"My father’s total lack of care"

My father was taken to POWH ED by ambulance late last year. He had just been discharged from St Vincent’s Hospital the day before after having surgery for a pacemaker and other health issues. I was not present the whole morning while my father was being assessed, but I received a concerning phone call from my mother saying that they were going to transfer him to Sydney Hospital. I went to the ED in the afternoon to find my father in absolute agony, screaming, and saying he had excruciating pain down both of his arms. I enquired as to what was happening and was told by a junior doctor and the head of the Emergency that my father had arthritis pain in his arms and that was the cause of his pain. I told them he does not have arthritis pain or suffer from such debilitating arthritis from what I knew. My sister and myself knew straight away that their assumption/assessment was totally wrong and insisted that they do further investigations, which I believe they were not interested in doing. At the time the transport team for Sydney Hospital were waiting to transfer my father and my sister and I totally objected and asked if he could be transferred to St Vincent’s Hospital where all his records were and his doctors. We were then told by your senior doctor that Prince of Wales Hospital is not affiliated with St Vincent’s Hospital!

Meanwhile, they had given my father painkillers for the assumed arthritis pain in arms, which had zero effect. It was clear to me and my sister that my father was having pain down his arms for a cardiac issue. I thought that this would be common knowledge of any doctor?! My father was screaming in horrific pain, which was something he has never done in his life after many surgeries and health problems. My sister then had to tell the doctor that we were going to discharge my father and call another ambulance from the front of the hospital if they didn’t investigate and take my father’s pain seriously. Meanwhile, the doctor told us that they had trained at a cardiac hospital, which was even more shocking to me. Given all this, I feel that my father was treated extremely poorly and was ignored, in my opinion, probably due to his age. Eventually after constant pushing from our family early evening they decided to finally do an ultrasound to check the pacemaker. The ultrasound revealed that the chambers of my father’s heart were out of sync! Therefore causing his arm pain! My father was then finally taken seriously and prepared to have his heart shocked back into a normal rhythm. This took place around 11:30pm. I’m shocked that my father was disrespected, disregarded, and left in hours upon hours of excruciating pain! I believe that the only concern the staff had was to get rid of him and transfer him to Sydney Hospital. Having my father’s history of heart surgeries and just recently having been discharged from St Vincent’s Hospital the day prior after surgery for a pacemaker, why would a doctor just assume his pains down both arms was arthritis?! I’m lost for words at witnessing my father in so much pain. It seems our hospitals have little care for the elderly and to save their lives. I’m fairly sure if someone in their 50’s came in with pains in their arms that they would not assume it was arthritis? I would really like this incident investigated. This should never happen to anyone. This surely is basic knowledge for doctors? If we didn’t push so hard or threaten to discharge him, I don’t believe the doctors would have cared and I’m not sure if my father would be alive today. In this instance, I think that doctors should focus on saving lives and not on judging a patient based on their age. Every elderly person deserves the right for their lives to be saved.

What if it was your father? This experience is one of many we, as a family, had the misfortune of experiencing with regards to saving my father’s life in the last 3 months of last year.