"Lobectomy surgery"

Arrived for lung lobe removal recently. Booked by surgeon some weeks prior. I believe I was told I was on an emergency list & booked in by surgeon, which staff said was not normal & some error had been made.

I was knocked out, tubes into lungs, canulas & main line fitted. Marked for surgery. Woke up in recovery to be told that I had not been operated on due to an emergency. 

Upon removal of main line they were unable to stop bleeding & required assistance. Told I could have it done the following day by another surgeon, said I would prefer mine to do it. I am told to return a few days later. Did so. After given pre-meds in pre-op my surgeon said they had just finished a long shift & another surgeon would do the operation.

Medications I had been taking were removed & I was told they will chart everything and dose accordingly. I felt they got it all wrong, each time you spoke to a staff member it got more confused. They were sure they were correct after being shown documents by myself & my family.

Blood pressure meds not given, tried twice to administer another patient's Methadone whilst I was on a Fentanyl painkiller IV drip. Also the pain block inserted into my spine had a broken tube & was leaking into the bedsheets for 48hrs. Lucky I was not too groggy to know to keep watch on everything being done. As I was feeling far from safe.

The operation went well & was amazed at the lack of pain after such invasive surgery.

I feel staff have a massive issue understanding patients & each other due to language problems. In my multiple day stay I was never offered a washer, shower, teeth brushing etc. On most nights I did not get a wink of sleep due to alarms left to go on for hours on end due to low staffing levels.

Some staff are doing their very best & in my opinion others don't care at all.

In my opinion, very confused staff over meds & patient info made it feel very unsafe & downright dangerous. I pushed myself badly to please the physio & doctors in order to be released early & get back home to safety & a much quicker recovery. It is a sad & dangerous way to run a health system & I believe the government should hang its head in shame.