Sunday 2 June 2013
Charity Event
I will be doing a parachute jump to create awareness and raise funds for Sickle Cell Anemia. Please go and show support and sponsor me by clicking this link http://www.gofundme.com/348q6o Also you can like my page on Facebook. A World without Sickle Cell Anemia.
www.facebook.com/AWorldwithoutSickleCellAnemia
I WILL TURN THE OTHER WAY, BECAUSE IT DOESN'T CONCERN ME
An inquest into the death of Sarah Mulenga has ruled that failures to
follow basic procedures by London Ambulance staff contributed to her
death two years ago. The two trainee paramedics called to attend to
Sarah, who had sickle cell anaemia, in January 2011 failed to carry
out a basic set of observations, treated her rudely and refused to
take her to hospital because she had soiled herself. Another ambulance
had to be called 45 minutes later, by which time her condition had
deteriorated; she later died in hospital.
This was an extreme and tragic case. But many sickle cell anaemia
patients have felt a similar lack of emergency care within the NHS.
Sickle Cell anaemia is the second most commonly genetically inherited
disease in Britain. It only affects people of black, Asian and Middle
Eastern descent; and in the UK the majority of its 12,000 sufferers
are of African or Caribbean heritage. In the past 10 years I've lived
with different sufferers and witnessed numerous agonising sickle cell
"crises", where ambulances have taken up to an hour to attend, only
to then drive slowly to A&E where the patients are then ignored for
hours.
Often emergency staff do not have basic knowledge of the disease. But
ignorance about sickle cell disease is not an excuse for NHS staff to
fail patients. "The NHS has a duty to deliver the same quality and
standard of care regardless of how uncommon or unknown a patient's
disease," says John James, chief executive of the Sickle Cell Society.
Speedy response and urgent treatment, most often with painkillers, is
critical in a sickle crisis. Severe crises can lead to major organ
failure of heart, lungs, kidneys and liver. Even in hospitals that
have detailed procedures for chronic patients, these are often ignored
by A&E doctors hesitant to give high levels of painkillers.
"The problem for emergency staff is that they can't get their head
round the level of painkillers you need to control the crises," says
41-year-old Delroy Efemini, a sufferer. In 2005 he attended his local
hospital A&E in crisis. A known patient there, he was subjected to
hours of waiting and only given over-the-counter painkillers. In
excruciating pain he took a cab to another hospital but staff at the
first hospital called through and told them to refuse him treatment.
He was then forced to return to the first hospital and was finally
admitted having spent over 12 hours without any pain relief. "Going to
hospital is a gamble for sickle patients", says Efemini. "All the time
Fear of being denied painkillers leads to many patients suffering in
silence and those who do speak up are often labelled aggressive or
addicts. Sadly, sickle cell patients often downplay their levels of
pain in order to get their pain relief faster.
Good practice does exist in urgent care for sickle patients, but it is
marred by inconsistency. The only hospitals that have made effective
changes in emergency care are those which have helped staff and
patients to fully understand and manage the disease. "We teach our
staff that if a patient comes in saying they are in pain they should
be believed and should be given adequate pain relief within 30
minutes. This is important as the biggest patient complaint is not
being believed," says Jo Howard, consultant haematologist at Guy's and
St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust.
It's clear that negligent practices simply cannot continue. We cannot
have another needless tragedy like Sarah Mulenga's. The ambulance
workers who failed to treat her are no longer employed, but action
needs to go way beyond this.
Only when the NHS ensures training and procedures for emergency staff are consistently enforced for sickle patients can there be drastic
change. But first there has to be a change in attitudes. Until then I
fear more sufferers could die unnecessarily.
Let's stop looking for excuses, there are enough Black, Asian
and Hispanic communities to tackle this issue by ourselves. We need to come together as one unit to air our voices, so that the NHS as a whole are forced to changes their polices towards the treatment of people with sickle cell anemia. The communities that are normally
effected by the disease JUST TURN THE OTHER WAY, BECAUSE THEY BELIEVE IT DOESN'T CONCERN THEM. Food for thought you have no idea who your children are going to settle down with in the future and this also applies to the white communities as well. Just think about all the inter-racial marriages. I know so many children who are mixed race and have the sickle cell trait.www.facebook.com/AWorldwithoutSickleCellAnemia
follow basic procedures by London Ambulance staff contributed to her
death two years ago. The two trainee paramedics called to attend to
Sarah, who had sickle cell anaemia, in January 2011 failed to carry
out a basic set of observations, treated her rudely and refused to
take her to hospital because she had soiled herself. Another ambulance
had to be called 45 minutes later, by which time her condition had
deteriorated; she later died in hospital.
This was an extreme and tragic case. But many sickle cell anaemia
patients have felt a similar lack of emergency care within the NHS.
Sickle Cell anaemia is the second most commonly genetically inherited
disease in Britain. It only affects people of black, Asian and Middle
Eastern descent; and in the UK the majority of its 12,000 sufferers
are of African or Caribbean heritage. In the past 10 years I've lived
with different sufferers and witnessed numerous agonising sickle cell
"crises", where ambulances have taken up to an hour to attend, only
to then drive slowly to A&E where the patients are then ignored for
hours.
Often emergency staff do not have basic knowledge of the disease. But
ignorance about sickle cell disease is not an excuse for NHS staff to
fail patients. "The NHS has a duty to deliver the same quality and
standard of care regardless of how uncommon or unknown a patient's
disease," says John James, chief executive of the Sickle Cell Society.
Speedy response and urgent treatment, most often with painkillers, is
critical in a sickle crisis. Severe crises can lead to major organ
failure of heart, lungs, kidneys and liver. Even in hospitals that
have detailed procedures for chronic patients, these are often ignored
by A&E doctors hesitant to give high levels of painkillers.
"The problem for emergency staff is that they can't get their head
round the level of painkillers you need to control the crises," says
41-year-old Delroy Efemini, a sufferer. In 2005 he attended his local
hospital A&E in crisis. A known patient there, he was subjected to
hours of waiting and only given over-the-counter painkillers. In
excruciating pain he took a cab to another hospital but staff at the
first hospital called through and told them to refuse him treatment.
He was then forced to return to the first hospital and was finally
admitted having spent over 12 hours without any pain relief. "Going to
hospital is a gamble for sickle patients", says Efemini. "All the time
Fear of being denied painkillers leads to many patients suffering in
silence and those who do speak up are often labelled aggressive or
addicts. Sadly, sickle cell patients often downplay their levels of
pain in order to get their pain relief faster.
Good practice does exist in urgent care for sickle patients, but it is
marred by inconsistency. The only hospitals that have made effective
changes in emergency care are those which have helped staff and
patients to fully understand and manage the disease. "We teach our
staff that if a patient comes in saying they are in pain they should
be believed and should be given adequate pain relief within 30
minutes. This is important as the biggest patient complaint is not
being believed," says Jo Howard, consultant haematologist at Guy's and
St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust.
It's clear that negligent practices simply cannot continue. We cannot
have another needless tragedy like Sarah Mulenga's. The ambulance
workers who failed to treat her are no longer employed, but action
needs to go way beyond this.
Only when the NHS ensures training and procedures for emergency staff are consistently enforced for sickle patients can there be drastic
change. But first there has to be a change in attitudes. Until then I
fear more sufferers could die unnecessarily.
Let's stop looking for excuses, there are enough Black, Asian
and Hispanic communities to tackle this issue by ourselves. We need to come together as one unit to air our voices, so that the NHS as a whole are forced to changes their polices towards the treatment of people with sickle cell anemia. The communities that are normally
effected by the disease JUST TURN THE OTHER WAY, BECAUSE THEY BELIEVE IT DOESN'T CONCERN THEM. Food for thought you have no idea who your children are going to settle down with in the future and this also applies to the white communities as well. Just think about all the inter-racial marriages. I know so many children who are mixed race and have the sickle cell trait.www.facebook.com/AWorldwithoutSickleCellAnemia
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