The big hole I think that was left was, you know, I think more than anything when [my partner] came out or when she woke up, she could have done, well, we both probably could have done with a lot more support at that stage. Because I was trying to answer [my partner's] questions as best I could. But it was really, and I remember saying to [my partner] so much that she really could do with some counselling. To sit down and have someone sit with her and [my partner] talk and ask the questions that she was asking me, but someone who she knew was qualified enough to answer, rather than someone who'd just sat in Intensive Care for four weeks and had been given a crash course in pneumonia. And that never happened.
And that was, I mean [my partner] would meet with the consultant that was in the private hospital looking after her, who was also covered the main hospital as well. And again, very, very nice guy, very, very qualified and, you know, inspired loads of confidence in what he was saying and doing, but he couldn't give [my partner] much time. And that was a big hole I think, and if -
So that, that was after she came round, after she left the HDU?
I think whilst she was in HDU to a degree as well but particularly when she left, there was definitely a need for someone to sit with her and sort of say, “Well”. Someone sort of like the outreach nurses at the start, but doing something like outreach at the end, is sort of just sitting down and saying, you know, “You've been through this, you've been through that. This is what's going to happen now. It's going to take you a long time. You shouldn't get pneumonia like this again”. You know, that's something that goes through her mind on a daily basis, “Am I going to get this ill again?” And, you know, that needs to be, that answer's been given to her on multiple occasions, but it needs to be reinforced. So, you know, that was another big hole I guess. |
