A MOUNT Gambier man has been left feeling confused and concerned after being sent home from the Mount Gambier Hospital with a serious jaw injury.
Brendon Bytheway attended the local hospital earlier this month after a punch to the face left him with continuous pain and severe swelling.
Initially seeking advice from a local dentist in the community, with concerns the problem was with his wisdom teeth, the local man chose to seek further help from the Mount Gambier Hospital when the swelling did not subside.
“When I first when to the dentist the swelling was so bad the dentist could not even see what the problem was, so I decided to go to the hospital instead,” Mr Bytheway explained.
“I could not breathe properly because of the swelling so I went to the emergency department where they did a CT scan of my head and gave me pain relief.
“I stayed for two nights in hospital and was then sent home with Panadol and Nurofen and told to go back to the dentist as it was a problem with my wisdom teeth.”
However, upon returning to the dentist, Mr Bytheway was surprised to hear his jaw was broken and he would need to travel to Adelaide for surgery.
“By the time I was in Adelaide, doctors had looked up my scan and saw the radiologist at the Mount Gambier Hospital had written my jaw was broken on the x-ray but doctors there failed to tell me,” he said during an interview with The Border Watch yesterday.
Booked in at the Royal Adelaide Hospital on Thursday last week to undergo surgery on his jaw, Mr Bytheway said the problems did not stop there.
“I was supposed to be in Adelaide at 2pm on Thursday ready for an operation at the RAH at 4pm,” he explained.
“But the operation did not happen until five days later after I complained about the wait.”
Told there were no operating theatres available to undertake the surgery, Mr Bytheway became frustrated.
Pleased with treatment from nursing staff, the South East resident said it was the ongoing delays that pushed him to make a formal complaint.
“I started to get angry on Tuesday morning when I still had not undergone the surgery and ended up complaining to the RAH coordinator,” he said.
“The RAH is meant to be one of the best hospitals around, they should not have issues like this.”
Finally undergoing the surgery on Tuesday night, Mr Bytheway has since returned to Mount Gambier and received a written apology from SA Health.
According to a Central Adelaide Local Health Network spokesperson, the RAH has experienced a significant increase in demand for emergency surgery.
“All patients placed on the emergency surgery list are assessed and prioritised to be seen based on their urgency as advised by clinical staff,” they said.
“For this specific case, a number of people that required urgent surgery, including emergency neurosurgery and emergency abdominal surgery, were required to be seen first.
“Where surgeries are postponed, our dedicated staff strive to ensure patients are comfortable and are re-booked at the earliest possible time.”
However, Mr Bytheway remains confused as to what occurred at the Mount Gambier Hospital.
“How could they miss a broken jaw?” he said.
