A teacher who suffered a sudden seizure at work slept on the floor in A&E during a "traumatic" 18-hour stay only to be sent home without treatment. Alicja Wojtowicz, from Newtown, Powys, collapsed at an open evening in her further education college on Thursday, June 16.
Thankfully a first-aider was on the scene to put her into the recovery position while an ambulance was called. However, as only one paramedic attended to assess her, Alicja was put in the back of her partner's car and driven to the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital around an hour away.
She claims she then spent 18 uncomfortable hours in the waiting room of A&E before being told she'd have to go home as there were no free beds - despite her needing a test to check for possible epilepsy. She was eventually discharged home, in a confused state, and three weeks on is still none the wiser as to why she had the "frightening" episode.
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To rub salt into the wounds, the 46-year-old said she was sent a letter stating that she will need to undergo a telephone consultation with a doctor from New Cross Hospital in Wolverhampton on September 15 - meaning her life has been "put on hold" until then. "Having a seizure is really exhausting for your whole body. You cannot comprehend what is happening around you," Alicja said. "But what makes this worse is the fact I still don't know what caused it. It was the first time I'd ever had a seizure and I don't know whether it'll happen again.
"My life is now on hold. I cannot drive, and given that I live rurally and the bus goes through the village once per week, it means I'm isolated and cannot travel to work or to go shopping. I'm not even sure if I'm safe to walk around with my nine-year-old son. Throughout this experience there has been no urgency. I don't feel like I have been given proper care."
Mum-of-one Alicja, who suffered head injuries and also soiled herself during the seizure, said the first thing she noticed when she arrived at hospital was the sheer volume of ambulances queuing outside A&E with patients inside. "Thankfully my partner brought some spare clothes along with him so I could change in a toilet. After speaking to the receptionist I was sat in the waiting room for hours - nobody was really interested in me," she said.
Alicja, from the small village of Adfa, Newtown, said a CT scan was carried out and bloods taken from her at some point during the night. "At 4am a consultant asked me a few questions and said they were waiting for a bed to open up for me as I needed to have an EEG to check my brain activity to see whether I had epilepsy," she explained. "I was so confused and tired that I started crying. I just lay on the waiting room floor for a couple of hours and slept."
At around midday on June 17 Alicja was given a letter - summing up what had happened to her - by hospital staff and told she would need to go home due to a lack of beds. "I was given a leaflet, but no instructions as to whether I was a danger to myself. Nothing was said to me. I just had to call my partner to get me."
Alicja, who moved to the UK from Poland more than two decades ago, said her life is now in limbo for the next two months until the telephone consultation takes place. "How on earth is the consultant going to be able to establish over the phone whether I have epilepsy or not? I thought it was a joke. I've been told they can find out whether I have epilepsy from questions they ask me. This is just not right.
"I spoke to my GP about how upset and angry I was about this whole ordeal. They were very sympathetic but they cannot do much." She concluded: "I've always worked and always paid my taxes, including National Insurance. To be treated in a way that I do not matter is shocking."
In response, Jeff Morris, head of service at the Welsh Ambulance Service, said: "We're really sorry to hear about Alicja’s experience which is not the service that we aim to deliver. We sent an emergency ambulance with a paramedic on board to Alicja, and while waiting for back-up the patient decided to make her own way to the hospital. We would encourage Alicja to contact our Putting Things Right team so that we can better understand her concerns, and wish her all the best on her recovery.”
Hayley Flavell, director of nursing at The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust, said: "Whilst we are unable to comment on individual cases, we always endeavour to provide the highest possible standard of care. Where we may not have lived up to this, we have comprehensive and rigorous processes in place, and if the patient would like to contact us, we would be keen to understand and learn from her experience."
A spokesperson for Powys Teaching Health Board said: "We regret Ms Wojtowicz’s experience and sympathise with her concerns. Our Quality and Safety team will follow up with her so we may address the specific issues raised.
“Powys is a rural county and relies upon the wider network of out-of-county Welsh and English NHS district general hospitals for urgent and emergency care, and a range of more complex diagnostic services. The NHS system as a whole is under significant pressure, and is not currently offering the speedy access to services that we all would like. Ms Wojtowicz is within a diagnostic care pathway provided by the the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust.
"We would recommend that Ms Wojtowicz talks to her GP about any concerns she may have about her potential diagnosis, and also checks the NHS 111 Cymru website which will provide her with useful information about a range of conditions including epilepsy."
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