Share review of Northumbria Specialist Emergency Care Hospital

Northumbria Specialist Emergency Care Hospital 2024-01-18 Person 2 5 0

Where to start. My Mum, in her 70s, was admitted due to 2 seizures on the trot. To start off, the ambulance crew dropped her on the floor trying to walk her backwards out of the back door, down a steep step whilst she was confused and in the post ectal phase of a seizure. She was dehydrated having not drunk anything that day. She had an MRI, didn't know who she was or who anyone else was, then didn't know where she was. Very unusual for her considering her seizures had been kept at bay for years. She was then suffered from delirium whilst on the Ward due to the dehydration, paranoid, wouldn't ear or drink because she thought the staff were trying to poison her. The Ward were suggesting she had dementia, but my step sister on day three of admission asked if it was the dehydration causing the delusions and hallucinations. Still nothing done. I was working away from home, so I emailed and asked the same question or whether her anti seizure meds (having read the insert online), could be causing her issues. Asked for a doctor to call me. No one rang. Day six I took guidance from CQC, emailed again, quoted them, the Mental Capacity Act, asked who had done the Mental Capacity Assessment, why hadn't they applied for DOLs authorisation as she couldn't consent and was at that point in real danger of dying of dehydration, as her kidneys were shutting down. Within two hours a lovely junior doctor rang me. He told me they were getting her on a drip immediately, but the whole team felt she had vascular dementia due to micro vascular changes detected on the scan. Low and behold 2 hours later she was back to normal and completely lucid and coherent. She was so close to her organs failing due to lack of fluids. She was then dehydrated again after almost a week in hospital, no fluid charts being done, which sent her delerius again and they had to stabalise her before transfer to another hospital. Told she would need another MRI as something else was going on. I've since contacted my Mum's Neurologist (with her consent) and she has looked at the first two scans that were done during her initial admission and she can't detect anything abnormal that would raise concern on the scan. Medication being changed as this is likely the cause of her seizures and hallucinations, with the complication of dehydration induced delirium. Unbelievable. Water is a basic need, it's basic care. I didn't need a medical degree to understand that, so why didn't this hospital and these health staff!!! I really feel sorry for those people who end up in these places and cannot advocate for themselves. They won't ring an ambulance now, as being in hospital caused more harm than good.