A Difficult Week

 It just takes one thing to knock you way off balance and bring home to you just how helpless we really are. My brother called last week to tell me that he had badly scalded himself, he had called 111 and was still waiting for them to reply after nearly an hour.  He sounded desperate and in considerable pain.

My brother has MS and is confined to a wheelchair he stubbornly manages his day to day care and refuses help even though his hands are now affected and he can barely stand.  I called 999 and made it clear that he was in need of urgent help gave them his history.  They said they would send an emergency Ambulance but there could be a bit of a wait and they would phone and speak to him.

 I live a good distance away so I jumped into my car and picking my daughter up on the way made my way to his home, he called me while I was driving and said the ambulance had phoned him and when he knew I was on the way sounded much calmer.

The sight that met my eyes when we arrived was heart breaking.  He had made himself a large cup of coffee and placed it into his lap, it had tipped over and scalded him, he had managed to remove his trousers and shoes and had gone into the garden to douse the burn with the hosepipe, so he now sat in a very sodden wheelchair every item of clothing was wet. 

I'm sure you can imagine what followed trying to help him is difficult because he feels embarrassed even more so in front of his niece but we got him as comfortable as we could.  The burns were quite extensive on both legs he had lost most of the skin and what was left was blistering.  I applied cling film to protect it and gave him some pain killers and fluids the nurse side of me automatically kicking in. I could see they needed dressing quickly to minimise the chance of infection.

To top it all my back had gone off earlier in the day and I could hardly move myself. I had called the ambulance at 1pm and they didn't arrive until 7 pm! In the meantime we had tried unsuccessfully to try and get him into the car to take him to A&E ourselves but he's a tall guy and his legs wouldn't fold he can barely stand, I had no strength because of my back and it was impossible for my poor daughter to do it alone.  

To cut a long story short he wasn't seen until 10 pm and he didn't get home until 4 30 am when my daughter and son in law went to collect him because the ambulances were too busy.  It took four people to get him into the car!

We have had a very difficult week as you can imagine firstly because of the burns and the pain he's in but also because of his attitude.  I love my brother dearly but he's very hard work, because I have been with him a lot this week I have seen first hand the difficulties he must experience every day because of his MS, the burns of course have exacerbated the situation.  

Everything I have suggested he has dismissed, from getting his pills dispensed in a weekly pill box  (he can't open lids on bottles and finds blister packs difficult) to bringing in social services to assess his care needs. I will of course do my best to help him in anyway I can but although I hate to admit it am an old lady and don't have the strength both mentally or physically to give him the help he needs. Thankfully I think the burns are healing, they are getting dressed often but it's early days yet and I hope that they don't become infected.

I worry about the way our health care system has deteriorated, when the 'emergency' ambulance eventually arrived they told me that they had dealt with 105 calls and that's why it had taken them so long to get to my brother. I pity those who may have had a heart attack or a stroke! When the nurses were dressing my brothers burns they said we will give you some dressing so you can dress them yourself!! It had taken three of them to do his dressings how did they expect him to do them himself? Only when he said he wouldn't be able to manage did they reluctantly agree to get him a district nurse and when she came the following day had great difficulty because of the extent of them and the position they were in.

I could go on and on because what I have experienced this passed week beggars belief. Thinking back from when I did my nursing training in the early seventies and the care people received then compared to now I can only wonder how did it all go so horribly wrong.

If you have managed to get this far, thank you all for listening and hopefully normal service will be resumed next week. Sending love to you all and I'm hoping and praying that every single one of us stay fit and healthy because if you need health care it appears that here in the UK you will be very lucky if you get it. xx