"Misdiagnosis of severley infected foot (Redcliffe Hospital) "

My husband was admitted to Redcliffe Hospital with a very swollen, hot and inflamed foot which occurred over a few hours after going to bed. He was treated for two weeks with steroids for inflammation which they considered was caused by his Crohns disease. After nearly two weeks they then decided to do an asparation of the foot as nothing else was working. I had already requested this on two occasions only to be told he didn't have infection. The results came back as Ecoli. Two washout one after the other were performed to clean out the ecoli, which then also was joined by Golden Staph. He spent 5 weeks in hospital and lost 12 kgs in that time. He came home a very sick, weak and debilitated man.

It's now been over three months later and his foot, by their diagnosis, has septic arthritis. No treatment, he was told to go home and try to walk as best he could, or they could wash it out again in the hope of improvement or not, or they could fuse his foot.

He lost another 3 kgs after they administered antibiotics after being on a duel Picc line for 5 weeks. The antibiotics tablet form made him so ill he lost another 3 kgs in 5 days. I felt angry and frustrated at the system that did not do better than this. I believe doctors and nurses can only do so much and that the system needs to improve to ensure patients are getting the best possible scenario.