On Tuesday Les was using a circular saw to cut up small branches for kindling. Due to unsafe use and the swatting of a spider he has severed his right hand little finger between the first and second joint, he also has cut part way through his ring finger. I rushed him up to the hospital, then went back to collect his finger it took me a while to find it.
Les was taken by ambulance to the local country airport and taken to Adelaide by The Royal Flying Doctor Service. He was then transported by ambulance to the Royal. He arrived there at 5:30pm, he had to wait in the emergency department until 11pm, then was transferred to X-ray and then at 1:30am was given a sandwich and a cuppa, and moved to a ward. He has been fasting since, he is being told he may or may not be going into surgery Tonight or tomorrow. He was given a drip here before he left, they changed the bag down there, but forgot to release the fluid, so Les became dehydrated. His amputated finger is on ice at the side of his bed, the nurses who come on duty are all having a look at it, and one picked it up and ran down the hall chasing another nurse with Les finger....
i am absolutely disgusted with this behaviour. I am going to wait until Les comes home, then I am going to write a letter of complaint to the hospital. I just can't believe what they have been doing, that it's taking so long...
He is fine in himself, but in a lot of pain. All he wants is to come home, I can't wait to go down and pick him up. So looks like any future trip will now be put on hold for a few months. I don't care, at least he only lost a finger as it could have been worse
That is terrible news grams. I hope he is ok and the finger can be reattached. What a terrible accident.
I hope you put in a complaint about the behaviour of that hospital, that is disgusting. It's not just the amount of time that has past but also the infections that could be transferred by the finger not being treated right and being mishandled.
that is such a sad state of affairs Grams, can only hope it all goes fine from here but unfortunately in this day and age will just have to keep our collective fingers crossed for you both.................
Ouch. Not good at all Grams. Just a thought and you would know, do you think the nurse may have thought something didn't look right about the finger, maybe wrong colour or similar, just a thought.
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The finger is packed in ice, so is fine, but the giggling of the nurses wasn't an indication there was anything wrong with it.
The Dr spoke to Les about the surgery, which was scheduled for tonight and has now been cancelled again. The Dr said if they reattached it he may never be able to bend it or straighten it, so it would be more use to him to just leave the stump. It sounds reasonable and Les has agreed, so do I, not to reattach only to clean up and stitch over the stump.
I also don't understand why the finger, seeing as its not going to be used, is still on ice next to Les bed...why hasn't it been disposed of?
Hopefully surgery will be tomorrow. I'll keep you updated.
Oh dear! Grams I'm sorry to hear about Les's finger, hope he gets out of there as quick as possible, and it feels fine enough to drive, and you can get going as planned.
You might as well take that finger home, it belongs to Les, not the hospital.
Thank you everyone. Les is coming home tomorrow, we have to nip in and see our 5yr old grandson on the way home, as he is so upset that Poppy lost his finger, he burst into tears, poor kid. So we are going to show him Poppy's still the same...well almost lol.
There are better ways to go about lightening the mood that offending the patient and his family or loved ones.
That is just plain common decency in my opinion. Some people don't think of others when they do these sorts of things and it does hurt and offend some we have to respect that don't we?
Hope it is all well from now on - good luck - and hope the little boy is ok with Poppy losing his finger - as long as he knows he will still get lots of cuddles, he'll be right.
Take care. And we should all take a warning from this, how easy it is to injure ourselves.
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jules "Love is good for the human being!!" (Ben, aged 10)
So sorry to hear about the accident and hope Les makes a speedy recovery. Sounds like the Health Care situation leaves a lot to be desired across the entire country.
The problem here in SA is most of the country hospitals have now been turned in to clearing stations. Here where I live nearly every thing is flown to Adelaide RAH. Consequently the City hospitals are now over run with patients. 12 months ago I was admitted to the RAH with Gall blader problems on a Wednesday, was scheduled for an op on the thusday @ 9.00am. Didn't happen until 3pm, due to other emergencies. Friday still in mutch pain & told still have stones blocking the Bile duct & need endoscopy to remove them. Told the op will be scheduled for following Monday as they reduce staff & ops on the weekend. Come Saturday morning & doctor says stones have to come out out ASAP as its destroying my liver. Come time for procedure & there is an other emergency from an accident, so another surgeon is called in for my procedure. All done by the afternoon. Released to go home on the Monday Yea!!. On the whole I couldn't realy complain about the service. But it was an eye opener as to what the staff & nurses have to cope with. On the sugery ward at night there is only 2 nurses on & they are well worked for that shift. Yes in a bed alongside of me was an older guy with a finger cut off by a circular saw cutting firewood. Hope your good to go with future wood cutting, atleast that finger wont be in the way again.
This why we're hoping to maintain our private cover. A couple of years ago I did something similar to Les and was fortunate enough to be able to afford a private hospital - immediate treatment for the pain with micro surgery the following morning (didn't save the finger tip though) discharged that afternoon. The behaviour of the staff shouldn't be tolerated - there's no excuse for that and it should be reported to the hospital management - most hospitals now have patient advocates who can help you through the complaints process.
Hope Les recovers and you can both get traveling again.
Australias health system as a whole is on the decline unfortunately, as I dont know Les I hope all keeps going well for him and makes me want to hope never too need urgent attention. I am on the waiting list to have a perferated ear drum repaired, I had to insist that the ENT doctor put me on the list then after over 6 months had passed I got a letter asking me if I stillwanted the surgary then I decided to give a follow up call to the RAH and was told that there is only one surgeon who does this operation and he only does them every second Tuesday if he is available, makes you feel like you live in a third world country. By the way most of the people who do work in our hospitals probably dont get the thanks they deserve.
Cheers Andrew
Les is happy to be home, and being pampered, though not for much longer...lol
Our grandson asked Poppy if his finger will grow back...so Les had to explain we only get one and if you lose it it's gone for good. But he was fine with it and hugged him.
The hospitals here are brilliant, I have been in the emergency situations many many times, it has been excellent, no problems at all. Yes you may get the odd hiccup along the way, but that's understandable. I would still never pay for PHI, which we can't afford, the public hospital system isn't perfect but it's good enough.
Were just like you Grams, the wife had private health insurance up to 12mths ago. She had several operations & the gap payment was around $3000 each time, so that & the premiums got too dear & she had to drop the cover as we couldnt afford it any more. Good to hear Les is OK.
it took me a while to find it.
Grams I'm sorry to hear about Les's finger, hope he gets out of there as quick as possible, and it feels fine enough to drive, and you can get going as planned.
