Angela

“When I initially arrived at the hospital where I was having a camera inserted, I was placed in a room and noticed that there was no interpreter there at my appointment. I picked up a piece of cardboard and wrote on it and said “interpreter?”. The receptionist said, “they’re not coming.” I was absolutely fuming. I was so angry. The doctor said, “Hang on, I’m gonna write something down.” It was a really long word. And of course I didn’t understand - it’s not my language. Oh, he said, “Hold on. I’m gonna fetch something.” It was a video service for interpreters. It wasn’t working. I was so angry. What am I supposed to do? He said “Just hang on. There’s a bed there for you.” I said, “Am I sleeping here?” They said, “Yes”. So I set myself up. And I waited, and waited and nobody came to see me. I had no food. I had nothing to drink... The following morning, I was ready to go into surgery. They were putting me to sleep. But when I woke up there [the nurse] just put her thumbs up and sort of spoke to me like I was really stupid. “Oh, good news, bad news?” You know? She just said bye bye and left and it was just awful. Back in my room I sat in there and just wondered why this happened. I cried. Is there anything wrong with me? How is that gonna tell me what’s wrong with me? So I went to sleep. The next day I got dressed and went straight home. And that’s it.”