A Simple Cure

Case study – AnneAnne’s 13-month old son was in hospitalwith double pneumonia. For a couple ofdays he had to be supplied with oxygen.After a few days his oxygen levels wereconsidered good enough to be taken off theoxygen machine as a trial. Anne was withher son on her own. After around an hourhe didn't seem well, he grew very quiet andhis oxygen level seemed to be dropping.Anne attempted to urgently attract theattention of medical staff. She said:“I was worried and so went to askfor a nurse. The nurse at thereception barely took time to listento me and pointed to another nurse,I went up to that person and then toother nurses, but was ignored. Orthey said something that I missed asit was very quickly, in passing. Ipressed on the ‘call’ button, butnobody came, and only when Istarted crying someone came.”Case study – MaryMary’s teenaged daughter was rushed tohospital in the middle of the night with anumber of symptoms. When Mary reachedthe hospital there was no communicationsupport available, there was a BSL/Englishinterpreting service available – but onlyduring office hours.It took over an hour for a doctor to informMary that her daughter had almost beenplaced in intensive care.Later, Mary’s daughter stabilised and shewas moved to a resuscitation room, wherea male nurse who had been in the roomwith Mary and her daughter seemedunwilling to communicate with her.Suddenly, the nurse wheeled her daughterout of the room without attempting to informMary of where they were going, or whatwas happening. They were moved to thechildren’s ward.As Mary sat by her daughter’s bedside thenight nurse came across and attempted towake her daughter up. Mary protested thatshe was asleep, but was told that sheneeded her daughter to be part of adiscussion. It transpired that the nightnurse only wanted Mary’s daughter to actas an interpreter.