Wednesday, January 29, 2014

My poor abandoned blog.....

I have had this blog for years and I have always really enjoyed updating it as a way of sharing my life with friends that I don't see all the time. I know that friends drop in who live locally to me and lots from as far away as Australia, Canada, Italy and the USA. So far I have always had lots to share being a crafty person always with something on the go, but recently I seem to have not been in the right head space.

I think the decline started after my holiday last year and all the trauma that went with that. I then had my op followed by the loss of Mum. I have been on auto pilot really since then. 

There is such a lot to do after a bereavement. Those first few weeks seem to have gone by in a bit of a blur. Some things were much easier than others. Some companies excelled themselves and some have made life down right difficult. I would like to give 02 a great big pat on the back, in the middle of all the confusion that Mum suffered in those final few weeks she managed to run up a huge mobile phone bill. She used her phone to contact us and accidentally sent us photos that she had received. Her last bill was over £300 instead of the usual £25. We finally phoned them to say she had passed away and were put through to a dedicated department who took the number from the death certificate and simply wiped off the bill! No quibble just told us that should any bill turn up we were to return it to the bereavement department. As it happened no bill ever turned up. So ten out of ten to 02.

Last week I received the report from the hospital into the fall that Mum had. It was quite a comprehensive report that surprised me as they had carried out the investigation into themselves. Even more surprising was that they identified five things that they had done wrong which led to Mum falling over. The most damming was that the physios had updated her notes to say that she should not be mobilised with a zimmer frame, she was unable to lift her feet and take steps, using the zimmer frame would be dangerous and could lead to her falling due to tripping. Sadly the staff did not read those notes for two shifts and continued with the zimmer frame which ended up with exactly what the physios feared, a fall which ultimately resulted in her death.

I was shocked that they had admitted their shortcomings. We still have not heard anything back from the Lister hospital about the complaint we made about the assault. They are well past their times (as per their own published policies) In fact we still have not heard anything from them. That is despite having two independent witnesses to the incident. We have decided this week that the only way forward is to sue them for assault and negligence. I am sure that its the only way that they will take any notice of us. I am still appalled that we have to go through all of this, its clear from the report into the fall that if they had followed their own rules Mum would not have fallen at that point and we would not have been doing this. I appreciate that Mum was not a well person but the fall finished her off and they knew there was a high risk and did not take the correct action. 

I am still recovering from my hip operation, I had a set back last week when I jarred it and was unable to walk for a few days, I am back on two sticks and it is settling down. I am not sure if I will be able to return to work next week as planned I'll have to see what my GP has to say. I have not been able to make good use of my time off as I have just not felt up to it, which I suppose is why I am sick!!! The combination of operation and bereavement is quite difficult to deal with.

On a positive note when we were in Florida I met a lovely chap called Scott who has a 'Green Monkey' face book page, he is aiming at getting pictures of green monkey all over the place, having fun. So I have decided to join in and photograph Green Monkey in England!! Last week Carl took me to Ikea and he (Green Monkey - for clarity!!) experienced his first ever Meatballs dinner!!


A little something to lighten my mood!!!
I wish this rain would going away its getting a bit boring now !!

2 comments:

Raymonde said...

Hi Liz, you are often on my mind. Thanks for the update. I like reading your blog. Take care. xxx

Scott said...

Thank you for sharing. It was so good to meet you and your family at Bob's show at Port Orleans. Be well!