'We were all left stunned': Doctor refuses to page cardiac team for patient with heart palpitations, warns patient not to leave ward; so patient complies and calls team from hospital bed

Author image for Eleonora Bader
Eleonora Bader
Sep 27, 2023 1:00 PM EDT

Everyone makes mistakes, but not all mistakes cost lives, so working at a hospital, you better know what you are doing, lest the mistake end in tragedy. In this case, one patient was very lucky, due to his own quick thinking and frankly, courage, to do what he knew was right. Hospitals are not always as competent as they look, even though oftentimes, we look at doctors and nurses as if they were literal angels, placing our lives in their hands, trusting them to care for us as they would care for their own children. This particular case has a happy ending, but let's start at the beginning.

One person, u/thefrustratedpoet, took to Reddit to tell a decade-old story when their father was admitted to a hospital to undergo a very difficult and major surgery. This dad took it all in stride and was generally an upbeat, fun character who people really liked. He was also quite known in the cardiac section, as he had heart palpitations for many years. Well, two days after the surgery, he had those same heart palpitations. He knew that he needed an injection, but his doctor ignored his concerns, and told him, 'If you leave the ward, we will discharge you'.

So, he took his life into his own hands. To find out how it all unfolded, check it out below.

Next, a veteran employee who refused to let his micromanager dictate the minuscule minutes he spent not working on the clock.

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  • 01
    Outerwear
    via @Canva
  • 02
    Font - 4 "If you leave the ward, we will discharge you" MOC Posted by u/thefrustrated poet 11 hours ago
    via u/thefrustratedpoet
  • 03
    Font - This is a story from over a decade ago which has always stuck with me, and that I was reminded of by another post here. In 2011, my darling daddy had to have surgery to remove one of his kidneys due to a large cyst.
    via u/thefrustratedpoet
  • 04
    Font - Two days after his surgery, while he was on the ward recovering, he began to feel unwell, but thankfully it was something he was used to that could be resolved easily - heart palpitations. Now dad has been having heart palpitations since the
    via u/thefrustratedpoet
  • 05
    Font - mid-90s and while it was scary in the early days, by 2011 it was a really simple routine... go to A&E and get an injection from the cardiac team at the hospital. Sometimes he would have a normal sinus rhythm, but would be having palpitations nonetheless,
    via u/thefrustratedpoet
  • 06
    Font - identified by the feeling in his body. The doctor on shift took an ecg and promptly informed him that he was NOT having a heart palpitation, he had a normal sinus rhythm. He tried to explain that he had been having palpitations for 15
    via u/thefrustratedpoet
  • 07
    Font - years, he knows what a palpitation feels like, and that all she needed to do was call the cardiac team. This was a semi-regular occurrence, about once a year, and the heart nurses all knew him by name (and loved him - he's quite a character).
    via u/thefrustratedpoet
  • 08
    Font - The doctor refused to page the cardiac team, repeating that he wasn't having palpitations. For a couple of hours, dad sat there in panic getting more and more distressed - it was outside of visiting times so he was alone.
    via u/thefrustratedpoet
  • 09
    Font - He told the doctor that he would make his own was to the cardiac team and she told him "if you leave the ward, we will consider you absconded and we will formally discharge you" again, this was 2 days after losing a major organ.
    via u/thefrustratedpoet
  • 10
    Font - This is where the malicious compliance comes in. Dad called 999... from his hospital bed! When they asked for his address he said "that's an interesting question, normally it's XX XXXXX XXxxxx, but right now I'm on ward x at xxXX hospital!"
    via u/thefrustratedpoet
  • 11
    Font - Shocked, the call handler asked what had happened and dad relayed the whole thing to them. The call handler escalated the call to a manager who asked to speak to dad's doctor and gave her a MASSIVE dressing down.
    via u/thefrustratedpoet
  • 12
    Font - Her face greyed as she realised the gravity of what was happening. She immediately arranged for a porter to take him to A&E (uk emergency room) to be assessed by the cardiac team, and what do you know? He
    via u/thefrustratedpoet
  • 13
    Font - was, in fact, having palpitations and had been for several hours. A quick injection later his heart was back to normal and we were all left stunned by the whole thing. I was in my 20s at the time, and dad was my superhero, and seeing him crying in a hospital
    via u/thefrustratedpoet
  • 14
    Font - bed, looking so scared and small will never leave me. I will never forget what that doctor did, and I'll never forgive her. She never even apologised to him, or to us. Dad could probably have taken the hospital, the doctor and the trust to court, but that's just
    via u/thefrustratedpoet
  • 15
    Font - not his bag and he just let it go like water off a duck's back. 12 years later and he's healthy and happy, but I honestly thought I might lose him because of an arrogant doctor and her stubbornness.
    via u/thefrustratedpoet
  • 16
    Font - edit this blew up more than I thought it would! Thanks for all the lovely comments, Dad is awesome, and this experience left me with a healthy skepticism of medical professionals - which was lucky
    via u/thefrustratedpoet
  • 17
    Font - as when I had my hysterectomy in 2021, I was refused o Is the day after the surgery and had to advocate for myself. Those who don't want to believe the story, that's cool, have a great day.*
    via u/thefrustratedpoet
  • 18
    Font - *second edit - i have taken out the repeated use of "Junior Doctor". As a commenter pointed out, in the NHS, a junior doctor is any doctor that isn't a consultant, even if they have 20 years experience. Her
    via u/thefrustratedpoet
  • 19
    Font - behaviour likely had nothing to do with her job title/status as it isn't relevant to the story. Thanks to the commenter for calling me out on this!
    via u/thefrustratedpoet
  • 20
    Font - DrHugh 10 hr. ago Good on your dad! Sometimes, medical professionals can be so dismissive. I had atrial fibrillation, and my cardiologist said I should call in every time I had
    via u/DrHugh
  • 21
    Font - one, so I could report how long it lasted. One time, I got a nurse who said I didn't have to do that. Then she said that some people don't even feel when they were in afib. Lucky them, I guess? I could definitely feel
    via u/DrHugh
  • 22
    Font - them, and it wasn't a fun experience. I told my cardiologist about that the next time we talked, he seemed surprised that a cardiac clinic nurse would have that sort of reaction.
    via u/DrHugh

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patient heart palpitations manager hospital ward doctor discharge dad cardiac team hospital patient malicious compliance reddit surgery children Father
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