"Emergency surgery"

I arrived to Kalgoorlie ED after traveling 250kms with 10/10 abdominal pain, as I got out of the car, an off duty nurse saw my trouble and assisted me to get to the ED reception. Once there I was treated with respect and listened to, immediately getting assistant as I vomited and nearly passed out. I was processed and given some pain relief, unfortunately I maxed out the protocols quickly and had to wait a significant amount of time for more. Thank you to the ED nurse and Doctor who listened and believed me that something was wrong, after a CT scan I was found to have an internal haemorrhage. The gynaecologists took over my care and were absolutely wonderful (I can't thank Dr Jo enough for listening, thorough explanations and for her gentle words and her senior consultant for helping me take my mind off everything while we waited for the OT to be ready). I was taken into surgery that night. Unfortunately in recovery the staff were unable to give me pain relief prior to transfer to HDU as they were required in maternity for two deliveries, but I did receive it once on the ward.

My care in HDU was great except for one nurse who I found was very rude and dismissive of my pain and fatigue levels, I recall they told me that they thought my pain was in my head, also that my surgery was minor so I shouldn't be in so much pain or require so much pain relief and that even if my haemorrhage meant that I was infertile it wasn't the end of the world. And then to top it off, I recall my cannula had clearly tissued and I required an iron and blood transfusion but it seemed this nurse just wanted to use the bad cannula and when I refused, all the nurses (who I believe also said they don't cannulate but will have a go) had around 13 failed attempts, before I said no more and asked them to ask the medical Dr who was inserting one in the patient opposite me, to which they did and the doctor (very) reluctantly and rudely, in my opinion, inserted a very painful cannula in which required me to hold it in place to be able to run the infusions, but better than no cannula!

I was then moved to the surgical ward where I felt my care took a nose dive. I was put in a single room and left there, I saw a nurse a maximum of twice on their shift and when I rang the bell I recall I waited between 8-25 minutes for assistance. One morning I rang due to increasing and distressing shortness of breath and waited about 25 minutes for the bell to be answered to be told that the day shift will be here in half an hour, they can deal with it. I then waited for the Dr's rounds and was given a chest x-ray and eventually put into Covid isolation but unfortunately nothing was communicated to myself or my partner for hours until they came to do the PCR and even then I believe the staff didn't know how to proceed or what advice to be providing. The following day I was to be discharged home, with a pending PCR test, the nurse rang my room and said my whole household had to isolate and when challenged on this (as per government regulations, I believed they weren't required to) the nurse wasn't sure what the rules were and as I understand it, had to ring public health to confirm. The nurse then rang back and informed me that yes, only I needed to isolate until my result came back and my family were not affected unless positive. I felt the nurse assigned to me that morning reluctantly attended to my surgical wound dressings after I asked them twice and then apparently refused to help my partner push me out to the entrance but instead left a wheelchair outside my room! I grabbed a mask from the caddy at my door as I left and signed some paperwork on my way out and that was it.

I unfortunately did not feel safe in the nursing care in my last few days at Kalgoorlie. From long wait times, to the small things like not having my bed linen changed once, but ultimately the lack of communication with myself, my partner and I found obviously within the team was very noticeable to me.