Hospitality

It's 2.29am.

Adam and I have not long got home from Tauranga Hospital ED. This is why.

Wednesday July 4 - Surgery day:

Objective: remove his tonsils, have a sinus flush, and cut and tack where the tonsils used to be back against his throat to open up some breathing space.

Desired outcome: fix his sleep apnoea and get his migraines and chronic fatigue under control.


7.30am - admitted to childrens ward to prep for theatre.

9.15am - pre med

9.45am - into theatre

10.30am - awake in recovery

11.00am - back in the ward

6.30pm - discharged.

Despite his age and the surgeon's thoughts on his ability to bounce back from theatre, Ads did great and was up around a couple of hours post-op.

So far so good.

Couch, pillows to prop him up (can't breathe lying down), pain relief and soft food, remote in one hand he was ensconced for the evening with Mum at his very beck and call. Gargling anaesthetic mouthwash took the edge off pain wise so he could swallow all his panadol liquid and anti-biotics ok.

Thursday July 5th

A rough night was followed by starting the day's routine of pain relief. Only there isn't much relief happening. He can hardly talk, he can hardly swallow. The mouthwash almost makes it possible to get the stuff down him without crying, but it's not working very well.

Lunchtime came, so did the next round of pain without gain. He ate instant pudding, he ate some creamed rice, he cried because it hurt so much. He gargled vile tasting green shit so he could swallow his pain killers that don't kill anything.

Dinnertime came. He ate some ice cream, had more panadol, more ab's. He cried some more.

10pm - his pain has increased, he's getting tired and upset and had enough. It's 36 hours post op and he's getting worse. So I rang the children's ward, spoke to a nurse who said take him to ED and get his throat looked at. Into the car and off to the hospital we go. It's not very busy, maybe 4 patients in the waiting room, this shouldn't take long.

[insert Tui ad here]


11.15pm - taken from the waiting room and into a cubicle in ED. It's quite quiet in there, nurses are chatting and wandering around. Doctors are writing up notes. There is no sense of urgency. A couple of people come in via the ambulance bay and are dealt with, put on beds, wheeled away to wards. Other people go home. We wait.

A nurse does the nursey bits, pulse, oxygen, BP etc and wanders off to do nursey bits elsewhere. A bit before 1am, a doctor comes along, asks a few questions, tries to stick a tongue depressor in Ads mouth, Ads is taken aback, says its very sore so the doc orders up a couple of syringes of stuff to swallow to calm his throat, one a shot of local anaesthetic, one a shot of lignocaine. Then he disappears. Ads takes his medicine. We wait. Ads starts to feel nauseous, the nurse says it's the morphine. We wait some more. Then, for something different, we wait a little longer. The doc comes back, asks Ads to stick his tongue out so he can look inside. "is it still hurting?" "Yes". Says "we'll leave it a bit longer, it's not working yet" and goes away. So we wait. And wait. And wait. Some staff are assisting patients but there is no drama happening, just nursing staff wandering around chatting, drinking coffee and eating cake, doctors and nurses filling in their paperwork. Two staff have a loud disagreement about treatment of a patient who has left the department that carries on for the best part of 30 minutes. Someone left their professionalism at home tonight, but listening serves to pass the time. The stuff they've given Ads hasn't even taken the edge off his pain.

In the end, at 1.55am, we decide we have had enough. So far they have made him swallow stuff, lie in a cold room without even a sheet to keep warm, given him stuff that makes him feel nauseous but has done absolutely nothing for the pain and haven't actually looked down his throat - the reason we came in. Nursey says "bring him back tomorrow if it's not better" [insert another Tui ad].

We walk out the front door of ED - the waiting room is packed with unhealthy looking people, the police are there with a bunch of young guys and it's 2 in the morning. They have wasted the best part of 4 hours, with a kid taking up a bed in the emergency department for 3 of those hours who only needed his throat checked to make sure it was all OK post op and some effective pain relief to let him drink some much needed fluids.

And they weren't up to it. 10 points for hopeless and unprofessional conduct Tauranga Hospital ED. You suck.

UPDATE:

Took the wee man to our GP's clinic this afternoon. A fast and gentle peek down his throat, confirmation that something with more clout than paracetamol is needed, wrote a script for morphine syrup and sent us home. Time taken - 10 minutes.

Now, how fucking hard was that, hmmm? Too hard for ED staff, obviously. No wonder our hospital expenditure doesn't cover what's needed by the community, they are wasting resources and hiring monkeys on more than a peanut wage.