"My relative's journey after becoming a quadripelgic"

My close relative was driving, felt weird, pulled over, fell asleep and woke up paralyzed. Rushed to another metropolitan hospital. Worst experience ever. Worst hospital ever.

After 1 month transferred to Fiona Stanley Hospital rehab. Spent 5 months there. I believe they rushed to discharge my relative due to Xmas coming. Had not met care provider service, they had not been into the hospital to find out their routine - nothing. I believe the hospital did not care. Out my relative went.

Attended ED 4 days later extremely unwell. Turns out they had urosepsis. It seems staff never bothered to check my relative's urine prior to discharge. Spent Xmas in a general ward without correct care for spinal injury. This led to pressure wounds on their heels. Care provider they pushed us to use (were told there was no other company with availability and we had no choice) had no experience in managing spinal injuries.

Spent the first year in and out of hospital due to, what I believe was, inadequate care. In discharge each time, no follow up plan was provided, no discussion with carers on how to manage things. One occasion my relative was admitted for urology issues and had a small red mark on their left outer glute. Was mentioned to the nurses who got a pressure wound nurse to check it out. The pressure wound nurse was meant to engage Silverchain to follow up once home and ensure the wound didn't get worse. They never did this and the pressure wound got so bad that my relative was bed ridden for 4 months.

Recently we found out they have a shadow on their lung. I believe this was picked up in routine chest xrays but we were never told and no follow up was ever arranged. We did this ourselves. Also found out my relative is meant to have yearly bone density scans - this has never been arranged. In trying to find out why not and how we can organise this, it seems no one wants to help or take responsibility. Typical attitude of FSH in my opinion. Always seemingly somebody else's problem.

I have written to the health minister re all of the terrible experiences we have had to deal with. A response of we will look into this. Never heard a word back. All I am looking to do is help to improve things for future spinal cord injury families as not everyone has the courage and strength to speak up for themselves - and they shouldn't have to. Sadly, I feel this is not the case.

I believe care providers should be closely monitored - it seems they aren't. Based on my experience, be very careful with who you chose as it seems they will say all of their carers are fully trained and experienced when they are not. I think the health system is very broken. I believe you don't know this until you are in the system. Its very scary and I have to fight all the time to ensure my relative is getting the right care.