Where The Heck Is Mom?

UK Mail Online: London England:

Frightened and alone, 95-year-old Doris Miller lay on her hospital trolley as hour after hour went by, wondering why no one had come to see her.
The old lady was exhausted and in pain after falling in the shower and hurting her leg. But following the drama of the ambulance dash to A&E, she had been wheeled into an ante-room . . . and parked there, like a piece of left luggage, for 28 hours.
Away from the routine meal-and-tea rounds on the wards, she had been given hardly anything to eat or drink and no proper medical care. She vaguely recalls being given a sandwich or two, but can’t quite remember by whom.
And she simply could not understand why her devoted son Michael had not arrived.

Harrowing delay: Doris Miller, 96, with her son Michael, who had been frantically searching for her

As day turned to night, and night became morning, Mrs Miller became more confused, distressed, and fearful for her safety. She had no way of knowing that Michael, 67, had been frantically searching for her — but East Surrey Hospital in Redhill had completely lost track of where they had put her.
In fact, they managed to locate her only after Mr Miller called the hospital chief executive to say he was phoning the police to report his mother as a missing person.
‘I was furious,’ said Mr Miller. ‘This is what happens when you put too much pressure on a system that doesn’t work.’
An appalling but isolated case? If only it were.
Earlier this month, the College of Emergency Medicine (CEM), which represents A&E doctors, told NHS managers that they should routinely leave patients on hospital trolleys to alleviate overcrowding in casualty units.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2137120/Doris-Miller-Woman-abandoned-trolley-28-hours-East-Surrey-Hospital.html#ixzz1tXE28X8q