‘Begging for them to kill me’: Young mum claims hospital mistreatment and neglect

A young mum missed weeks worth of precious moments with her newborn baby after spending a horror 34 days in two Sunshine Coast hospitals.

Veronica Spittles said she felt she had to fight for her own life after being refused surgery.

A young mum says she has missed weeks worth of precious moments with her newborn baby after spending a horror 34 days in two Sunshine Coast hospitals.

Veronica Spittles, 29, suffers from a chronic pain disorder and spent more than 30 days in hospital in the first few months of her baby boy’s life.

Ms Spittles alleges neglect and medical mistreatment at the Sunshine Coast University Hospital (SCUH) and Nambour Hospital, with the ordeal starting after a traumatic labour complication that caused her to have a three-litre haemorrhage.

“I only got four minutes with my baby on my chest before they were rushing me down to surgery,” she said.

“This is where it started to go downhill.”

When she woke from surgery, Ms Spittles said her pain management team were not consulted and she was not believed by medical staff about the severity of her pain.

“They did a great job in the surgery but my after-care was zero,” she said.

“It got to the point where I was thrashing around inside my head, I couldn’t see, I was screaming, I was begging for them to kill me.”

She was back in the emergency room in Nambour Hospital a week later, in what would become a series of admissions with no diagnosis.

“They sent me home with ibuprofen, six hours later I’m back in the emergency room again and they’re like thank god you came in, your liver enzymes have tripled in six hours,” she said.

Veronica Spittles was in hospital for more than half the time of her baby's first two months.

Ms Spittles said she was rushed to SCUH and after four days in emergency rooms a diagnosis was finally made.

“The doctor told me ‘I overlooked something because of your migraines and it looks like you have gallstones,” she said.

Ms Spittles said she was then turned down by two surgeons.

“I go there and that surgeon refuses to do surgery,” she said.

“I was in and out of the emergency room again, every time I was having crippling pain, and they wouldn’t do anything.”

As some of the pain she was experiencing was in her chest, Ms Spittles said she was told her diagnosis was incorrect and she was sent home again.

“Acute gallbladder disease, the thing that can cause sepsis and kill you, can display like that,” she said.

She was urged by her GP to present again to the emergency department at SCUH.

‘WHY WEREN’T THEY HELPING ME?’

“It was killing me, I was dying and why weren’t they helping me?” Ms Spittles asked.

“I had a six week old baby, why would I be there? I want to be at home with my baby.”

Once Ms Spittles finally received the operation, she said that was “where the medical mistreatment started again”.

“They refused to let me see the acute pain specialist team after I woke up from my surgery,” she said.

“I was thoroughly neglected and mistreated.

“When they took (the gallbladder) out they said ‘it was really infected’ and if left untreated could’ve caused sepsis and killed me.

“I had to literally fight for my life.”

Veronica Spittles said she lost valuable time with her baby boy due to her ongoing hospitalisations.

Ms Spittles has said she had come forward to raise questions about the treatment of patients with chronic pain conditions in Sunshine Coast hospitals.

“Why does no one know how to manage chronic pain patients?” she said.

A Sunshine Coast Health spokeswoman said they protected the privacy and confidentiality of patients and would not comment on individual circumstances.

“Our clinicians work tirelessly each and every day making clinical decisions to respond to patients with complex care needs,” she said.

The Sunshine Coast Health has said it cannot comment on individual cases, but Veronica Spittles has alleged she was mistreated.

“Sunshine Coast Health has an acute pain service and patients are referred in as required by their treating team for pain support following surgery.

“The acute pain service works closely with treating teams including surgical to identify patients that will need support.”

Ms Spittles said her husband had to take a month off work to care for her.

“We didn’t get time to heal from the trauma of the birth because it just kept being reopened with everything that happened,” she said.

The couple are now fundraising to try and cover some of the costs of the time off work and ongoing medical care.