Cleveland Clinic London Hospital 2022-06-21 Person 3 5 0

On the telephone call prior to admission, I was told that on the day of the procedure I would be allowed to have my husband with me, especially to help me as a translator, which didn't happen as he was asked to wait outside. The nurse then, told my husband that she only would need me initially for a brief period of time and that I would soon be back to the waiting area before being admitted for the procedure, which also didn't happen and my husband wasn't even informed about this change of plans. During admission, I informed the nurse that my nose was severely blocked due to hay fever and that I was concerned that it might be a problem during the procedure. The nurse then advised me she would speak to the endoscopist and check the implications of that but before I knew I was being taken to the procedure room without any answers regarding this matter. It was only inside the procedure room that, since no one took the time to ask the endoscopist, I raised the question myself as I was concerned that my nose being blocked would cause me trouble breathing during the procedure. The consultant told me that it shouldn’t be a problem as I would breathe through my mouth, but as soon as the nurse applied the anaesthetic spray to my throat I started having difficulty breathing, especially in the position they wanted me to be in. As I moved my head gasping for air, I realised I hadn’t removed my earrings and as I was removing one of them, one of the nurses took the other earring off my other ear and my glasses off my face without even asking, which got me very stressed as I realised that I wasn’t being treated with respect. During the telephone call prior to the procedure, I mentioned to the nurse that, even though I didn’t have a mobility issue per se, I had a surgical procedure in the recent past that was still causing mobility restrictions and pain. The nurse reassured me that on the day of the procedure this would be taken into account and that I would be able to assume a position that I would be more comfortable for me to be in. Unfortunately, no one seemed to be aware of that on the day and even though, already in the procedure room, I explained the situation to the nurses they didn’t seem to know what to do with that information or they didn’t simply care at all, as they required me to be in the position that was easier for the procedure to be performed and pulling my head back into position while I was trying to breathe. For the procedure itself, even though I have had the same procedure done twice in the past, I was thoroughly informed that there were three possible ways to go ahead and I specifically gave consent for the procedure to be done under conscious sedation, as I had for my previous endoscopies, so I was already familiar with how the procedure should go. Although the sedative was given, neither the consultant nor the nurses waited for the medication to work. Even before the medication was handed to the consultant, one of the nurses put my head back in position and put the mouthguard on me even though I was struggling to breathe and it caused such severe stress that I started frenetically bitting the mouthguard while the consultant without even looking at me asked the nurse for the sedative and, as soon as the endoscopist applied the medication on my vein, he got the procedure started. Because of this lack of professionalism and patience to wait for the medication to take effect I could feel the endoscope being forced through my mouth and oesophagus and while I saw the consultant moving the equipment to get better images I could feel the movement of the tube inside of me as the procedure was being performed.

The team should have respected my wishes and treated me with dignity. Considering that I gave consent to the use of a sedative, I expected the team to wait for the medication to take effect and, as they didn't, not only my consent was not followed but also I was given medication in vain. In addition to that, the spray in the throat should have been applied after the sedative was given, not before as happened to me causing me so much stress. The team should have taken into consideration my mobility restrictions/pain during the whole process and made me comfortable as I was told they would during the procedure, which was not the case. Also, the team should have asked me to remove my personal items prior to taking me to the procedure room instead of ripping my items out of me without my permission.

The team who performed the procedure, the consultant Gavin Johnson and the nurses who assisted him in the procedure room, were very successful in making this experience an exceptionally bad one.