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Misdiagnosed then needing surgery

Posted By nuthatchmy75

"Misdiagnosed then needing surgery"

About: Armadale Hospital / Emergency Department

(as a service user),

Was admitted to Armadale Hospital a few weeks ago at early hours of the morning via ambulance and green whistle to ED. Was suffering from severe back pain which was unbearable to stand, sit or walk. Was given morphine and tramadol. Approx 1 hour later physio in ED assessed me and diagnosed severe sciatic pain and was discharged and sent me home.

I was picked up via car and pain was again excruciating on the trip home to point of tears and screaming. On the same afternoon, pain worsened and I was admitted to another hospital ED and admitted to hospital ward the same evening. MRI scan on the next day showed a prolapsed disc and disc tear needing Left L5/S1 microdiscectomy. Prior to the surgery I fell very ill and was vomiting bile, a CT scan a few days later showed a bowel blockage possibly from prolapsed disc compressing the duodenum between the aorta & superior mesenteric artery and requiring gastroscopy urgently.

1 week later I was cleared to have back surgery required and 2 weeks after admitted I was discharged. In that 2 week period, I was bed bound and could just bare the pain enough to go to the toilet.

Armadale Hospital sent me home with tramadol and exercises to ease back pain and gave me a medical note to have 1 week off work. No scans or imaging were done and I felt that they did not take my pain seriously.  

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Responses

Response from Diane Barr, Executive Director, Armadale Kalamunda Group 3 years ago
Diane Barr
Executive Director,
Armadale Kalamunda Group

Submitted on 9/10/2020 at 5:02 PM
Published on Care Opinion at 5:05 PM

picture of Diane Barr

Dear nuthatchmy75,

I am deeply sorry to hear that you had such an unsatisfactory experience with the Armadale Hospital Emergency Department (ED) and that we were not able to effectively manage your pain. This does not meet the standards we strive to achieve. Our aim is to provide safe, effective and timely management of pain for all patients, and I apologise that this was not your experience.

I would like to reassure you that Armadale Hospital ED staff routinely follow pain management protocols for the management of back pain. The Head of Department for ED has advised that in line with these protocols, first-line management of acute back is managed with pain relief (analgesia) and medical imaging is not initially utilised (unless there are other clinical signs present, such as nerve compression).

As a Health Service, our expectation is that communication around treatment with all patients is open, honest and informed. We are constantly striving to ensure that patients are engaged in every treatment decision and feedback such as yours provides us with the opportunity to reflect on how we can better improve this.

I would like the opportunity to follow up with your care journey personally. To do this I would need some further detail. If you would like to discuss your concerns further, please contact our Consumer Liaison Office on (08) 9391 1153 or AKG_ConsumerLiaison@health.wa.gov.au.

I also respect you may like to remain anonymous, so pleased be assured that the Head of Department, ED has been made aware of your story and will be reviewing your experience with the team.

I hope that you are now recovering well from your surgery at home.


Kind regards,

Di Barr
Executive Director
Armadale Kalamunda Group

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