Starfish The Movie

Just been watching BBC Breakfast this morning and they featured the Ray family and their biopic Starfish The Movie.

I knew very little about this family and why should I: We all try to have some privacy especially in times of crisis, but these folks have bravely turned their story into a film. In a nutshell, Tom went to bed one evening with what he though was flu symptoms. He woke months later to discover he'd had arms, legs and part of his face amputated. Cause? Sepsis. The story is (and please correct me on any of this as I have yet to see the film) also about the effect on the family and how they pulled it together. Fuck me, this is one hell of a brave bunch. Tom's wife was 9 months pregnant when he went in hospital, they also had a young daughter and they were self employed. I thought I had it bad but this is off the scale..... I have so many questions for them!

I watched a couple of short clips during the interview and I was almost in tears. How I'll cope with the film will be interesting! I'm not watching the trailer, I'll wait for the film. For those of you who want to see a clip, here is the trailer...

 

Here's an article about the family.... so much sounds familiar. I'll never forget my wife being asked if I was the same person she had married and her answer was "no".... that's hard. Hard on her and hard for me to hear and comprehend. How the kids cope, I have no idea.

Anyway, this film needs supporting so please go see it. I'll add a piece at the end of this once I've seen it.

More info available at their website www.starfish.film

Sound Familiar?

I've not posted for AGES but just been talking to wifey who was telling me about another death at Lincoln County Hospital.... death by sepsis due to gallbladder complications.

Having a quick Google I found yet ANOTHER story...

From Stamford Mercury....link

Criticism of communication between Grantham and Lincoln hospitals during inquest into death

An inquest into the death of a man from Corby Glen raised concerns over communication between Lincolnshire hospitals, as an urgent procedure was cancelled when the patient received two appointments on the same date.

On March 22, Robert Hall, of Pridmore Road, died at Lincoln County Hospital from septicaemia, as a consequence of cholangitis caused by gallstones in the common bile duct. Also identified as a contributing factor was a perforated duodenal diverticulum – the first part of the small intestine.

A procedure to remove the gallstones, known as an endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography, or ERCP, was attempted three days before Mr Hall’s death, but had originally been scheduled at Lincoln for three weeks earlier, only to be cancelled because he was due to see his treating consultant at Grantham on the same day.

Coroner Paul Smith said: “It does seem there was something of a hiatus in the communication between the various hospital departments and Mr Hall’s family, which led to two letters being sent to them only a couple of days apart with competing and clashing requirements to attend either Lincoln or Grantham Hospital on February 26.”

Giving evidence during the inquest, Mr Hall’s daughter Stephanie Tuohy said: “I rang Lincoln County Hospital on February 16 to explain that we didn’t know what the procedure was and that we hadn’t seen the consultant to explain anything. They readily cancelled the appointment even though it was supposedly marked as urgent.”

She then accompanied her 81-year-old father to his Grantham Hospital appointment, only to be told he should have had the ERCP. “He asked if he’d had the procedure and we said no. He asked why and he was absolutely horrified.

“He was actually quite rude,” she told the coroner. “It concluded with him saying that we were wasting his time and we were not to go back to see him until we’d been to Lincoln for the ERCP.”

It was not the only delay experienced by Mr Hall and his family. An incomplete form had already put back the initial MRI scan identifying the presence of gall stones, and when this led to the decision on January 29 to do an ERCP, a letter stating this was received by Mr Hall’s GP but not by the patient. The first time Mr Hall heard about it was when he received the competing appointments for February 26.
The next day, Mr Hall was admitted to Lincoln County Hospital with severe abdominal pain, and the perforated duodenal diverticulum was identifed and operated on with success.
He returned home, only to be readmitted for on March 13 when it was identified that the gall stone problems predominated.
By the time the ERCP was undertaken on March 19, one gallstone was too large to be removed. The plan was to try again once Mr Hall’s body had recovered, but he deteriorated rapidly and died on March 22.
Returning a short narrative conclusion, coroner Smith said: “Robert Hall died from septicaemia, that being a recognised complication of an ERCP procedure attempted on March 19, 2015 to remove a gall stone from the common bile duct.
“At the time the procedure was undertaken Mr Hall was recovering from a successful procedure to repair a perforated duodenal diverticulum undertaken on February 27, 2015.
“It is not possible to say on balance of probabilities whether the outcome would have been different had the ERCP been performed prior to that operation.”

What's frightening about that, is colangitis....which is what I had earlier this year AND because doctors are too stupid to realise the symptoms or that this is happening- because when it happens, it happens fast- I'm now apparently more susceptible to this condition and so I now carry a scanned letter on my phone from my consultant explaining to any fuckwit medical person that I'm not being over dramatic and to take my condition seriously. Mental isn't it.
Like any medical condition, you begin looking and you find things you wish you hadn't!... classic example!