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Liverpool Echo
Liverpool Echo
National
Wesley Holmes

Woman thought dad was going to die after 24-hour wait in A&E corridor

A woman thought her dad was going to die after he spent more than 24 hours in an A&E corridor with pneumonia and a stomach bleed brought on by severe vomiting.

Alex Connolly's dad Brian, 57, was taken by ambulance to Royal Liverpool Hospital at around 7pm on Monday, February 27, after falling ill at the Salvation Army accommodation where he lives.

Alex, 27, said: "I waited with him all night on the corridor in A&E, which was full of patients waiting for triage. We waited just over 24 hours in the corridor. It was unimaginable. People with nans and grandads all sitting there, exposed. There was one nurse for the whole corridor. There were people being sick."

READ MORE: Merseyside's hospitals are 'still too full' with patients lining corridors

Alex said her dad, who suffers from alcohol addiction, needed to take four Librium pills every four hours to prevent alcohol withdrawals - but was only given a single pill after she "begged" for help.

The mum of two said: "My dad is an alcoholic and I understand it's hard looking after people with addiction problems. He was basically told he was at the back of the queue.

"He was sweating, shaking, he was withdrawing really badly. I thought my dad was going to die. There were moments I broke down crying and begged nurses just to give him medication to help him."

Eventually Brian was moved into another room and given a bed on Tuesday, February 28, but Alex said when he began to feel better and got up on Thursday, March 2, he was not allowed to return.

"The nurses said because he had gone out, he'd lost his bed," she said, adding that Brian was allowed to return to his bed after his family complained. He remained in hospital on antibiotics for several days before being discharged on Friday.

A spokesperson for Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said: “We’re sorry to hear about these concerns and we would encourage the patient to contact our complaints team to discuss this directly. While we are unable to comment on individual cases without the patient’s consent, patients in our A&Es are assessed and treated in order of clinical priority. During exceptionally busy periods patients who are medically well enough to be out of bed may be moved to ensure beds are available for our sickest patients.”

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