this) far more serious injuries. There isn't a lot of sympathy going for horse riders either. I'm sorry she's going to have the (free at the point of administration) major surgery but she'll recover well in a clean hospital ward with top class care...

Sometimes, people get things wrong. My sister is now the bionic woman- massive etal plate in her collar bone, put in a year after her injury. She was in pain for nearly an entire year before the op was done. No point complaining- they did it, and did it well.

Sorry, but think the NHS gets very short shrift from people when it does serve 99% of people very well indeed...
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To be fair that is a very valid point. If they had the money they could afford the staff which would in turn mean that far fewer injuries were overlooked. It's a bit of a vicious circle as I know most NHS staff do their jobs to the best of their ability but at the endo fhte day they are only human.

We have a lad who is on his way to becoming a metal man! He has aluminium rods in his spine and aluminium plates and screws in a leg and an arm. Due to his previous back injury (broke it twice the silly boy!) He now gets automatic airlift to hospital for any serious injury to do with head, neck, torso, lower back and legs. Arms don't count for him unless it goes with the something else from above.
 
Lolo said:
Good old NHS, underfunded, understaffed and trying to treat people with (sorry to say this) far more serious injuries. There isn't a lot of sympathy going for horse riders either. I'm sorry she's going to have the (free at the point of administration) major surgery but she'll recover well in a clean hospital ward with top class care...

Sometimes, people get things wrong. My sister is now the bionic woman- massive etal plate in her collar bone, put in a year after her injury. She was in pain for nearly an entire year before the op was done. No point complaining- they did it, and did it well.

Sorry, but think the NHS gets very short shrift from people when it does serve 99% of people very well indeed...
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absolutely! blooming well said

We take part in a risk sport, and do this to ourselves. We're pretty low on their list and rightly so. I have nothing but praise for the NHS. In no way could I have afforded all the bits and pieces they have done for me over the years. I think it's especially good of them to keep putting me back together given that every time I hurt myself of my horse it is entirely my own fault. No one makes me ride.

If people don't like it they can always pay for BUPA.
 
Lolo...
So its ok to have other sports injuries, drive stupidly, get into fights, do gardening, decorating etc..
But dont do anything as snobby as own or ride or handle a horse.
Thats ok, I dont and havent needed sympathy, and waited my turn for surgery when I was careless enough to break my arm doing that dreadful thing riding.
Hopefully when I peg out at some point I wont offend the NHS:rolleyes:
Which, despite that small rant I have a great deal of time for, and of course pay into and have done since my teens.

Enough, I'll bugger off now
 
Sadly the Minor injury departments are usually staffed by overworked Junir Drs who have just left uni and are working 13hr shifts. It sounds as though from what your friend has described the assessment of her injury has focused on the wrong bits.....unfortunately most riders have a high pain threshold and it is hard for Drs to realise that if we didn't think we'd broken something we wouldn't be there! (I drove to hospital with a broken back and pelvis, walked in, waited for a few hours, then made them panic when they saw the x-ray :D:D)

And in defence of the ambulance service - a shoulder injury is very low priority for us, it isn't life threatening and (as you both found) the patient can actually be transported to hospital a lot quicker by a friend or relative leaving the overworked ambulance crews to work on the life-threatening stuff (or pick up the "unconscious" drunks who obviously had their drink "spiked" :rolleyes: )

I hope her surgery goes well and that she makes a full recovery. :)
 
jesstickle said:
absolutely! blooming well said

We take part in a risk sport, and do this to ourselves. We're pretty low on their list and rightly so. I have nothing but praise for the NHS. In no way could I have afforded all the bits and pieces they have done for me over the years. I think it's especially good of them to keep putting me back together given that every time I hurt myself of my horse it is entirely my own fault. No one makes me ride.

If people don't like it they can always pay for BUPA.
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Thanks- both my parents work for the NHS (and have done since they were 19 or so!) and I'm starting this summer. You wouldn't believe how rushed off your feet you are trying to get everything done in under the government guidelines. A&E is mayhem, and certain people take precedence- the elderly, the inexplicably very ill and the properly bashed up. If you're sitting, talking and to all outwards purposes okay you will get less attention!

Some hospitals are a bit less good (not helped that if their standards slip, their funding gets cut. Which blatantly helps...) and I know that my mum always specifies we go to the hospital where she works, not the other one unless it's very serious. Hope your friend recovers quickly and doesn't end up with any nasty scars.
 
You know what- if you have a car crash, drive dangerously, have a fight or do something astoundingly stupid you will also get fairly low sympathy. My mum x-rays people and has always warned us of doing such stupid things because you won't be told "there there"- certainly not by her anyway! Nothing to do with snobbery, but to do with willingly participating in a high-risk sport without wearing all the gear. People without hats are the lowest of the low...
 
This happened to me 20 years ago.I came off my horse and hit a tree damaging my shoulder I went to A&E where I sat for four and a half hours before being told that because I could move it I could not of done a lot of damage. No Xray done

I was sent home with some anti inflammation's. Twelve months later after spending a long time in pain I had it operated on.

I worked in the NHS at the time and that did not help.
 
I am so sorry to hear about your friend!
I am at the stage of giving up with the NHS, I am getting a new horse next week but not sure how my back is going to hold up to be honest with it. But 4 years after my accident and it's still not 100% I believe I have a right to completely lose faith in our national health system.
Perissa, I hope your friend makes a swift recovery. ***get well soon***
 
Reminds me of my OH went to A&E after turning blue in ambulance after kick in the ribs(football), was xrayed, seen by A&E registrar told to go home take paracetomol.

That night he was really unwell at home(I thought he was being a baby, but could hear rasping) drove drive him to our local A&E who were FAB. Even without xray they could feel broken ribs(3) and a punctured lung!! Thats all!

I have had excellent experiences of the NHS & always say it comes up trumps in a crisis.

Unfortunately its about keeping people out of hospital, we call it revolving door medicine.

For the person that thinks Bupa is the answer we are paying for the NHS already a lot of the botched stuff that happens privately gets picked up and corrected by the NHS so more cost. One private hospital had no ITU and if a patient needs Itu they phone 999 and the patient gets taken across the road to the NHS! How many private hospitals do you know with 24 hour A&E(they use the same docs)

Also remember if you got unfit by not doing any sport then they would be telling us off for all getting overweight and fat.

By the way you can guess what I do for a living if you like?
 
WOW so my friend brought it all on herself did she.

Her 11 year old gelding is about as bomb proof as you can get, she was WALKING on a bridleway at 9am on Sunday morning, with highviz and body protector. She's late 40's.

A lady was walking her 4 pointer type dogs ON THE BRIDLEWAY, the dogs DIDN'T go after the horse but where chasing each other and apparently where chasing and biting at each other (like dogs do when they play) and two of them knocked into Ronnie, he spooked and lost his footing. The reason she was hurt so badly was that she hung onto him. He is used to dogs including large ones but they knocked into him which he obviously wasn't expecting.

The woman continued walking her dogs and left her alone on the floor.

A very old man caught Ronnie who bless him didn't go far and was grazing.

Myself I have had 2 major operations on the NHS in the last two years, one was in a private hospital but funded by the NHS and received first class care.

My point is that they didn't listen to her......

Had she been a young drunk thug maybe but a respectable woman in her 40's......
 
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I agree that BUPA is not the answer to emergencies. They tend not to have A&E. But if you want niggly problems you inflicted on yourself fixed then it's probably the way to go. Especially as you'll probably get the same surgeon you'd have on the the NHS anyway and be in the same hospital and all you're doing is lessening the burden on the NHS by paying again.

I think we should be proud to have one of the best health services in the world. What would everyone prefer? Something more like America?
 
Perissa said:
My point is that they didn't listen to her......

Had she been a young drunk thug maybe but a respectable woman in her 40's......
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Unfortunately they can't just listen to people as people, as a rule, are morons. Not your friend. She was clearly right, but enough people that the patient isn't a very reliable source of info.

I fell off and smashed up my knee. I told the air ambulance it was a hospital job, probably ligament (I've broken enough things to know) but obviously they couldn't believe me and had to stand me up and try and weight bear etc. It was excrutiating but I don't hold it against them. It's there job to try to not have to send me to A&E.

It's a shame so many people make a fuss as they ruin it for those of us who don't!
 
I've been in ambulances and an air-ambulance a good few times and always I have received 1st class care. On one occasion I went private for an operation, rushed to NHS as private hospital caused an internal bleed. NHS were completely fautless, and the rooms may not have been as nice but the nurses were amazing :) personally, would never go private again!!
 
I am on both sides. As a first responder for ambulance service we do our best at the time and very often treat people much better than some hospital staff

When I badly fractured and dislocated my ankle teh first responder and paramedics were fantastic. Wish the same could be said for A&E staff. Two nurses were stood around for 15 mins talking about their holidays while I was a few feet away in agony. In the end I had to scream to get them to give me some pain relief that was written up by the DR 45 mins earlier!!

Disgusting!!

Then my ankle was put back together not so well, so it later collapsed. I had to have a complete ankle replacement at another hospital 18 months later

Now more surgery as replacement has come loose. I am not blaming DR for this, it is just a complication that can happen and in fact I am the first one for this particular part to come loose (story of my life, I seem to like to be different)


I have friends that work hard in A&E but they will be the first to admit some staff are just horrid to patients, too busy chatting, treating work time as a social event.

On another occasssion I went to A&E via my GP as I knew I had a PE was told by the drs in A&E that it was not possible I was not short of breath enough or in enough pain :mad::mad::mad: I insisted they did the tests and surprise surprise not only did I have a PE but a whole cluster of the dam things
Had I listened to them and just gone home I would most likely be dead now!!
This happened not once but twice!!!!

Seems if you know your own body and pick things up before major symptoms appear then you don't 'fit in the box' so can't be right!!
 
I have a great deal of respect for those who work in NHS, but have been in a similar situation. When my daughter was 7 she fell off school climbing frame, and complained of a very sore shoulder. Took her to A & E and after a very brief examination (no x ray) they said it was only bruised because "she would be making more fuss if it was broken". To cut a long story short, several days later a nurse friend strongly recommended we take her back to hospital and demand an x ray. She had a badly broken collar bone and still has a lump in her shoulder to this day as her cruel mother told her to stop fussing and use it before we took her back.:o
 
Whilst I have the utmost sympathy for the underfunded, understaffed and abused-by-the-public NHS staff, they were not exactly rushed off their feet when I had my accident back in October. I was quite quickly seen by a registrar in A & E who ordered x-rays of my back, knee and ankle - which were done almost there and then. The x-rays were looked at by him and the A & E consultant (and discussed with some other junior docs). They said it was ligament damage, rest the leg and support it with a 'cricket pad'. I was to go back to the fracture clinic 'just in case' 10 days later (sometimes the break takes a while to show up, I know). So far - so good, you say!

I went back to the fracture clinic and they looked again at the original x-rays and took more. My knee was the worst at this point and the consultant thought maybe there was cartilage damage, so ordered an MRI. He told me to exercise it, take off the cricket pad.

Some weeks later, I went for the MRI. All this time I was saying that my leg wasn't right and had very limited movement (ok, consistent with ligament damage). Then, late one Friday evening my GP phoned me to say that my leg was broken! I had been walking around on a broken leg for 9 weeks!

This had been looked at by at least 3 different consultants (A & E and orthopaedic) 2 registrars and maybe 4 different junior doctors!

After some physio and pilates, it is better - but I have been told it will never be 'right'!

Hopefully your friend will have more observant doctors!! ;)
 
MurphysMinder said:
I have a great deal of respect for those who work in NHS, but have been in a similar situation. When my daughter was 7 she fell off school climbing frame, and complained of a very sore shoulder. Took her to A & E and after a very brief examination (no x ray) they said it was only bruised because "she would be making more fuss if it was broken". To cut a long story short, several days later a nurse friend strongly recommended we take her back to hospital and demand an x ray. She had a badly broken collar bone and still has a lump in her shoulder to this day as her cruel mother told her to stop fussing and use it before we took her back.:o
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Your child is obviously quite hardy. Interesting how people have different pain tolerances!

I would say with regards to the NHS, I've had some fab experiences, and some not so fab... A lot of us will put a brave face on and will try not to show pain which gives the wrong impression. I have now learnt if I feel pain, tell someone and take the tablets!!

The excellent team who performed the emergency c-sec by which I had my 1st daughter, not only gave me too much anaesthetic, but also saved my life. I was asked if I was likely to sue.. Yes the anaethetist (can't spell that) gave me too much, but I was so terrified, I was screaming, so she didn't meant too, they also saved my life after the op, so could I sue for human error??? No. It was terrifying though.

When I ruptured my anterior cruciate ligament in my left knee, getting onto my motorbike, I was told it was a sprain, don't be such a baby and packed off with painkillers. A week later my GP wasn't happy with the results and sent me to a diff hospital when they diagnosed the rupture. He said they couldn't have done at the time because normally only rugby players do such a serious injury.. Doesn't sound so bad but after breaking hand, arm, leg, ribs and dislocating a shoulder, I would rather have any of those again over the ligament injury!! Took me 6 weeks to walk again and 3 months to safely go down stairs, 12 months of physio and last winter I ruptured the other one ho hum.. One more accident and I'll have to have a new knee.. I'm 25... :D

We're bloody lucky to have the NHS all in all (IMO)
 
My husband BROKE HIS NECK in a motorbike accident & A & E didn't pick it up despite the force of the accident sending him half the way around a large dual carriageway type roundabout. They sent him home with broken ribs & a broken collar bone.

As it wasn't his fault the other parties insurance paid for his medical care & as a result he was sent to a private hospital 10 days after the accident for an insurance check. The surgeon there felt something was amiss & that was how his neck was found.

If he had tripped during the 10 days before this was found he could have been paralysed for life.

Words still fail me.
 
Perissa said:
I take your point Lolo but by trying to save time and money in the first place it is now going to cost them a lot more.
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Excellent point. My partner had a motorcycle crash 3 years ago (not his fault) and completely b*ggered up his shoulder. Was taken to A and E in an ambulance. Had an x-ray, nothing broken so was basically patted on the back, told to go home and take painkillers as it was all muscle bruising.
Cue constant pain, so after 6 months he went back to the doctor. Was ignored. After another half a dozen visits he was eventually referered to a specialist. Shoulder b*ggered. His shoulder had dislocated and gone back into the joint during the crash, and his ligaments had torn causing his shoulder to be noticably dropped. He is currently waiting for operation number 3 to correct it. Had they been more thorough at the time he would have needed only the one operation, which would have saved money. I don't blame the NHS staff, they try their hardest and have to try and meet targets but a little extra money spent initially can save a lot in the long term.
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I have a lot of respect for NHS staff. Been in on three occasions due to horses, all three times they have been reassuring and absolutely brilliant in their assessment, one a jnr. Dr, particularly so when a horse landed on top of me over a fence.
I am shocked that they didn't xray the area where she said she had pain, as when I mentioned I had a slight twinge in my knee (main pain was ribs and shoulder) they still xrayed that, and A&E was heaving then. I supposed being covered in mud from leg right up to the face helped me get seen a bit quicker though.

Unfortunately the NHS does have a tight budget, but there is always the option to go private..

I hope the surgery goes well for your friend and she makes a full recovery.
 
sonjafoers said:
My husband BROKE HIS NECK in a motorbike accident & A & E didn't pick it up despite the force of the accident sending him half the way around a large dual carriageway type roundabout. They sent him home with broken ribs & a broken collar bone.

As it wasn't his fault the other parties insurance paid for his medical care & as a result he was sent to a private hospital 10 days after the accident for an insurance check. The surgeon there felt something was amiss & that was how his neck was found.

If he had tripped during the 10 days before this was found he could have been paralysed for life.

Words still fail me.
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Bloody hell, I'd sue for that!!!! Motorbikes are as dangerous probably (as she stares longingly at the empty dust sheet..)
 
Lydz13 said:
Bloody hell, I'd sue for that!!!! Motorbikes are as dangerous probably (as she stares longingly at the empty dust sheet..)
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When I went to Kent & Sussex in Tunbridge Wells after my accident, they said I was another one off the Tunbridge Wells motorbike! I know they LOVE us! Hubby rides a motorbike, too! ;) (NOT with my blessing, though!)
 
Ouch feel very sorry for your friend, luckily when I went into AnE with my broken collar bone they did xray the shoulder but not after asking quite a few questions and trying to make me do exercises! Literally had tears in my eyes, I do think that she wasn't that sure but I was fairly insisent, having allready damaged the tendons and muscles in that shoulder I knew that the pain was alot worse!!! I think she possibly wasn't that sure beacause there was no obvious break along collar bone, but this is beacuse it was very close to the shoulder joint. Shoulder was alot lower tho! O and don't think it helped that I had been hunting so had also been drinking so they thought that that should be a good painkiller (well suppose it sort off helped as still nearly crying) tbf the nurse I saw was very good, and it was actually fairly quick! Allthough as we were waiting one girl had a fit in the waiting room, as we walked in she was basically passed out (was a teenager with her mum) not a good look. As I walked in (had a lift) could hear the other patients, say I think she hurt er shoulder fallin off her horse, so mag off been fairly obvious! Can't say I was that impressed with the dr at the fracture clinic tho, felt alot better after seeing my physio! But hope she gets better soon, is soo painful to hurt your shoulder and so many everyday tasks are hard, was so glad did mine in warm weather so didn't have to put coats on, and as don't work in an office or anything could get away with joggers most days, for tops a good tip is go up a size in vest style and pull up! (sorry this ended up being really long and prop makes no sense)
 
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