So in an earlier post, I talked about Paul who had suffered outrages at the
hands of the Social Security.
But
they weren't the worst thing to happen to him.
As
I said, he got cancer. They performed an operation to remove a chunk
of liver and a kidney and put him on this course of drugs to deal
with a cancer too small to be operated on. Over the months, this
cancer seemed static.
Then
his blood calcium levels rose. The consultant said that it was
nothing and indeed Paul's blood results were better than his.
The
blood calcium levels continued to rise. He was given some drug to
counteract it and told not to worry. The drug didn't work
Over
the months, his blood calcium levels contained to rise. Paul's
condition worsened. His wife, who was an ex-Nurse, knew something was
wrong and demanded that he be seen by another consultant.
The
second consultant told Paul that elevated blood calcium was usually a
sure sign that the cancer was attacking the bones. So he did some
tests and required Paul to stay at the hospital until the results
came back. As soon as the consultant got the results, he strapped
Paul to a stretcher and flew him to the mainland for emergency Radium
treatment. Paul's body was riddled with cancers. Well, it was too
little too late and Paul died a few months later.
That
was over 15 months ago and Paul's widow has been trying to get a
meeting with these specialists. She's not interested in suing any one
or pointing a finger of blame. She just wants to find out how Paul
could have got so bad whilst under the hospital's observation. That's
a reasonable question, isn't it?
The
hospital is ignoring her.
To
add insult to injury, a friend of Paul's widow had exactly the same
condition as Paul but because he didn't have Paul's consultant, the
problem was spotted early, treated and the doctors have given him
another 2 years at the least.
So
has life and death in Jersey become a lottery depending on which
doctor you see?
So
would Paul be alive today had he seen a different consultant? I can't
answer that because I'm not a doctor. All I know is that there is
definitely something very wrong with a society where we even have to
contemplate a question like that.
So
I'd like to end by leaving you with 2 questions to think about:
- Would the outcome have been different if we had built a new hospital building.
- Do the problems with the hospital go deeper than that but the building is diverting vital attention and resources away from the real problems and putting peoples lives at risk?
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