From: gavan@ppg.ie
Date: 31 Jul 2002
Time: 15:26:46
Remote Name: 193.120.140.194
My mother went into hospital on 08/28/01 suffering from a frozen shoulder; she was supposed to be in hospital for 2 or 3 days. As time went on, she became iller and seemed to be fading. At the time, she was suffering from chronic diahorrea and occassional vomiting. We went to her consultant who repeatedly told us that the problem was being caused by depression. When my brother and I refused to accept this ridiculous diagnosis he later dignosed Crohn's disease. I found out that this disease primarily affects young people (normally males) in their 20's.
All the time Mum was growing weaker and was becoming depressed as she was constantly in need of the toilet and had been so debilitated by the fluid loss that she required assistance to get to the bathroom. Her stomach had become a very strange shape like how you describe your dad's. On one occassion, she was left sitting on the toilet for 90 mins despite ringing the bell for assistance.
Just over a month after going into hospital with a sore shoulder, I received a phone call from the hospital stating that Mum had suffered a perforation of her bowel and that she would need to be transferred from our local hospital to Dublin (an hour away). When I went into the hospital she was in agony, screaming with pain and being ignored by the staff. It took over an hour, and the threat of legal action, before my mother was moved to ICU and her consultant sent for.
She was transferred to a hospital in Dublin for emergency surgery. After the operation she never fully regained consciousness and suffered various setbacks including one night where she had haemorriging from her mouth. She passed away on 12/02/01, two months after the operation.
I believe that had her doctors cared enough to be interested they could have spotted this condition before it became so serious and, who knows, my mother might still be alive. Failing that, she should not have had to endure the agony she went through on that Saturday when her bowel ruptured.