Mr VTN, 53 divorced man from Mile End, has multiple long term conditions. This includes arthritis, asthma, depression and heart failure. He has no family members and friends to support his everyday life. He always relies on our supports for many years. At the end of January, Mr VTN had been burnt his left foot at home in an accident when he cooked his evening meal to make noodle soup. He told us that “when the water in a saucepan was boiling , I held a handle of the pan with my left hand to lift it up, suddenly my hand cramped up, I had a difficulty to bring my fingers together , I dropped a saucepan of boiling water on my foot and I was in pain”.
On the next day , Mr VTN contacted us because he could not bear with his scald injury. We called an ambulance to take him to Whitechapel hospital’s emergency department . After that our older project worker came to hospital to provide interpreting service. Because his scald burn was serious, it would cause limitations in long term weight bearing and walking on the foot due to pain and discomfort so he had to stay in the hospital between 4 and 9 days for a treatment. Every two days , our befriending volunteer came to hospital ward to offer companionship and support to Mr VTN.
After a week, his wound did not infect , he was still in pain but he could walk less than 10 steps with a walking stick . The consultant and ward team decided to discharge Mr VTN but before he went home, the ward nurse called us to make a discharge planning and how to take care of him at home. His district nurse would visit him once a week. In the first two weeks , our befriending volunteers came to see him three times a week to provide following services:
House cleaning
Laundry
Ensure safe bathing
Shopping
Contact Mr VTN’s local health centre to arrange to get a repeat prescription before his hospital supply runs out.
Pick up his medicines from the local pharmacy.
Booking hospital transportation and interpreter from the multi-lingual health advocacy service for his long term illnesses appointments.
The district nurse checked his dressing twice times , there was no signs of infection and his scald burn was healed, he could manage to walk out from home after two weeks but he still needed someone to escort him for his safety. Our befriending volunteers took him to our luncheon club but we closed this service from 23rd of March due to Covid 19. Now Mr NTV stays at home most of the times, we sent him a “Covid-19 guidance” in Vietnamese. Our telephone befriending volunteer calls him once a week to make sure that he is able to protect himself from coronavirus.
Comments