A second opinion

Lee

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My father in law has glaucoma. Over the last year to eighteen months he has developed cataracts in both eyes with one eye being a lot worse than the other.

His GP referred him to the hospital, which is his normal eye hospital, for the cataracts and after an age an appointment came through. That was cancelled and then the new appointment was cancelled, all due to the pandemic. We had a situation where he would be blind if the cataracts weren't removed.

We got the GP to refer him to a different hospital trust to see if they were any quicker. An appointment came though quickly for the new one. He went for a consultation and they said they will do it as soon as possible.

Whilst waiting, an appointment came through for the original hospital. He went to that appointment and was given the crushing news that it was pointless doing the cataract removal in the worst eye because a scan of the eye from about 2 years ago shows irreparable damage to his eye and he would be blind in that eye after the operation. He was also advised to have a few months to think whether he wanted the other eye done because there was a chance he could go blind in that eye as well.

After that an appointment to have the operation came through at the other hospital trust.

Forward wind to a week ago. His eyes are so bad that if I am sat on a chair talking to him and moved somewhere else he would still be looking at where I was sat whilst talking, thinking I was still there. He can't see the clock and can't make out anything on TV.

He had the operation on the worst eye on Saturday morning. Later that day he said he can't wait to take the eye patch off because everything was black with it on. That was sad because it was a see through eye patch.

I went down yesterday morning and, with tears in his eyes, he said he could see the faces on the TV and could read the clock. I haven't seen him so happy in a very long time. Been down today and he's like a different man. The operation has worked!

Getting that second hospital involved has saved his eyesight. It'll never be great but it's better than not seeing at all.
 
Was it at the Sunderland Eye hospital?
 
Wife and I were talking about that last night. She's adamant and livid that the reason the original hospital didn't want to do it is because of his age and health.

He was recently admitted into hospital due to his heart condition making his body fill up with water. Whilst in there a rather unpleasant heart doctor more or less told him that nothing could be done to stop it happening due to his age and health. About 2 weeks after he came out he had a cardiology appointment and the consultant was horrified at what the other doctor had said and was going to investigate. He said although no operation is possible there is medication that will help and medication has sinced helped.
 
Great news it worked out. My Gran had glaucoma which wasn't fun - her eyesight diminished over the years. It wasn't found until quite late - we were advised that descendants should have regular checks for it once over the age of 40 (I think) so it can be caught earlier as it can be inherited. If caught early the prognosis is much better.
 
Wife and I were talking about that last night. She's adamant and livid that the reason the original hospital didn't want to do it is because of his age and health.

He was recently admitted into hospital due to his heart condition making his body fill up with water. Whilst in there a rather unpleasant heart doctor more or less told him that nothing could be done to stop it happening due to his age and health. About 2 weeks after he came out he had a cardiology appointment and the consultant was horrified at what the other doctor had said and was going to investigate. He said although no operation is possible there is medication that will help and medication has sinced helped.

I would definitely provide feedback to the first Trust, for no reason other than the medical team can potentially learn lessons for future patients. A patient complaint will force the legal department and an independent consultant to investigate

Note that you have to separate bedside manner from the medical advice and treatment decisions (although being good with both is desirable)
 
I am afraid that lodging a complaint against an NHS is a step not to be taken lightly if your trust is anything like mine.
I was permanently disabled not in a major way but bad enough and lodged a complaint where the fun began. My trust don't actually independently investigate a complaint they hand it over to the department against whom you made a complaint.
Cut a long long story short, the complaints department was found to be not fit for purpose by an independent investigation and that was a decade ago, what the did in answer to this was shuffle a few people around and carried on being useless.
 
my dad was in a very similar situation cataracts and glaucoma they also didnt want to do the operation in his bad eye he stuck to his guns and said im having both done and got them both done. Hes now got just about good enough eye sight to get his driving licence back.


my dad got diagnosed with glaucoma at 36
 
My father in law has glaucoma. Over the last year to eighteen months he has developed cataracts in both eyes with one eye being a lot worse than the other.

His GP referred him to the hospital, which is his normal eye hospital, for the cataracts and after an age an appointment came through. That was cancelled and then the new appointment was cancelled, all due to the pandemic. We had a situation where he would be blind if the cataracts weren't removed.

We got the GP to refer him to a different hospital trust to see if they were any quicker. An appointment came though quickly for the new one. He went for a consultation and they said they will do it as soon as possible.

Whilst waiting, an appointment came through for the original hospital. He went to that appointment and was given the crushing news that it was pointless doing the cataract removal in the worst eye because a scan of the eye from about 2 years ago shows irreparable damage to his eye and he would be blind in that eye after the operation. He was also advised to have a few months to think whether he wanted the other eye done because there was a chance he could go blind in that eye as well.

After that an appointment to have the operation came through at the other hospital trust.

Forward wind to a week ago. His eyes are so bad that if I am sat on a chair talking to him and moved somewhere else he would still be looking at where I was sat whilst talking, thinking I was still there. He can't see the clock and can't make out anything on TV.

He had the operation on the worst eye on Saturday morning. Later that day he said he can't wait to take the eye patch off because everything was black with it on. That was sad because it was a see through eye patch.

I went down yesterday morning and, with tears in his eyes, he said he could see the faces on the TV and could read the clock. I haven't seen him so happy in a very long time. Been down today and he's like a different man. The operation has worked!

Getting that second hospital involved has saved his eyesight. It'll never be great but it's better than not seeing at all.

Great news, fantastic for him
 
My dad had glaucoma then developed cataracts, the first eye to have was left too long before the operation at burton hospital, he ended up blind in that eye, when the second eye developed a cataract, I asked the gp for a referral to a private consultant, the short version of this is the operation went great, cost £3000 but his vision was perfectly good enough to drive, also the difference between the nhs service and the private service is nothing short of staggering, plus @Lee so happy for your dad and yourself, the worry both of you have been under is horrendous.
 
My father also had cataracts. He is 90 (though looks younger than many 70yr olds) and blind in one eye due to a drunk midwife and forceps when he was born. NHS wanted to wait until they were worse before operating, but decided to go privately to get it done sooner (in Summer 19). A bit scary as although the risk of total eyesight loss was small the impact would be massive. Great success though and he is glad he went ahead.
 
My father also had cataracts. He is 90 (though looks younger than many 70yr olds) and blind in one eye due to a drunk midwife and forceps when he was born. NHS wanted to wait until they were worse before operating, but decided to go privately to get it done sooner (in Summer 19). A bit scary as although the risk of total eyesight loss was small the impact would be massive. Great success though and he is glad he went ahead.

That’s great news, and that’s exactly what happened to my dads first eye that caused him to lose his sight in it, left far to long before the op was done.
 
great you spoke up , if you don't you get nowhere
it's the way things are unfortunately
 
That’s great news, and that’s exactly what happened to my dads first eye that caused him to lose his sight in it, left far to long before the op was done.
Part of his reason for getting it done when he did was because he was about to move to a new area so just wanted it out the way. However, driving also played a part. With his eyesight below par he was told he shouldn’t be driving until it was put right - he didn’t like that!
 
Everyone i know, including myself, who have suffered cataracts have been referred by their optician directly to a private eye hospital group. (don't know if I could name them here) They carry out cataract surgery on behalf of the NHS and provide, in my experience, an excellent service. Worth asking about if you have cataracts.
 

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