"Shocking and could have cost me my life"

I want to share what happened to me at University Hospital Monklands A&E, because it was shocking and could easily have cost me my life.

I had been suffering with a tooth abscess since mid-August. After the tooth was removed and several courses of antibiotics, things got worse. Within a week, my face was severely swollen, the pain unbearable, and my throat was closing over. NHS 111 told me to go straight to Monklands A&E and said they would send an urgent referral.

When I arrived, I could barely speak. My mum tried to come in with me to triage to help explain, but triage staff member was immediately rude and told her to sit down. During triage, instead of recognising that I was in obvious distress and unable to breathe properly, I was told I should leave the hospital and phone 111. They insisted it was a dentist issue. I explained that 111 had already sent me there urgently, but I was dismissed completely and told I would have to wait five hours to see a doctor.

This was not only dismissive and unprofessional — it was dangerous. I was made to feel embarrassed, as though I was wasting everyone’s time, and I seriously considered leaving. If I had followed their instructions and gone home, I might not be alive today.

Thankfully, my mum persuaded me to stay. I was eventually seen, transferred by emergency ambulance to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Glasgow, and taken straight for surgery. I was diagnosed with both Ludwig’s Angina (a life-threatening bacterial infection) and a parapharyngeal space abscess. Both conditions can block the airway and cause sepsis. I needed emergency surgery and spent five days in hospital. The doctors told me I was extremely lucky to survive.

The reality is this: on being triaged, a critically ill patient was told to leave A&E and go home, when in fact I required life-saving surgery that night. Patients go to A&E because they need urgent help. Being told to leave in that situation wasn’t just rude — it had the potential to be fatal.

I don’t ever want another patient to be dismissed like that. Please, if you’re in A&E and you know something is seriously wrong, don’t be afraid to stand your ground.