Devastated as my partner was discharged 2 days after discovering he had a artery dissection & blood clot on his brain stem. 18 hours after discharge he suffered a major stroke & due to no ambulances being able to be dispatched. I got him into hospital within 1 hour. Yet after a CT scan showed he had another stroke this time in the basilar section, they could not carry out treatment until the following day as it was a Sunday & no service providers available!! 21 hours passed before treatment!! Even though he continued to deteriorate throughout that admission.
5 weeks hospital, 5 weeks rehab & he’s been home for 7 weeks!! We are left behind to pick up the pieces & both struggle with low mood & total uncertainty if full recovery can be achieved!
I don’t understand why they left him for his brain to die in front of our eyes??? If it wasn’t a weekend, would he of been treated? Would he of recovered?? So many questions & no answers??? Our world has fallen apart & the future is so uncertain!!!
Corra - I’m so sorry to hear of what happened to you and your partner. The hospital sounds like a really bad one. I can’t imagine someone being sent home 2 days after having a brain blood clot. And I think it’s criminal that he wasn’t given treatment right away, since even an idiot knows nowadays the importance of immediate care in the case of stroke.! ( You probably don’t have the energy for it now, but this sounds like the hospital deserves a law suit.) Anyway, what’s done is done. There are no answers to “what might have been”. There never is. The past is gone. All we have is now and the future. Now, you both just have to work toward wellness. Decide to take control with positive thinking and unending striving toward health and putting as much joy into your lives as you can. I’ll remember you both in my prayers tonight. 
Jeanne
@CorraB I am so sorry to hear about what has happened to your partner. When the time is right you should follow this up with the hospital and if necessary seek legal advice. What you describe certainly doesn’t sound good enough to me.
Sadly, what has happened cannot be changed and you need to find a way to move forward. No one knows with stroke whether a full recovery is possible. A lot of that is down to the individual whose had the stroke & their support network. Determination is a must when it comes to recovery. There will be ups and downs and good and bad days and progress can take many months & years. Try and focus on the positives in the progress. Even the smallest thing should be celebrated. I was thrilled, for example, when I could get toothpaste out of the tube. You could call the stroke association helpline to get some advice on the best way forward for you. There’s lots of good people on this forum so please reach out when you need to.
Best of luck. Stay strong you’ll get there. x
Hi if it’s any consolation I managed to struggle home after having stroke in garden where I worked in a very confused state. Was rushed to hospital and after hour or two my wife was phoned to collect me. She brought me home turned round and took me back for a three week holiday at the height of the covid lockdown. Over a year on happy to still be on planet earth and not with Angels. Not being flippant I’m aware there are all kinds of strokes of varying degrees of severity. I’ve lost permanently some peripheral vision. Ok the hospital made a mistake these things happen but it’s over I’m not going to remain resentful or bitter, life’s too short and we must all remain positive to recover. Hope all goes better from now on best wishes. Pds
Thank you all for taking time out to read & respond to my cries for help!!
It’s been an absolute rollercoaster of emotions. My partner was 54 when all this occurred totally out of the blue back in December 21.
The whole stroke situation has been a mess up right from the start. We have been let down by the whole system. Starting from the doctors receptionist!!
My partner Mark, experienced dizziness, which felt like the room was spinning & he couldn’t move his body! So he led there on the sofa for 2 minutes & the symptoms passed. He then had a headache & took paracetamol but he couldn’t swallow them & ended up vomiting! This was 7am in the morning, he waited for his doctors to open at 8am & he informed the receptionist of his funny turn/symptoms! Only to be told a doctor will phone back between 4-5pm!!
We got the call at 4:50pm & Thankfully the GP, asked to see him & as his blood pressure rose to 176/114 he sent him into the stroke ward at the hospital at 6pm to be assessed. By 10pm the stroke doctor was going to discharge him with BVPP vertigo!! Luckily the doctor wanted a 2nd opinion and at 2am after a CT scan it was confirmed that he had in fact had a stroke.
The next day he had a CTA which confirmed the vertebral artery dissection & a blood clot on his brain stem. He was told he has had a mini stroke. (The discharge noted it was a PICA infarct)
The following day he was discharged at 6pm with blood clotting tablets. He was advised he couldn’t drive for 1 month & it was best someone stayed with him for the next week!
Other than the above advise, we were never informed or made aware of the severity of the situation. Admittedly, we had no inside knowledge of TIA’s or strokes, so we placed our trust with the hospital. Although in hindsight one tablet was not going to resolve the devastation that led ahead of us. It was like a time bomb ready to go off!
Less than 18 hours later, out of the blue, Mark started to feel dizzy again upon standing, but very quickly after he said there was loud banging in his left ear & he couldn’t hear anything!
In a panic, I phoned the ward that he was discharged from, only to be told “We can’t do anything, I suggest you phone 111” (seriously!!)
Obviously, I didn’t phone 111 but phoned 999 & sadly was told they could not guarantee a dispatch, so it was agreed that I would drive him to the hospital. By now, his face was beginning to drop & he couldn’t stand due to nausea & leg weakness.
En route to the hospital, I phoned a&e to inform them of the situation & I requested immediate assistance & a wheelchair… this was responded with a “We can’t do anything until you get him booked in and you will need a £1 coin for the wheelchair”
I’m completely flabbergasted yet there was worse to come!!
Mark waited while slumped in a wheelchair from A&E as I joined the queue to get him booked in!
He was there within 1 hour & I do not understand why they didn’t treat him at all until the following morning. His medical records stated he could be considered for a thombectomy the following morning after 8am. When I questioned this as I watched him deteriorate hour by hour, The nurse stated it was due to “no service providers available”
In other words, don’t have a stroke at the weekend!!
During his stay in the hospital, he & other patients were neglected daily. He was even left in a wet bed for over 3 hours! The ward manager, even tried to fob me off with “it wasn’t 3 hours, it was more like 1.5 hours” as if this was acceptable!! Whereas in fact it was over 3 hours & the nurse on duty apologised & confirmed it was over 3 hours! We also had daily fights /struggles with the rude & arrogant receptionist to visit. All buzzers were left ringing and patients without a voice remained neglected. I understand the Covid restrictions & the knock on effect it has on staffing levels, however the majority of the staffing lacked care, compassion & manners.
I know it’s still early days regarding recovery but it’s been 17 weeks of grief.
Grieving the life we once had, grieving the life we have lost & grieving what are life could or should of been!
Mark is gaining strength in his arm & leg but he’s still uncoordinated & has facial paralysis, where he can not physically smile & his voice is hoarse & monotoned. This is the hardest part for me to accept! I miss his smile & the gentleness of his soft Voice.
Mark also has left ear deafness & is unable to blink or shut his left eye, although his vision is not affected.
Has anyone else suffered hearing loss & voice damage?
Will any of this ever come back in time??
@CorraB all that sounds completely unacceptable. I imagine Covid & staffing issues are probably the reasons they are giving you. I was in hospital twice in Dec 21 & whilst there were staffing issues it was nothing like you describe…with the exception of a 17 hr wait in A&E on my 2nd visit.
It is a bit like grieving when stroke strikes. As you say for what you had, what you’ve lost & the changed future you didn’t ask for. It’s difficult to embrace the new normal when you think things would have been so different if the medical people had acted differently.
I asked my consultant if I had sought medical attention earlier (my initial stroke symptoms started 3 days before I contacted a GP) whether the left sided weakness wouldn’t have happened - this was the last thing to go for me. They did say that as the stroke had started it wouldn’t have made any difference. Ultimately I will never know. This may be the same for Mark perhaps.
I found my hearing became extra sensitive rather than having hearing loss. I’ve heard of others having weaker voices post stroke although this didn’t happen for me.
With all strokes it takes a lot of time and patience to recover. Some make a full recovery others don’t…it is just so different for everyone. For me the most frustrating part is the not knowing.
With time, patience & determination hopefully Mark will improve significantly.
Sending positive thoughts your way.
Look after yourself too.
Ann xx
This is something that I have experienced both from hospital and GP. Advice on how to live life post stroke is sometimes sparse. This is one of the reasons I have joined up with Stroke Assn. In the few weeks I have been on these forums I have learnt a lot from what fellow sufferers have experienced. To be fair to the Medical staff, there has been huge pressures COVID wise but I agree that lack of information is something that needs to be looked at.
The other thing is I think why my GP may not want to tell me what lies ahead for me is that they don’t want me to get worried about it.