"Treatment I received."

I arrived at the Prince Charles hospital by ambulance at approximately 5 o’clock in the morning, as I had sustained an extremely deep cut to the bone on my finger. I was seated in a chair while the paramedic talked to the intake staff and the nurse on duty. My wound had been bandaged by the paramedics as it was bleeding heavily. My wound wasn’t observed by any of the staff at the hospital. I asked the on duty nurse for Panadol and Nurofen and the nurse returned with Panadol. I then had to ask again for Nurofen, explaining to the nurse that I was in severe pain. The nurse then administered me Nurofen and I was sent to sit in emergency waiting room. Still at this time none of the staff on duty even observed the extent of my injury. During the whole time I was present in the waiting room, there were only two other people waiting and no one went through to be seen. After an extended period of time, approximately an hour, I was in excruciating pain and started to feel light headed and nauseous, so I went to the triage nurse window and proceeded to take off the bandages the paramedic had applied. The nurse then said, don't take that off. I continued to remove the dressing so it could finally be observed by a member of staff and said, my pain level is currently a ten. At this time I held up my finger to the window. Once the on duty nurse witnessed the extent of my injury, the nurse said, come through you need to see a doctor right away. My finger was hanging by a thread. I was then seen by a doctor and was administered two blocker injections to stop the pain. I finally had some relief. I then was sent for an x-ray, then was sent back to the short stay bay to wait to be stitched. After approximately half an hour I was taken to be stitched up. The doctor administered me another two injections whilst my finger was stitched up. I then said to the doctor, can I please get a script for some painkillers? I was told, we don’t do that here. See your GP. A social worker then visited me and I was sent home.

A day later I visited my doctor and showed her my injury and she prescribed me some Endone. I then went to get my dressing changed. The dressing was totally stuck to the stitches and the nurse said, oh, the person who did this didn't use a non-stick gauze. I then had to endure the pain of it being soaked in sterile water and pulled off. The nurse then re-bandaged me up and stated that my dressing would need to be changed every second day. Upon looking at the stitches I received, it looked to me like a non-caring, amateur attempt. There were parts of the stitches stuck underneath my skin. By this time I was absolutely disgusted and disappointed at the treatment I received. I felt like I was judged by the staff at the hospital because of the way I look, and was not given fair treatment. The looks of disgust from the staff at the hospital hurt more than any physical wound. I will never again return to the Prince Charles Hospital for any form of treatment.