"I felt gaslit, ignored and put in danger"

After a challenging few weeks of health scares I was transported to Saint John of God Midland - Emergency via Ambulance with neurological symptoms after an optometric test confirmed I was loosing vision.

I was breathalysed as I was unable to walk steadily (I was sober) and told to go through to the waiting room. After many hours in the waiting room I experienced an acute neurological event where I was unable to move or do anything other than grunt.

When I was able to move, I stumbled to the bathroom to clean myself up as I had voided my bladder. I felt extremely unwell, dizzy and was finding it difficult to speak or walk in a straight line. I discovered that the veins on my hands had become extremely prominent, as if they were drawn on with texta - with small veins bright against my skin.

I tried to speak to a nurse, but I recall they kept asking me what I had taken - I'm assuming they had judged my condition to be drug related? They then accused me of drawing on my hands - I'm assuming for attention?

I was unable to express myself clearly, and called a family member. At this stage I was starting to think that I had developed some kind of mental illness. I texted a picture of my hands to them - and they reassured me that I was not imagining things.

I kept trying to tell the nurses that something was happening to me, but they refused to interact. When they finally spoke to me, I asked why they thought I would draw on my hands. The nurse then rubbed my hands with hand sanitiser and told me that the texta was coming off. Problem is, I hadn't drawn on my hands. It turns out you can make veins less prominent when you rub them (thanks Google).

At this stage I was crying and incoherent. I was completely unable to make reasonable choices and walked home without contacting my family again at 2am. I was weaving all over the place.

I then spent some time trying to rub my veins off with hand sanitiser- apparently I felt the need to film it - and passed out clothed on my bed.

My family had no idea I was home until they found me crying at 11am the next day and took me to another hospital where I was admitted for 5 days under neurology for tests and monitoring.

I'm feeling much better now - but cannot understand how something like this could happen or why nurses would be gaslighting patients, or assuming intoxication? I've lost what little trust I have in the health system.