"Three experiences"

A month ago I had my right bottom eyelid done with a plastic surgeon. They put in excess of 40 dissolvable stitches. Dissolvable stitches. And told me to return in one month. I returned on the date, exactly one month from the surgery, and the nurse viewed me and asked me to sit outside. Then I sat down with the specialist. No complaints about them at all. They said you’ve got a stack of stitches in there – a stack of them – they said I will go in and take them out now. It was very painful – I was in a lot of pain. I said to them, “you used the words ‘stacks’, how many was there?” and they said it was in excess of 20, and they asked about how many I had. I said there was in excess of 40. The specialist said well it usually takes six weeks for them to dissolve. If it takes six weeks then why didn’t they tell me to come back six weeks after. I wouldn’t have had to have that painful work done.

A nasty thing happened to me when I had my eyes done in the hospital. I had both cataracts done; right first and left eye second. I am under the St George Clinic which is under the Sydney Eye Hospital. There was a nurse there who did some of the work provided – I always act respectfully to people, but from day one I feel they mistreated me all the time. I didn’t understand I don’t change my personality and each time I would go in this nurse would ask me to read the board and I used to take time and try to focus and they would give me a minute or a minute and a half and they would tell me to hurry up, and say sorry I’ve got other patients. They would just go ahead and call the other person in. I believe one of the other tests was fraudulent to me; the nurse would pick up the eye test then they would put it in the slot and say read that, and I would say it’s blank and they’d put the next one in the slot and say read that, and I would say it’s blank and then the same thing again and again. Until the last one with large writing which I failed to read.

Here comes the crunch. I cannot prove who did it and there is no other answer to it but when I had the date to go and get my left cataract done I arrived on time and fairly early. I was first there and they called me up and said you get the gown on. I was in there, the first on the row of seats in a room of empty seats and then slowly other people filed in and filled in all the seats in the row. The staff member came out, went to the last person right up the other end and said you’re first, and they turned to me, raised their voice and pointed at me, and said “you are last”. Waiting in the pre-op section, everyone went in and I stayed there. Then the afternoon group all went in, and I was still there. Then the staff member came out and apologized to me, and then I finally went in and had my cataract done. There must have been some miscommunication.