"My parent's health was mismanaged"

My elderly parent spent 53 days at this hospital for rehabilitation. They developed complications which could have been prevented. I visited my parent every day to keep an eye on them.

2 weeks after my parent was discharged , they went to another hospital who fixed up the mistakes that were made at Sunshine Hospital. The doctors we saw there know what they are doing.

There were so many red flags. In my opinion the doctors we saw made many poor clinical decisions and there was a huge barrier of communication with the doctors.

The red flags:

. A high risk procedure, manual removal of faeces, that contaminates the environment was done on the ward whilst I fed my parent their dinner. I heard everything that was said and done , as well as the patient reacting to the procedure. 2 other patients in the ward also heard everything when eating their dinner.

. A patient asked me to refill their glass with water, but there was vomit in their glass. I cleaned it out, gave them a new glass and cleaned up their food area.

. In my parent's room, I lost count of the times I had to stop frail patients from getting up to walk and prevent a fall, pressing the buzzer for them many times and running to the nurses station, asking for help on their behalf.

. 2 weeks after my parent's admission there was a family meeting which was, in my opinion, so poorly executed, a terrible experience. I was told a social worker would be present as social workers are meant to provide practical and emotional support. This didn't happen. I felt the meeting was cold and clinical. I recall there was no sensitivity, compassion and empathy shown by a doctor and 2 allied health professionals, especially after my elderly parent cried in the meeting.

. I had to inform a doctor twice about my parent's swelling in their arms and then in their legs and feet until something was done about it. No tubular compression bandages were used to help manage the swelling. These bandages were used on my parent at the other hospital we went to. 

. There was extensive bruising on my parent's upper arm and the nurse told me that they are at times too busy to notice things like this. I knew what it was but when a doctor came to examine parent, they said they weren't sure, took a photo and said they had to ask their supervisor.

. In my opinion, the doctors revealed uncertainty, a lack of knowledge in changing my parent's blood thinner medicine, even after speaking with my parent's cardiologist. The new blood thinner medicine was eventually started at the other hospital we went to.

. My elderly parent developed severe urinary retention after a catheter was removed. It was a medical emergency. The doctor arrived an hour after being paged and wanted to wait another hour before a new catheter was inserted. As I understand it, there was no medical reason to wait an hour, putting my parent at risk of an infection, kidney or bladder damage.

. My parent had ongoing anaemia that was not treated. I requested 2 iron blood tests and I felt ignored twice. I had to push for the blood tests to be done. They were done 7-10 days later. Prior to my parent's discharge, I requested an iron infusion, based on the results. The doctors said they didn’t need it. I had 2nd opinions from my parent's cardiologist and a doctor from the other hospital stating that my parent required an infusion. They eventually got the iron infusion at the other hospital. 

. My parent developed a low sodium level. Their fluid tablets, diuretics were stopped a week before their discharge. I was not told this . I looked at the pathology reports. It revealed something went wrong with the dose adjustments of the fluid tablets. I believe this could have been prevented with careful management.

The health department and HCC also led to no resolution. 

The only positive aspect was the nurses. They provided wonderful nursing care and I trusted them. I could see they were severely limited in their hands on caring duties with patients.