the case i can't forget
It still hurts, but I’ve come to accept that the nature of working in mental health means my patient group will always be high risk.
Our patient was bleeding. She was also seven months pregnant, did not speak English and we had limited medical history. Just for this patient alone, we ticked off several chapters from the obstetric emergencies book.
I remember that case for two reasons. One, because it was bloody awful and two, because afterwards, I cracked on because I had other sick people to take care of
Not only was James suffering physical symptoms, he was also homeless and extremely anxious about being discharged. It was hardly surprising his mental health was at rock bottom.
The diagnosis made sense as the patient was the colour of Homer Simpson – from the early series, when the contrast was much more extreme and everyone looked like a cave painting
Miss Patel was a 65-year-old woman in the grip of psychosis and had been refusing to eat or drink for three days.
As a probation officer, I knew I couldn't help everyone. But Graham was one of my most difficult cases, and I really didn't want to be another person who labelled him a 'lost cause'
One morning on the ward round the vascular surgeons came to see Derrick. They told him that the left leg was not going to heal and that it had begun to die.
In a new series, HuffPost UK hears from the people working at the coalface of public service about the cases they have carried with them throughout their careers.
As with any disaster, a series of things need to go wrong for it to happen – and this fire was no different.