These shocking photographs show a mum with breast cancer being treated for sepsis by a doctor while lying on a hospital floor.
Nina White, 46, was midway through chemotherapy and suffering with a suppressed immune system, when she contracted neutropenic sepsis.
She was rushed to A&E at the Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother Hospital in Margate, by her worried family – but was told by nurses “there’s nowhere to treat you and we don’t have any beds”, she claims.
She said instead she was forced to lie on the “dirty” floor of a consultation room.
Shocking photos show a doctor crouching down to take a blood sample, while Nina is laid out on the floor, propped up against a wall.
She is now cancer free, and has thanked the NHS for saving her life, but in the run up to the election, is appealing to political party leaders put an end to experiences like hers.
Nina, a holistic therapist, from Ramsgate, Kent, said: “They were so short staffed that there was nowhere to treat me.
“A junior doctor actually took blood from me whilst I was on the floor. I was laid on the dirty floor.
“I was really sick. My immune system had collapsed and I had suspected sepsis.
“I knew I should have been in a separate room and should have been properly looked after in a bed, but I was too poorly to care.
“I laid on the floor for an hour crying.
“It makes me feel really sad to know I had to go through this. The NHS saved my life but this should not be happening.
“This shows the reality of the stress the NHS is under. It needs to be properly financed. We need more doctors and we need more nurses.”
Nina found a lump on her breast in October 2016, and was diagnosed with cancer in April 2017.
Doctors prescribed six rounds of chemotherapy, which she had at Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospital in London.
During her fourth stint, in June 2017, Nina’s temperature shot up to 38.5 degrees and she was vomiting, so was taken to hospital by her mum, Jilly Stevens.
She sat in the waiting room, but there were no available beds, and she was left to lie on the floor for an hour, she said.
Nina was eventually given a bed and diagnosed with neutropenic sepsis, and was admitted to hospital for three days for treatment to rebuild her immune system.
Nina said: “The hospital was very, very busy.
“I sat in the waiting room vomiting. They said they were short staffed and were struggling to treat everyone who was there.
“I was in the waiting room but there wasn’t a bed and I just needed to lay down.
“I was so unwell and had to be laid down, I was too weak to stand.
“My mum was with me and took the photos in shock. I was just so happy to be off my feet.
“She couldn’t believe it. Looking back now, it is absolutely disgusting it was allowed to happen.”
She was sent home from hospital on June 23 and is now in remission.
With the general election less than two days away, Nina is appealing to whoever gets the keys to number 10 to ensure the future of the NHS is safeguarded for the future.
She wants to see more money pumped into paying for things like training for staff and the recruitment of more doctors and nurses.
Single Nina said: “Please do not privatise the NHS and pump more money into it.
“The NHS needs more support and money.
“My care at Guy’s was absolutely amazing, but the problem was at my local hospital.
“There is a huge difference between the level of care I got at both hospitals. This highlights how the smaller hospitals are struggling.
“The team at Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospital saved my life.
“But they are all under an incredible amount of stress.”
A spokesman for East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust said: “We are very sorry to hear of Ms White’s experiences at the Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother Hospital in June 2017 and we wholeheartedly apologise that we were unable to provide a more comfortable environment for her to wait for a bed.
“If our hospital is extremely busy and a bed is not immediately available, staff in the emergency department work hard to care for waiting patients and regularly monitor their safety and comfort, as well as controlling their pain.
“Since Ms White’s experience, we have increased the capacity of our emergency department by adding an observation ward, and we are now expanding the emergency department further to provide better facilities for patients.
“We will soon be introducing a new service for people with cancer who attend our emergency departments, so they can be admitted to a specialist bed in a timely way.”