The End
Hi my son had a massive stroke on 20th December 2015 and spent through Christmas and New year on life support. He was 44 He managed to come through it but had major issues to overcome, learning to talk and eat as well as his hearing and perception had changed. He was also hemiplegic on the right side of his body. He had short term memory loss as well. He spent 8 months in hospital and eventually was able to go back to his home but with carers. Life was very difficult for him and he hated being dependent on people for the most basic things in life. We fast forward to Christmas 2017 and he became unwell and spent the whole of Christmas and the new year in bed, things improved but then in feb 18 he had a funny turn and became very unsteady and slurring his words he went to the hospital but they said he was alright, he started to improve and was more alert and would laugh if I asked him what was wrong. Then on March 6th he started drooling really bad and kept slumping in his chair. We took him back to the hospital and he was admitted as suspected stroke. He had a fall the first day in there and from that point on his condition deteriorated. He spent 6 weeks in that hospital but they kept on telling us he hadn’t had a stroke but he had lost all of his fine motor skills and was unable to even roll over in bed and was totally incontinent. 2nd fall was a senior nurse put him in a cloud chair and then left him in his room unsupervised he fell out of it ct scan done they said no damage.
Another two weeks later an agency nurse was feeding him the evening meal and then left the side of the bed down while she left the room for at least and hour and the kitchen staff found him face down on the floor bruised face and shoulder broken nose another ct scan done. Two days later he was found unresponsive in his bed, he was transferred to icu but he never regained consciousness 24 hours later he passed away from they said a massive stroke in an area of the brain that had been unaffected by the Previous stroke.
I am angry, upset and totally devastated by this turn of events it was his birthday five days after the stroke. I feel the hospital and the system has let us down badly he never should of had 3 falls in a six week period. He was in a stroke ward so where is their duty of care. Similar things happened when he was in hospital after the first stroke. He had a number of falls from staff putting him in a wheel chair or cloud chair and leaving him unsupervised. His speech was affected from the stroke so he was just a nuisance to them as he needed help to even have a drink but they would complain about him when he would try and get one himself and would spill it or drop the container. The staff are busy he would ask for a drink or for his pad to be changed and it was always yes I will come later when someone else comes on shift or it’s handover so dont be so impatient but how would you like laying in a dirty pad for hours the pee stain on the sheet had dried up and he absolutely stunk of urine and faeces.
We were there every single day and stayed there 8 - 10 hours a day seven days a week so we could help him but i was worried about him when we weren’t there. I hope I never have the misfortune to spend anytime in that hospital. Well thankyou for letting me have my say even though I was probably rambling a bit.
Now if somebody can tell me how do I learn to live without my only son. Heartbreaking to lose your child even though he was 46 he was still my boy. Good luck to everyone else that is on this merry go round and I hope your recovery goes smoothly and you have no further damage