This Trip to A&E Was the Straw That Broke the Camel’s Faith in Their Healthcare System
Sent away without a clue isn’t going to cut it anymore
Trust and my national healthcare service have been in a rocky relationship since my mid 20’s. It was around the time my mother was being tested and treated for cancer and the horror stories I greatly wished were dramatised.
To protect her privacy, I’m not going to give away any specifics. Let’s just say, our NHS sometimes partners with private firms with agendas you’d read in a Charlie Brooker manuscript.
Mainly, I just saw my mother — the person who means the most to me in this world — being pulled about like a Christmas turkey from one professional to another for years, whilst being kept completely in the dark about what’s going on inside her own body.
My mother is an inspirational woman. If this scenario played out in the Serengeti, my mother would be a lioness amongst a pack of unhinged hyenas, already seeing her body as scraps. Above all else, she knew where she stood and that she was more than a lab experiment.
I’m writing this more than 5 years ahead and just over a week after a frightening run-in with a hospital that finally compromised my trust in the NHS enough to question our entire relationship.
He couldn’t see me in a lit room
When your boyfriend mistakes your 55" TV for the window and suddenly ragdolls at the end of your bed, many thoughts flood you whilst scrambling to pull them up again.
“Will I be able to lift him up by myself?”
“Do I alarm my housemate and put them through this too?”
“Do I call the ambulance now or do I wait until he comes to?”
“Will he even come to!?”
My heart skipped a few beats when he actually did. I was able to help him to stand and we both swayed off-kilter into our harshly bright ensuite. In the moments he regained more mobility, I realised things still weren't ok.
“Where am I? I can’t see you... I can’t see anything.”
Seeing my boyfriend’s pupils the size of dinner plates unable to lock my gaze cut through my heart. It was one of the most frightening moments of my life. I never want that to happen again. I was helpless and stripped of certainty within minutes.
It was time to call on the experts.
Over 5 hours without any answers
We call ‘999’ when we’re at the end of our ropes, dangling above an ocean of doubt, afraid we might let go and drown. We firmly believe the journey between our connected phone line to walking out of the hospital’s sliding doors will result in that all-important answer (or hint at one) we’ve been desperately in need of.
This is a journey often taken in vain. I learned this the hard way.
Both I and my partner felt the pandemic’s strain on the healthcare system in full force that morning. Despite being seen as a priority, we still waited well over 2 hours for his ambulance to arrive.
Thankfully, the paramedics were superstars. Their bedside manner alone was worth the wait. By that time, we were both near zombified, having only partially napped in our living room since the incident happened just before 4 am.
They treated him like a human. They told us both directly what could be a likely reason behind what happened — even though we weren’t 100% convinced, and we even shared a few laughs before they escorted my boyfriend to our local hospital.
When he left and I was told I wouldn’t be allowed to enter the building even if I accompanied him, I let out a sigh of relief. I knew he was in capable hands and the doctors would have to take his case seriously now he had lost total consciousness with no major prior complications.
I really hate having false hope…
After being given the runaround and undergoing various tests, my partner left the hospital after 5 hours with a distant future cardiology appointment and without any clue as to what caused his morning blackout.
And, of course, I was livid.
Misdiagnosis is a terrible thing, so I see why medical professionals wouldn’t want to deal with absolutes and risk providing false information. But this is a journey for both patient and doctor — one can’t exist without the other.
So, surely that means there’s an obligation for medical professionals to show a level of transparency and treat patients more like partners, not specimens? Have faith in us with information as we are expected to remain faithful to them.
We would have appreciated more insight into what the blackout could be caused by and not just being told what it’s not. Tests are a helpful starting point for that. But they’re certainly not worth the time, effort and money if their results fail to help them arrive at a reasonable conclusion.
It took me less than 5 to find one myself
It doesn’t take someone with 6+ years of higher education to connect the dots and realise cause and effect relationships are a matter of common sense — as is our human instinct to be resourceful.
So, yes, before going to sleep on the night of the incident, I took a few minutes to consult ‘the mighty Google’ to find out what could have likely caused such a frightening turn of events.
He hadn’t experienced anything like this before. We both needed to understand the potential causes and learn of ways to prevent them.
And just like that, we received some respite after a day of sleep deprivation and near heart failure.
What I read up about might not be the exact cause of my boyfriend’s freak blackout but it certainly provided the all-important thing his doctors couldn’t: simple actionable takeaways.
Thanks to the pandemic, we live in a world now shaken by uncertainty and starved of resources, which has reformed the entire healthcare system. Wait times are longer, in-person appointments have become literally gold dust, and virtual doctors who are based regions away from us are having appointments with us over our smartphones to answer the call.
For this reason, I’m fed up with having everyone’s time, resources and money wasted on hospital trips with a lack of results and actual investigation.
This story isn’t my boyfriend’s alone. After experiencing this ordeal first-hand, it worries me to live in a society that frowns upon taking control of our own health and possessing independent thought.
We are quick to oppose those who have blind faith in religion. Why then do we willingly place ours in the hands of those who go through motions bound by outdated medical guidelines?
We are expected to trust institutions notorious for accepting pushback from pharmaceutical companies, so why can’t we question whether our doctors’ sage advice isn’t affiliate marketing?
We are expected to wait months on end for answers that could be made within days, so why can’t we seek a second opinion from a trusted source in the meantime?
If kept waiting for months on end for results, we will not be defeated. We can always be resourceful and find ways to take back our power and seek out rays of light when surrounded by darkness.
The bottom line is…
If you don’t want us Googling our symptoms, be the doctors we need.
Are you a writer looking for your tribe? Love to read? Want full access to Medium? I’ve got you covered.
