ive got put looking through boxes aside and address the responses I got from the hospital to my complaints regarding the treatment of Jayne and force them to change the scanning procedures ,they admitted only Jaynes breast were scanned and was the only thing they would scan every 5 years once a year.what a waste of time,knowing secondary breast cancer is more likely be else were in the body.ie the bones liver kidneys.how is this considered adequate after care in the prevention and finding any early signs of the return of breast cancer if they are not even looking in the correct place.the responses I got to each of the complaints I made in no way give me any confidence that the same wont happen to others with breast cancer.
3 Likes
It’s scary the things that are missed you just don’t expect it in this day and age of technology. My mum kept getting sent away. Even though she had severe back pain and a cough. She really should have had an mri when the X-ray showed clear
I keep hearing hbow things have improved,i cannot say its believable as they are cutting to many corners.bet if it was the doctors wife partner son brother etc they would have a thorough scan not a look were its not ever likely to be.
I’m shocked on here how many peoples relatives died in a very short space of time from diagnosis to death. Meaning it was already advanced. My mum found out on the day Saturday. She died on the Monday. That’s two days. And she had lung cancer metastasised
1 Like
they need to pull there fingers out.sadly my partner Jayne was taken hospital by her mother and was put as next of kin,so I had go another route to make a complaint,Jayne was given the all clear on 10may [but as ive said they only scanned her breast area]and on jan 23rd was in hospital on 10th feb she was gone.it was a nightmare ,finding out the parents and brothers had never liked me after id been Jaynes partner for 28 years.to be told Jayne would be given a scan once a year for 5 years.why the hell only scan the breast area when its known breast cancer comes back else were im sick of hearing excuses for only scanning the breast area.well its not good enough the whole body needs sscanning id of personally found the money from some where to pay if thats the reason they only scan the breast as my partners life is worth more than any amount of money.they should give patients the option to pay as most would sooner pay then be scanned were the cancer isnt ,its a joke how little they really care for the patients.
1 Like
It might be worth raising awareness of it. I don’t know how you would do it. But more needs to be done.
Yes gp’s are as bad. My partner had copd, prostrate cancer and non-hodgkins lymphoma. He developed a very bad cough and cold and had a nasty chest infection. He was very anxious and depressed, not eating and lost loads of weight. He would sit there and hum some of the time and had real difficulty getting up the stairs. He was 77 years old and up to that point of developing those symptoms was a very fit man for his age. Even with the cancers and copd. In November and December we kept going to the doctors and they kept giving him antibiotics and more antibiotics. Mid December I asked the gp we had been seeing if he could be referred to hospital and his answer to me was why. Alan wasn’t admitted to hospital until the 8th January when his specialist consultant saw him when he was having one of his check ups. He was mortified when he saw his weight loss and the state of him and said we will find you a bed for a few days. Alan never came out of hospital. He sadly passed away on the 4th May. My regret was taking him to see the same gp each time thinking that was the best thing to do save having to explain things over and over again. How I wish I had.
1 Like
Should read How I wish I had taken him to a different gp.
2 Likes
Clive had pains in his side for years and went to the GP many times with it. The GP always told him it was muscular and he should rest and take ibuprofen.
In the end I bullied him into going in and demanding a scan - they told him it would take up to 9 months to get the scan done but he insisted he was in terrible pain so they fasttracked him - that was when they found the tumours on his liver. Even then the GP only prescribed him 30/500 co-codomol which were next to useless against the pain he was experiencing.
We were told he had cancer over the phone by a nurse who seemed to think we already knew (we didn’t) and were told it was terminal by a surgeon in the most offhand, curt way you can imagine. He just said “There’s nothing we can do for you, just take the painkillers, that’s all you’ve got.”
When I gasped, he turned to me and said “Don’t worry love, you’ll still have him next week, and the week after - maybe even by Christmas if you’re lucky” - and that’s how we found out how advanced his cancer was.
We were given no support by the NHS, just directed to the local branch of Boots to get some leaflets - luckily there was a McMillan leaflet there and I managed to get them to come and visit, and they were wonderful.
I lost him 18 days later.
I will definitely be making complaints about the GP’s treatment and the way we were informed of Clive’s cancer and the totally unsympathetic way he was treated by just about everyone we saw. I’m only waiting until I know I can go before a panel without falling apart - I don’t want them to see me as the grieving widow looking for someone to blame. There were horrendous mistakes made in Clive’s diagnosis and treatment and I want them to make sure no-one else has to go through what we did. I don’t want compensation, I want action on the way they treat their patients.
3 Likes
I feel the same why don’t medical professionals listen to relatives we know our partners and we know when they are ill, my just and had a bad arm and was told it was a touch of cellulitis and given antibiotics, 3 days later he was so ill I got the gp out as he was so ill. He changed his antibiotics and gave him soluble paracetamol, next day I dialled 999, paramedics thought it was sepsis, but hospital said no just a bad case of cellulitis they would operate the day after tomorrow, he declined over those 2 days I kept asking coul it be sepsis, I then asked if a sepsis screen had been done I was told it would be done later that day, I went home and half an hour later I was called back to hospital he was in septic shock and was in ICU, he died 18 hours later of kidney failure due to sepsis, I relive that last week constantly thinking I should have been more assertive, he had all the markers for sepsis but they kept saying it was just a really nasty infection, I think I will carry this guilt forever x
2 Likes
Should be my husband not my just
I think sometimes we forget that medicine is not as advanced as we would like to think.
My husband had 4 months between diagnosis and death - sometimes I think we should have seen earlier - sometimes I think the doctors some time before diagnosis must have missed a sign etccetc but I think that we are not that advanced -
Sorry it is not a very positive comment
Sadie
2 Likes
I agree. I know that there was probably nothing that would have saved Clive - medicine isn’t magic - I just feel so bloody angry at the offhand way they treated him. All I wanted was for him to have been treated with some kindness and empathy.
When we got home from the Oncologist, I was desperate to get someone to help us deal with what was coming. I couldn’t believe that we were just going to be left on our own. Clive sat in his chair and said to me “Don’t bother, Al, nobody cares. We’re on our own”
He was my husband. I loved him more than life, and nobody cared enough to treat him with even a little bit of compassion. That’s what I’m angry about. They made him feel as if his life wasnt worth a couple of minutes of their time - that he was just a bloody nuisance.
That’s not right and I’ll never forgive them for it.
2 Likes
i am so sorry to hear about the awful way you were dealt with, its a disgrace. You are right to complain…the specialist is clearly in the wrong job…bedside manner…he has none and as for caring…non existant. Stay strong xxx
2 Likes
Barbcon,
It wasn’t your fault that the hospital staff were not doing their job properly.
I am horrified by these accounts of negligence and inefficiency.
1 Like
Thank you Mary, it still doesn’t stop the guilt, I am a retired nurse though, I could see the markers, but I could see their heckles rising when I questioned them about results etc, I just wish I had stood my ground more but when your in the midst of it, you just think your being pain, I so wish I had been a bigger pain take care Jan x
1 Like
I agree with every word you say Barb, my Stan had been to our GP many times, our daughter drove up from Ashbourne in Derbyshire and took her dad to the hospital, he was admitted on sight.
Our doctor has an excellent reputation, I suppose he missed the signs.
1 Like
Sorry to hear that your GP missed the signs, I suppose we put to much faith in the professionals, it still goes back though to them not listening to the patient and their loved ones, most people don’t go to their GP unless they feel ill, giving the difficulty of getting appointments, problem is how thorough can your GP be in ten minutes, and half the time you come away thinking you have wasted their time, then find out at a later date their was something wrong, but all to often it can be to late take care Jan x
Hi everyone I am deeply sorry for all for all your losses. cancer is horrible I know what I was going though must have put so much Pressure on my Darling Beautiful wife PENNY 
for over a year with my Cancer . Prostate Cancer. Then for her to be diagnosed with Mets Breast Cancer. 2of her 3 brothers have Prostate Cancer as well both on watching . After Penny Passed away. I have found out that there is a Gene BRCA1and BRCA 2 in both Prostate cancer and breast cancer her eldest Brother has it for the last 8 years why did they not ask if there was a sister in the family 8 years ago then Penny might have stood a chance as I would have made sure she was checked more often . You find out this when it’s to late.
1 Like
Same story I have Prostate cancer diagnosed this time last year told I had piles by GP then Overdosed on homones by a Professor at a hospital . GP told my wife Peñny she had Sciatica she had was diagnosed with Mets Breast Cancer in October taken to hospital passes away 21 days after diagnosis on the 06 November 2019.