Oban hospital has been asked to investigate why an elderly blind man was sent home in "a disgusting state" before a heart operation in Glasgow.
Eight-four-year-old Peter John (’Johnny’) MacAllister from Oban, who worked as a lorry driver until he became blind in his early 40s, had his "first fall" at his retirement home on March 16, his family told us. He was found by a carer, lying on the floor under a door he had ripped off its hinges in the fall.
An ambulance took him to A&E at Oban’s Lorn and Islands Hospital, where he was monitored by staff, who told the family he needed a pacemaker. Two days later, on March 18, Johnny was discharged home.
Afterwards, Glasgow Royal Infirmary called Oban hospital to take Johnny down for his operation, but discovered he had been released.
The Infirmary then phoned Johnny’s granddaughter on March 20, asking if she could drive him to the city that night because he was booked in to get a pacemaker the next day. She could not: "I cannot just take a blind man from his house down to Glasgow at that time," she said.
The Infirmary organised transport for Thursday morning.
Johnny’s son told us: "The carers were to go in early in the morning to get him ready."
Johnny’s granddaughter called him at 7.30am on Thursday to see if he was ready. But "he was still in his bed," she said: "Nobody had been in to see him." Later, Lorn Medical Centre called her to say the transport had arrived, he was not ready, and they needed to get to Glasgow by noon.
Arriving to help, she said: "He was soaking. I put a pad on him and helped get him into his wheelchair, give him a wash down, and get him into the back of the ambulance. The transport lady said: ’I did not even know he was blind.’"
After "singing" through the operation in Glasgow on Thursday, and a "good night", Johnny was released on March 22 back home to Oban, where he has been "more active".
But, for Glasgow Royal Infirmary, Johnny’s story did not end there. On the day of the operation, the consultant cardiologist dictated a letter to Oban hospital asking it to investigate, and improve, its care.
"Thank you for referring this 84-year-old man for pacemaker implant," the professor said. "We were actually expecting him to be transferred from Lorn and Islands Hospital, but when we phoned to arrange transfer we found that he had been discharged home.
"His ECG on admission here showed sinus rhythm with first degree AV block, and we have it on good authority that he had episodes of second degree block whilst in hospital, but we have not seen these ECGs personally and they do not appear to be documented on the North of Scotland Clinical Portal.
"When Mr MacAllister arrived here from Oban he was filthy. There had obviously been ECG electrodes placed on various parts of his body, including the site where we would normally implant his pacemaker, and there was a lot of dirt on his chest wall from the adhesive that was used on the ECG electrodes.
"There was also quite a bit of skin irritation because of a presumed allergic reaction to the ECG electrodes.
"This poor man is registered blind and was not aware of how filthy his chest was, but fortunately our nurses did the job that should have been done before discharge from Lorn and Islands Hospital and cleaned him up.
"On the basis of the information that we were given that he had intermittent AV block, we elected to implant a permanent single chamber ventricular pacemaker. This was performed uneventfully under local anaesthesia on the afternoon of 21 March.
"We will arrange a pacemaker follow-up remotely. Meanwhile, I would be grateful if you could take this letter to your clinical risk team and also to your infection control team and discuss the implications for an elderly blind man who was sent home in such a disgusting state.
"I hope that in future the nursing care of such patients can be improved."
Asked why he approached his local paper, Johnny’s son told us: "I would hate to see this happening to anybody else."
A spokesperson for Argyll and Bute Health and Social Care Partnership told us: "Due to patient confidentiality we are unable to comment on individual cases, however we would ask that they or their family contact us via our feedback team so that we can discuss their concerns with them directly."
A care company in Argyll has also been contacted for comment, but had not responded by our deadline.
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