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Communication and treatment

Posted By alphage74

"Communication and treatment"

About: Fiona Stanley Hospital

(as a friend),

My friend had a cancerous growth on the side of their face. They had to have a 14-hour operation 2 years ago. I believe my friend was told the surgeon would cut into their face, cut a piece of bone out of their jaw, take some teeth out and after removing all of the growth, they had to replace the cheek with a lump of meat taken from their thigh. Not a skin graft, a lump of meat.

Yes, my friend was very worried about going into an op. like this. They arrived and was prepped. They took them into the op. theatre and then told them the op was cancelled, I believe because they did not have a bed for them. My friend was sent home and another day was set. They did finally have the op but my friend is dead now from that very same cancer they said they removed.

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Responses

Response from Neil Doverty, Executive Director Fiona Stanley and Fremantle Hospitals Group, South Metropolitan Health Service 3 years ago
Neil Doverty
Executive Director Fiona Stanley and Fremantle Hospitals Group,
South Metropolitan Health Service

Submitted on 11/06/2020 at 12:42 PM
Published on Care Opinion at 12:45 PM

picture of Neil Doverty

Dear alphage74,

I am very sorry to hear about the loss of your friend. My sincere condolences.

It is difficult to look into the situation surrounding specific cases without patient details, and when someone is making an enquiry on behalf of another person, we are unable to release information without written consent. I acknowledge that in the case of your friend, this is now impossible.

Our hospital does experience a very high demand for all of our services, and generally, we are required to make decisions based on the most urgent clinical need. This is not a perfect model, and ideally, we would have additional resources to provide more care. However, this is not the case. Please be assured that our staff do the very best they can, with the resources they have.

If you require, Lifeline WA provides free grief and bereavement counselling which you may or may not choose to utilise. If you do, their contact number is 9261 4444, or they can be emailed at reception@lifelinewa.org.au.

Thank you for taking the time to get in touch with me and alert me to your concerns. I will pass your message on to the head and neck surgery team here at Fiona Stanley Hospital.

Kind regards,

Neil Doverty.

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