Lack of care in hospital?

[hillybilly]

Rather disturbing article from The Olive Press ( www.theolivepress.es ), Issue 34, May , but not as yet available to read online it seems.

"Where were the nurses?"

Mystery surrounds the sudden death of a young british woman at a hospital in Cadiz.
**** from the West Midlands had been on a househunting trip to Olvera in March when she was admitted to Villamartin's Virgen de las Montanas hospital.
The healthy 40 yr old had been transferred from Olvera's health centre by ambulance late on Saturday night after she started coughing up blood. Suffering from flu and already on antibiotics, she was given an X-ray and was diagnosed with pneumonia.
But, according to sources close to the family, it is understood that she was not put on a monitor or a drip. This was despite her hands "going blue" (a classic danger sign) as her partner left her at 6pm on Sunday evening to get a rest.
According to the post mortem, she died during the night due to a "lack of oxygen to the heart".
The next day a doctor inadvertently suggested that had her partner been around she "might not have died".
"He said that they had found her at 7am and that has someone been there to alert a nurse she might have survived," said local estate agent ****, who was translating for ****'s partner.


Unrelated, but in the same edition, another sickening article regarding the use of a JCB on a bull during a bullfight.

[country boy]

Rather disturbing article from The Olive Press

regarding the use of a JCB on a bull during a bullfight.

Yes Hilly, I saw that. What an absolutely,totally awful thing to allow to happen, Barbarianism is not too strong a word. I was sickened

[Ursula]

Yes, but the way it works here, you´ll notice that the spanish families make sure there is always someone with them - they take it in turns to give 24 hour care and help to give them their meals, get them a drink etc. etc. It is not like the UK where you are only expected to formally visit for a couple of hours then go back home and leave it all to the nurses. The nurses here give them their medication, bed baths, do reports, and they rely on family members to keep them company, encourage them to eat, etc. After all, who knows the patient better than family?

[katy]

The story above is about lack of medical care, not giving someone lunch.

[Babby]

Yes Katy, but as Ursula pointed out, had someone been there all the time maybe they could have alerted somebody. If someone is gravely ill they shouldnt be left on their own. The nurses are not with each and every patient on a continual 24 hour basis but families are (Spanish families, the expats maybe cannot do it if there isn´t enough family to cover).

[Cassandra]

Surely if a person is gravely ill then they should be in an observation ward at least or intensive care? There's a world of difference between providing extra social and personal care and alerting staff to medical emergencies.

A friend of ours is in Huercal Overa hospital at the moment and was kept in an observation ward for the 1st 48 hours. We went to visit as his wife was in England and unable to get back until Saturday night and were asked to leave at 9.00pm, there was no question of anyone being expected to stay with him in case of a medical emergency.

I took her straight to the hospital from the airport late on Saturday night and he warned us not to go in through the main entrance if it was after 11 as we would not be allowed in so would have to go via emergencies. It was 11.05 when we got there and the emergency dept. did allow us through but most visitors were leaving as we arrived, Spanish families included.

[Babby]

The obversvation ward is different - they only allow friends and relatives in at certain hours. The wards themselves are different. I myself have stayed overnight and half slept in a chair next to my hospitalised father in law when there was no one else to be there. Of the few English I know that have been kept in hospital, few have opted to stay by their partners side but that may be due to the fact that they cannot smoke or drink in there and there is not a proper bed to sleep on so it is rather uncomfortable. I take my hat off to the Spanish.

[Bongtrees]

A very sour view of your fellow countrymen Babby, not all of whom drink and smoke, and unlike Spanish who have a phenomenal family network to rely on allowing someone to be by the side of their relative 24/7 ..

Most Brits only have their partner, may live quite a distance from the hospital, have a job, animals, pets to look after.

[Jool]

I was in hospital in Spain in both the observation (which goes up to intensive care level) and normal wards for several weeks. The normal wards all have buzzers to call a nurse so patients have direct contact with the nurse´s station and they all took an interest in whether I was eating or not etc. Perhaps some of the difference is that in the UK we tend to hand ourselves over to the hospital for care whereas here the ethos is self responsibility and that includes communicating when you don´t feel right...?? I never had a time when there was a nurse to talk to or ask questions of even when left on my own, which I was almost every night as we have dogs etc. If I needed help in the bathroom staff arrived promptly when the buzzer was rung and were very helpful.

It seems to me that many people don´t take account of the cultural differences when on holiday or re-locating yet these are vital as it is what shapes attitudes throughout every aspect of life over here.

[Jool]

Sorry, word missed out,

never a time when there was not a nurse to talk to......

in fact staffing levels were higher than in UK wards.......

[Babby]

It may have come across quite harshly Bongtrees, but it was only the truth. I am not saying all Brits are like that, I´ve only spoken of the few that I know that have been in hospital, some may have quite a lot of family in Spain and maybe its one of the things that should be considered when moving abroad, the "what if" factor.

[Bongtrees]

I dont ever recall reading anything about having to go mob handed to the hospital before I moved here and I did a lot of research before I came.

Unfortunately I have had lots of experience with hospital stays in Spain and I can assure you that the hospitals I have been in have a nurses station behind locked doors with notices all over the frosted windows telling people to call from their room.

Great if you get someone who can understand you and not a moron screaming que at 150 decibels over and over again through the intercom.

Lets hope that you have lots of family in Spain with you, you or they never fall ill and you never have to experience what I and countless others have.

If everyone thought ¨what if¨ nobody would venture outside their house.

[Babby]

Precisely my point Bongtrees, just trying to explain how the Spanish system works, there is no need to get personal.

On another note, the hospitals I´ve seen in Spain are much cleaner than in the UK.

[alaninspain]

I have been treated in the Xanit hospital at Benalmadena for both nuerological intensive tests and repairs to broken, fractured and dislocated bits in the last year. The treatment has been superb, but it now poses another problem. The lady doctors I have seen are young, and absolutely gorgeous, so I am looking up strange medical symptoms so I can spend more time with them. I pay my medical insurance so why shouldn't I get as much pleasure as I can?