"Rough and callous medical care"

I felt a doctor at Armadale Hospital ED was uncaring, abrupt, arrogant, rough and inconsiderate of the pain I believe they were was causing my relative whilst giving care. My relative has had multiple admissions over the last couple of months and has been found to have very difficult veins. My relative informed me when I was allowed into the ED that they felt the doctor was brutal in their approach whilst attempting to take blood from causing what appeared to be a small haematoma to my relative’s left forearm…a round Band-Aid was covering this site and I believe marked swelling was noticeable.

My relative also advised that the doctor was very rough when inspecting their right foot that was hot and swollen from gout causing them extreme pain by pressing firmly and moving their foot back, forth and sideways during the examination. My relative was tearful when informing me of the doctor’s seemingly rough manner and spoke about them being the roughest doctor my relateive has ever had treat them at this hospital.

Whilst I was with my relative I recall the doctor approached the bedside, stated they needed to get another blood sample and without another word got an empty syringe, jammed it into my relative’s cannulae and proceeded to pull back to take blood, but none came back. Without saying a word, I recall the doctor opened a syringe with normal saline, jammed this into my relative’s cannula and proceeded to forcefully try to flush the cannula causing my relative to cry out with pain. I suggested the doctor had destroyed this cannula and informed them that my relative has very poor veins and is difficult to cannulate needing ultrasound guidance on most occasions - as evidenced by the numerous bruising still on my relative’s arms from their last admission to hospital just over a week ago. I believe the doctor ignored my comments and proceeded to rapidly open packages and toss items onto their sterile field in preparation for inserting a new cannulae into my relative’s arm…it seemed they were totally ignoring my concerns about my relative’s veins. In the process of looking for a vein, I recall the doctor yanked and twisted my relative’s forearm around so they could view the cubical fossa and inner forearm area to look for a vein taking no care and having no regard for the iv cannula still in the vein on top of the base of their little finger causing this to be bent back against the bed and again causing my relative significant pain. When my relative yelped in pain I recall the doctor said ‘what’ in a questioning tone and looked at my relative’s hand, at this time I pointed out the cannula bent at an angle from the way the doctor had twisted my relative’s arm. It seemed the doctor gave no apology for their brutal manner, and twisted my relative’s arm slightly less roughly and continued their task of inserting the cannula. Fortunately, the doctor did get it in on their first attempt but then failed to secure it before attaching first an extension line, then a syringe and taking the blood, then another syringe to flush it before finally securing it with a dressing…each time stepping back to the dressing trolley to get each separate item off the trolley – I believe a very risky process considering my relative’s limited vein options.

In addition to what I feel is this reprehensible level of callous disregard for my relative, I felt their manner toward me was arrogant and uncaring. When I asked about the management of the Gout in my relative’s right foot, I believe the doctor said well just give them an NSAID. I advised the doctor that my relative’s renal specialists at another hospital told us my relative shouldn’t have these due to their Chronic kidney disease. I recall the doctor grunted a response I didn’t manage to hear, but gave no other management strategies and stated my relative’s chest is more important. I advised them my relative lives alone so cannot care for themselves when their foot is so painful they cannot weight bear on it. The doctor just ignored me and left my relative’s bedside with the blood samples.

When the nurse came several minutes later to give my relative their antibiotics, I advised them the cannula in my relative’s little finger was no longer working and that a new one had been inserted. I then burst into tears as I explained what had happened during this encounter with this doctor and told them of my concerns with the level of care they provided my relative.

When I got home from the hospital I called the hospital, spoke to a senior clinician and requested this doctor not continue to provide care to my relative and that they were not to lay another hand on my relative during their admission. I recall the senior clinician advised they would discuss this with the consultant to determine appropriate actions considering my request. Based of my experience, I feel the doctor’s manner is arrogant, disrespectful, callous and uncaring and they need to learn what patient centred compassionate care is. This was an extremely distressing incident for both my relative and myself and I hope that no other patient ever has to go through a similar experience by this doctor!

A follow up story: My elderly relative was admitted to hospital and had a Type 2 MI but I was not informed despite my relative having an intellectual disability and me being their carer and guardian. I felt very angry about this.