A spoon hanging from a bandage. That's what a 77-year-old woman got to alert staff at the emergency department at Sundsvall Hospital, reports P4 Västernorrland.
The woman, who is wheelchair-bound and almost blind, suffers from a bowel disease that can cause bowel obstruction and was taken to the emergency department by ambulance at the beginning of August.
Due to overcrowding, she was given a bed without an alarm. Instead, one of the staff tied a spoon to a bandage on the bed so that she could tap on the bed with the spoon to call for staff. But no one heard her tapping when she had vomited and tried to get help.
Health and Healthcare Director Maria Strandberg does not think what happened is acceptable, but also points to the strained situation in healthcare.
We have really tried to make healthcare as good as possible and as patient-safe as possible with the staff we had this summer.
