Criticism of treatment

Painful hospital odyssey after a fall

The 66-year-old was taken to hospital in an ambulance several times without success.

(Bild: Huber Patrick)

Three Lower Austrian hospitals, but no effective treatment: after a fall, a pensioner was suddenly unable to get up, but the 66-year-old was only admitted to a fourth hospital. The patient's family is angry.

A pensioner from the district of Baden is struggling with the long-term consequences of a fall: three weeks later, he was suddenly unable to stand up. The ambulance then took him to hospital in Baden. "They didn't find anything, but they didn't examine him closely either," criticizes his daughter.

Three hospitals and none of them feel responsible for a patient in distress! That really can't be right.

Die Tochter des Patienten (66)

While her father was still in the ambulance on his way home, she complained to the hospital herself. The call had also had an effect: The ambulance was allowed to drive back to Baden. "But he was then sent home again without any improvement," says the 66-year-old's family angrily.

Referral sought
The man therefore went to see an orthopaedist, who wrote him a referral to the clinic in Wiener Neustadt for further clarification. "However, he was not admitted because he was in the wrong district. He was told to go to Mödling instead. But they changed things there again and we were sent back to Baden, where my father was only given a pain infusion," the daughter says angrily.

She finally called the hospital in Neunkirchen, where her father was admitted for two weeks. The diagnosis: narrowing of the spinal canal. "His condition is now slowly improving, I'm very grateful to the doctor there," she says happily.

"Not sticking to the treatment plan"
The State Health Agency (LGA) sees the process somewhat differently. The patient in Baden had been prescribed medication due to chronic pain and a treatment plan had been discussed with him, but he had not adhered to it. Instead, the man went to the hospital in Neunkirchen on his own. "He was admitted there as an inpatient, where the patient was successfully treated," says the LGA.