A student has claimed that she had to call 999 from her bed while in hospital in Essex.
Ara Emile, 21, said that she thought she "was going to die" and that she believes she is "lucky to still be alive" after a two-week-long stay at Princess Alexandra Hospital in Essex.
Ara was admitted to the hospital on November 9 after suffering from a crisis episode caused by Sickle Cell disease, a blood disorder which predominantly affects people of Caribbean and African heritage, though it can affect anyone.
Ara was diagnosed with the condition at birth and said she has experienced four crises during hospital stays.
During one such episode which lasted for two and a half hours she claims that she had to call 999 from her hospital bed as nursing staff told her they could not do anything.
She revealed the incident in a post to TikTok, which has since been deleted and claims that a nurse took away her phone after she tried to call emergency services.
She told EssexLive: “I felt so helpless in that situation. I just felt like they were going to let me die. I didn't know if I'd be here today and it's very, very sad because I [felt like I] had to call 999 from the hospital bed."
She also alleged that staff had used micro-aggressions while treating her.
Micro-aggressions are relatively small incidents of prejudice which happen so often they become overwhelming, for example a white person asking a black person with an afro if they can touch their hair or a man telling a woman who is speaking in a normal voice that she is being "loud" or "shrill".
Ara said: “All I kept hearing was calm down and it’s like I can’t calm down I am having a sickle cell crisis it was just almost as if the sickle cell is so invisible.
"But sickle cell disease is more than statistical readings, what your blood pressure or temperature is. So, the whole day I felt like I was having to prove to these people that I was sick.”
Ms Ernile then called 999 from her hospital bed, but she claims the nurse took her phone. Later, she claims that doctors 'thought she was "over-exaggerating", and she claims she felt her life "didn't matter as much as maybe other lives".
She added that she felt unsafe in that situation and pulled out her phone to record the incident, which had gone viral on TikTok before it was removed.
She arrived in A&E majors before she was transferred to the Adult Assessment Unit (AAU) where she stayed for the remainder of her stay.
But she claimed the AAU is where patients are usually kept for 12 to 24 hours and she said none of the other wards had enough knowledge of sickle cell in the hospital.
She said: “I just felt like a lab rat because it was like they were so certain their textbook knowledge of sickle cell that they couldn’t believe what I was saying would be what could happen.
"It just felt like they knew what was best despite the fact they don’t deal with sickle cell patients much.”
Sadly, she had two crises the next morning including the documented TikTok incident.
She said that the 2.5-hour-long episode was so traumatising she peed on herself due to the immense pain.
Ara currently has two parliamentary petitions running campaigning for sickle cell to get free medication or prescription.
Sharon McNally, director of nursing, midwifery, and allied health professionals at The Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust said: “We are extremely sorry to hear about Ms Erinle’s concerns regarding her recent care and experience at our hospital.
“We are unable to comment on individual cases, however, we would encourage Ms Erinle to contact our patient experience team on 01279 827211 or paht.pals@nhs.net for further support.”
