# 'Crying is what old people do'



## Northerner (Feb 16, 2013)

An angry husband has condemned the 'witch doctors and box tickers' running the NHS after his elderly wife died following a catalogue of medical blunders.
Retired teacher Mary Kirkby, 74, suffered such appalling and undignified treatment she was left sobbing in her hospital bed with a broken hip by staff who told her husband Raymond 'crying is what old people do'.
During her treatment at two different hospitals Mrs Kirkby, 74, had fallen over four times times after being forced to use a bedside cabinet as a walking aid.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/a...-attention-seeking--realising-broken-hip.html

Truly shocking


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## HOBIE (Feb 16, 2013)

I "hate" stories like this one.  I realy hope they are very very one offs  & we are not going backwards


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## cherrypie (Feb 16, 2013)

It's called ageism and I saw it first hand during my recent stay.  Some nurses think that all old people are gaga and do not have any dignity or needs.

Even getting some more water was a chore.
"May I have some water please".
"You had a jug at suppertime, I am not getting you any more".
"Is it rationed?".
"Oh I didn't know you jug was empty, I thought you wanted fresh water.  You will have to wait another hour as I am busy".

"Can I have a bowl please, I feel sick".
"Do it on the floor, I am busy".

"Can you use the toilet?"
"I can if you help me by holding my arm"
"Tough you will use a commode".
"What about my dignity?"
We are all girls together and you don't need the curtains pulled".
The toilet was in the next room  about 5 yards from my bed.

There were things I saw that would make your hair curl and I have told my family that I never want to go there again.

I can stand up for myself but some people cannot, it has to change and the sooner the better.

I wondered if today's families are so scattered that some nurses do not see grandparents or older family members  and do not understand them and cannot grasp that we too are human.


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## Northerner (Feb 16, 2013)

Sorry to hear this Maisie, it sounds awful, and so unnecessary  I hope that you don't have to ever endure anything of this nature again.

When I was diagnosed I was on a ward with several much older men with various problems. However, we were blessed with two of the most wonderful nurses I could have imagined who treated everyone with good humour and professionalism, despite their long hours and huge workload - I wrote to the hospital afterwards in praise of them. However, I was shocked when I was moved wards and one of the nurses popped in to the new ward to check I was OK on her way home. The matron called her over and hauled her over the coals for visiting and she left in tears - I was disgusted 

There are good people and bad people, but the bad people should not be working in caring professions


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## HOBIE (Feb 16, 2013)

I was in cumbria infimary a few years ago. New hosp, & old guy was in the same 6 bed ward. Bless him he used to sit on end of his bed during day & sing. He was an nice person.  That night i woke up about 3am & noticed his bed empty. I got up about 5mins later to look for him. Was not in toilet & no where to be seen. Went to see "Dizzy" nurse on night shift & told her that he must have gone out of fire door at top of ward or passed her !  Fire door had big sign saying "Alarm do not open". I went for the door & nurse grabbed my arm but i was stronger & who was sitting two floors up a concreat staircase freezing cold. He was 90 somthing & had gone the wrong way to the toilet. No Alarms working & the "Dizzy ----" was reading her book.


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## FM001 (Feb 16, 2013)

Appalling treatment


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## Northerner (Feb 16, 2013)

Thought this poem was relevant to this thread:

http://www.diabetessupport.co.uk/boards/showthread.php?t=34728


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## AlisonM (Feb 16, 2013)

Just before I was diagnosed I got carted off to A&E at St George's Tooting (having been found in my flat unconscious) and left unattended in a side room for several hours before being sent home on the bus with some desk jockey telling me to see my GP as soon as possible. No treatment or help of any kind, no nurses or doctors, nothing. And I've since been told it was probably DKA and I was lucky to survive. I always thought the EMTs had said my BGs when found were 28.4 but that was the quick test the doctor did a week later when he put me on my first meds. According to my newly merged medical records the reading they took that day was 37.1.

I cried too that night.


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## Northerner (Feb 16, 2013)

AlisonM said:


> Just before I was diagnosed I got carted off to A&E at St George's Tooting (having been found in my flat unconscious) and left unattended in a side room for several hours before being sent home on the bus with some desk jockey telling me to see my GP as soon as possible. No treatment or help of any kind, no nurses or doctors, nothing. And I've since been told it was probably DKA and I was lucky to survive. I always thought the EMTs had said my BGs when found were 28.4 but that was the quick test the doctor did a week later when he put me on my first meds. According to my newly merged medical records the reading they took that day was 37.1.
> 
> I cried too that night.



Good grief Alison! Sounds like you were pretty much the same as me - I was close to collapse and 38 mmol/l when they tested me in A&E - they kept me in for 8 days! Why on earth did you get sent home with levels like that?


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## AlisonM (Feb 16, 2013)

Northerner said:


> Good grief Alison! Sounds like you were pretty much the same as me - I was close to collapse and 38 mmol/l when they tested me in A&E - they kept me in for 8 days! Why on earth did you get sent home with levels like that?



You're asking me? I don't know what the h*** was going on. Some of it I know from a young WPC from the local police station who stayed with me part of the time but got called away. She called round a few days later,  I was still very confused and she did some asking round. I don't know how she found out but she told me they'd claimed they sent me home after an hour because I was fine. Trouble with that statement is I'd gone straight to the police station when I got back to Streatham around 6am (I'd been carted away around 4pm, she said) to find out how to get back in the flat. They had to break in to get to me and I didn't realise the door hadn't been fixed yet. I have a clear memory of being woken up and told to go, then of waiting at the bus stop for the bus home and being very cold as I only had my long nightdress and a light coat with my keys and purse in the pocket. I also recall going to the police station but not being taken to to hospital. Oh yes, I had my slippers on. I must have looked a real fright.


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## Northerner (Feb 16, 2013)

speechless


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## Cat1964 (Feb 16, 2013)

AlisonM said:


> You're asking me? I don't know what the h*** was going on. Some of it I know from a young WPC from the local police station who stayed with me part of the time but got called away. She called round a few days later,  I was still very confused and she did some asking round. I don't know how she found out but she told me they'd claimed they sent me home after an hour because I was fine. Trouble with that statement is I'd gone straight to the police station when I got back to Streatham around 6am (I'd been carted away around 4pm, she said) to find out how to get back in the flat. They had to break in to get to me and I didn't realise the door hadn't been fixed yet. I have a clear memory of being woken up and told to go, then of waiting at the bus stop for the bus home and being very cold as I only had my long nightdress and a light coat with my keys and purse in the pocket. I also recall going to the police station but not being taken to to hospital. Oh yes, I had my slippers on. I must have looked a real fright.



Horrific Alison x


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## trophywench (Feb 17, 2013)

Ditto to Northie.

FFS.

No apologies for that.


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