A desperate woman is staging a hospital lie-in after suffering from excruciating back pain for over a year.
Andrena McCarroll, 62, refused to leave Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow and spent 15 hours on a trolley overnight on Tuesday before she was found a bed.
She said that following an MRI scan, doctors told her she needed an operation on trapped nerves - but said that she could go home as she would need to wait for a date to get the procedure done.
But when doctors tried to discharge the woman, from Milngavie, East Dunbartonshire, Scotland, refused to leave without having her operation, reports the Daily Record.
She said: "I am not leaving here until they give me the operation I need.
"I was in hospital for the same thing last year and had an MRI scan of my spine but they sent me away with morphine, dihydrochloride and paracetamol and told me to get a wheelchair. It's what I had to do but I have been seriously unwell and this is not the way I want to live my life.
"By October last year, my spine had got a lot worse and I went to my GP who said I had sciatica and it could take 12 weeks to clear up. But by January I couldn't take the pain any longer so I went back and he gave me more medication and referred me to an orthopaedic surgeon."
Andrena said the nerve problem was also starting to have an effect on her bowels as she had loss of control.
A further MRI scan was arranged for April but the pain was increasing and she was unable to even get in and out of bed.
On Tuesday, she returned to her GP as the pain had increased substantially and he sent her to the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital with a letter of referral.
She arrived at about 5.30pm and sat in a chair for a couple of hours before the pain was so bad she had to be moved onto a trolley in A&E where she lay until 8.45am.
Then she was taken, still on the trolley, to a ward but she spent a further two hours on it before she was finally found a bed - more than 17 hours after she arrived.
An MRI scan was done on Wednesday and she received her results on Thursday with a medic telling her she needed an operation but he was letting her go home.
Andrena said: "He told me I would be fine and he would give me more painkillers and later said he could give me an injection. But I am not fine.
"I can’t walk and I can’t stand for more than two minutes. I haven’t been out since Christmas Eve and even then I had to come home minutes after I went out.
"I don’t want more painkillers, I want an operation which will improve my quality of life. When I said I wanted to stay in for the operation the doctor told me I couldn’t because I would maybe get an infection in the wound.
"But what would be the difference between me having it now and later - surely it is the same risk. I thought it was a strange thing for him to come out with unless there is a serious infection in the hospital but he denied there was an infection."
She insisted: "I told him I am not leaving this bed until I get the operation I need so the doctor said he would need to get a consultant but he hasn’t appeared yet. I have already suffered for a year and I am worried sick about my health. I can’t get any kind of quality of life.
"I just know if I leave here the operation will not get done." She claimed: "They are turning people into drug addicts with all the painkillers they are prescribing."
Andrena said she was unsure what the hospital would do to have her removed from the premises.
She said: "I don't know if they will call the police to remove me but I am desperate enough to risk it."
A spokesperson for NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said: "Our services, like the whole of NHS Scotland are facing increased demand within our A&E departments and staff across NHSGGC are doing all they can to assist in providing the best possible service for our patients.
"We are taking a number of actions to support our A&E departments at this time including the implementation of our continuous flow model to free up space in the emergency department and reduce wait times.
"While we cannot comment on individual cases, we would like to apologise to Ms McCarroll for having to wait longer than normal at A&E. We would like to thank our staff who continue to work under extreme pressures to provide the best possible patient care."
