The victim of a serious car crash was discharged from hospital in his boxer shorts in the middle of the night and was told to make a kilt from a medical gown and a towel.
Anthony Burns, 26, was left with only his underwear after medics rushed him to Raigmore Hospital and cut off his clothes, following a car crash on the Isle of Skye on Monday at 5pm.
But, after being given the all clear at 4.30am the following morning, Mr Burns says he was put out onto the Inverness streets with nothing.
Everything they had was still in the car on Skye.
NHS Highland says it is “very concerned” by the description of events and has apologised to the couple.
‘Dream’ holiday turned to nightmare
At first, medics thought Mr Burns, of Kittybrewster in Aberdeen, had seriously injured his spine and placed him into a body board.
Badly concussed, he was unable to tell medics his address and it was feared he had a serious head injury.
His partner, Aberdeen University genetics student, Marie Bernards, 25, was also injured when two cars collided on the A87 Portree to Broadford road, at Dunans.
Ms Bernards has just finished her dissertation, and the trip to Skye was a “dream holiday” the couple was looking forward to for many years.
They spent a few blissful days, including a visit to the Fairy Pools, when the collision happened as they were travelling south.
While the first four people on the scene were off-duty emergency responders, Mr Burns describes himself as feeling “very unwell”.
When an ambulance arrived, Mr Burns was put on to a body board, and made to stay still until he could be transferred to hospital. He was first taken to Broadford, then on to a four-hour trip to Raigmore in Inverness for a CT scan. There his clothes were cut off, and local people gave him blankets to keep him warm.
The Aberdeen sports therapist said: “At Raigmore, they could not get rid of us quickly enough. As soon as my CT scan was clear – they sat me up and got me ready to go. I told them the room was spinning and I felt sick.
“I was feeling nauseous from the large amount of morphine I had. The nurses quickly put me on a drip with anti-nausea medication. But then again – within about 30 minutes – got me up to leave.
“I said to the nurses that I only had the boxer shorts that I had on, and could I get help from some sort of welfare to get me some clothes to wear? My clothes had been cut off during the incident, so I had nothing to wear.
“I asked if I could even borrow a set of scrubs or asked if there was anyone that could help me – but they said no.
“I asked them what the policy and procedure was for people with no clothes.
“Instead, they offered me a hospital gown and a towel with a pin and told me that I could ‘fashion a kilt’. They didn’t ask where home was, or if we would be ok.
“They then said ‘bye then’.”
Mr Burns explained that when the cars crashed all the couple’s belongings were left behind. His phone was somewhere in the wreckage of the car, he has lost his glasses and he only had the clothes he was standing up in.
He said the treatment at the crash scene, and in Broadford Hospital was exceptional. He had been told that the hospital in Inverness would not discharge him in the middle of the night.
NHS Highland apology
He said: “From the time we got to Raigmore, I was left in a side room for an hour, no one came to talk to me. At first, Marie was not with me.
“When the nurses did come to take me for the scan, they spent a little time talking to me and then spent their time talking about other staff.
Ms Bernards said: “My phone had 1% charge and it wasn’t until I started to become emotional that the staff helped me find a plug and charger.
“I am from Germany and this would not have happened there, our care is amazing and they treat patients well. You simply cannot put someone who has been in a serious accident out of the hospital in the middle of the night with no clothes on.
“Where was the aftercare? They were happy to let Anthony go out into the night with nothing.
“It is unkind and unacceptable.”
Ms Bernards said the staff did eventually help them to get a number for a nearby hotel. But other than that, said they were rushing to get them out of the hospital.
She said: “The hospital was not busy. There were three other patients.”
A spokesman for NHS Highland said: “While we can’t comment on any individual cases due to patient confidentiality, we are very concerned by this description of events.
“We would like to apologise for any distress or inconvenience caused. No matter how busy we are, we want to ensure that all those who attend our hospitals receive high-quality care, and we want to learn from any experiences that fall short of this.
“We would ask that the individual concerned would contact our feedback team (nhshighland.feedback@nhs.scot) so that we can investigate, review and respond directly. “
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