Doctors sent me home with antibiotics - now I can't use my arm

A SWANSEA man who went to his GP after feeling ill and was sent home with an antibiotic has now lost the use of his right arm.

- SHAURYA SHAURYA

Michael Gwyther found himself at Morriston Hospital A&E after he went to his GP on December 4 last year as he was feeling unwell.

Due to the nature of his infection, Michael, from Swansea, asked to see a male GP but there was none available at his surgery, so he was referred to another GP surgery in the network that had male doctors available.

Here he claims he was giving no diabetic tests and was simply sent home with antibiotics.

Michael explained that since he's a diabetic, his usual visits to the GP involve diabetic tests.

"That day, it felt a lot more rushed," Michael said. "They didn't do any checks that I would normally get for diabetes. He said it was an infection but it wasn't serious and asked me to come back in a week."

However, as the night fell, Michael started feeling worse and dialled 111.

"They put me straight through to the nurse practitioner, they usually call you back, but this time they put me through," Michael said.

"We weren’t on the phone long and she said these things are quite serious, we're going to send you to hospital."

However, Michael was told there were no ambulances available for at least 10 hours that day, and a taxi was therefore arranged to take him to Morriston Hospital.

"So that [taxi] arrived, but I don’t remember anything from the hospital until about 10, 11 days later,’ he said.

“At about three o'clock in the morning (December 5), I went into respiratory arrest and they moved me to ICU.”

Once he was in the ICU, Michael says he had about “10 different surgeries” to remove the infections and he was put in an induced coma.

“They brought me out of the coma on December 10 but I was still under heavy sedation for like a week after that,” he explained. “So, I started to come round, around December 14 and after that they realised there was something wrong with the arm.”