"Frustration"

I brought my parent to Fiona Stanley Hospital ED as they were experiencing acute back pain that was not improving with analgesia and non-pharmacological methods trialled at home. My parent was in excruciating pain, which was causing them and our family a lot of distress. 

The nurses, and particularly the senior doctor, Ashlea, we saw in the assessment were considerate, empathetic and did all they could to try and improve my parent's pain.

My parent was given analgesia, attended an X-ray and was offered an admission overnight for monitoring or to go home with analgesia. My parent elected to be discharged home in the early hours of the morning, with scripts for regular and PRN analgesia and was told to represent to ED if the pain worsened or they developed new symptoms.  

After struggling with their pain all of that day and waking the following morning finding it harder to walk, my parent re-presented to ED as advised and I believe was made to feel like a burden on everyone and an idiot for coming back for the same issue.

The nursing staff and the physiotherapist that saw my parent were, in my opinion, lacking compassion and seemed to not care that my parent was asked to return if they had worsened. My parent had been utilising the analgesia as prescribed, but needing the maximum doses.

My parent was not assessed by a doctor and was told that they would need to see a GP to manage the ongoing pain. After being given an intramuscular injection of an anti-inflammatory my parent was sent home and told to see a GP on a weekend, despite explaining that they couldn’t get in to see their GP until another three days.

Overall, my parent left feeling none the better, belittled and stupid for complying with the original discharge plan of returning to ED if things got worse.