Asking for help to pay for John Harwood to stay in care home

My darling husband, John, had a horrible fall at home on 24 January.

Ambulance took him to Motril hospital. The next morning, there were discussions about sending him to Granada for a hip replacement but then I was told that, due his heart and kidney health, it would not be safe and that they were going to send him home!

He was dumped back at home (literally) on the bed, by one beefy ambulance guy and I had to call a neighbour to assist! I was given no instructions and offered no support.

After five days, trying to care for John at home, it was completely impossible. I was terrified, because I couldn’t move him. He was dehydrated, hallucinating, delirious. I could barely get him to eat or drink.

On Thursday 30 January, I arranged for him to go to a care home in Almuñecar.

After the fall, when he went to Motril hospital, the doctor told me that he had a broken femur. But he was black & blue all down his left side and in horrific pain. It was obvious that there was much more damage than a hip. He couldn’t use his left arm or hand. Pain was unbearable.

12 days after the fall, John was seen by the doctor who makes weekly visits to the care home and an ambulance was sent for immediately

This time, the hospital carried out a full body scan and the results showed that he has a broken shoulder, five broken ribs and two breaks in his pelvis. He had low haemoglobin (lost blood from the fractures) and he had a blood transfusion. These tests should have been carried out when John first went to hospital and I continually ask myself why they were not.

The hospital had originally done no other scans, apart from hip and I cannot understand how they ignored the obvious! How could he receive appropriate care/rehabilitation without his other injuries being diagnosed? How could the physiotherapist know how to proceed with treatment without a correct diagnosis from the hospital? Would he have been dumped on the bed by a single paramedic who had no information about the full scale of his injuries?

It is so scary, because John was frail and had many issues before this horrendous calamity. He had recovered well from prostate cancer surgery but then had a major heart attack and has heart failure.

He is going to have to remain in the care home for three months and we don’t yet know how much help he will need when he comes home.

I think that physiotherapy is vitally important. With heart failure, he is supposed to exercise and he can’t! He has to be lifted by two people, which is why it is impossible for him to be at home.

I am asking friends and family to help with these costs because we simply do not have the funds.