Doctors that dont listen

11 Mar 2014: A few weeks ago I fell backwards out of my wheelchair and smacked my head on the tiles that were on the floor. I heard an eerie crack when I hit the floor and so I thought it best to have an ambulance come check me out and decide if I needed to go to hospital.

I though I at least needed a head scan because of my DBS (Deep Brain Stimulation) device and the electrodes.

It took the ambulance an hour to arrive and they had no clue what DBS was. My telling them that banging my head on tiles was not good and that my head needed the attention not my neck fell on deaf ears.

I was taken to a hospital that had a head injuries unit but the emergency staff still insisted that my neck was the concern, not my head. An x-ray of my neck showed the mess I already knew my neck is in and I even had the doctor exclaim that he had never seen anything like it. The doctor then wanted me to have a CT-Scan of my neck, I told him it was a waste of time but he insisted and so when I went for my neck scan I asked if they would scan my head as well and the answer was ‘no', because the doctor had not prescribed that to be done.

So, seven and a half hours later I had had enough! I sat up in bed, took off the neck brace and said I wanted out. They had a quick look at the back of my head, said I had a bruise and let me go home.

Two days later I emailed my DBS Specialist to let him know what had happened and his first comment was, ‘They needed to scan your head to check your electrodes are ok'!

I had a little cry in frustration and have decided to just get on with life. If I am not going to be listen to, there is not much else I can do.

Those around me are on alert in case I start behaving different, but other than that, life will go on.