Suche
Mein Konto
A mother with terminal cancer has claimed NHS doctors scolded her after she complained on social media about her “terrible” treatment.
Harriet Wilson, from London, was diagnosed with bowel cancer in May 2021 and was told the disease would likely kill her.
Tumors spread to the 34-year-old's stomach and ovaries and she has undergone 12 grueling rounds of chemotherapy to try to fight the disease.
Ms Wilson - who admitted "there were days when I wanted to end it all" - also had operations to remove cancerous parts of her liver and gallbladder.
In an Instagram post on March 18, Ms Wilson, who has three children, claimed she was not receiving home care and could only speak to her NHS doctor every other Friday at pre-arranged times.
After she complained about the care at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in London, she was allegedly taken to the hospital to be told not to post things on social media.
Harriet Wilson, 34, from London, was diagnosed with bowel cancer in May 2021 and was told the disease would kill her
Mrs Wilson has three children with her husband Dan: Darcey (centre), 14, Harry (right), six, and Nelly (left), four
Ms Wilson said: “I made a video on Instagram on March 18 to talk about how I was feeling because I had no professionals to speak to.
"Afterwards I was called to the oncologist and the nurse told me not to post anything on my Instagram. They called me to check on my social media.
“I had sleepless nights before I went in because I thought they would only call me if they wanted to discuss something serious.
“I was shocked, I said, 'You have a woman here who is dying, a mother of three, and you took me out of my bed and you're here to tell me about my Instagram?
"If I want to walk around naked on my Instagram I can, it's a free country, although if I were naked I might have to put a few emojis to cover my bits."
She added: "I think the hospital was worried because the post got 50,000 views and they were so terrible with my treatment."
In the original video, Ms Wilson said she experienced a rollercoaster of emotions after being told different things by different doctors.
She said: “I don't have a care team now, I'm dying and I don't even have a nurse, I don't even have a doctor to talk to.
“I only have one oncologist who doesn't take calls and calls me every other Friday.
“I am in so much pain now that I have literally searched online and asked family members what I should do because I have no one to ask on the NHS.
“People ask me, “What about my care team?” and all I'm saying is Queen Elizabeth doesn't have a care team, they don't care. I don't even have a MacMillan nurse.
“Not once did the hospital or nurses at MacMillan ever ask who had your children or if you needed help.
“The hospital is so bad that I saw a woman having chemotherapy and her children were sitting on the stairs waiting for their mother, so I was pretty lucky that I have support from my friends and family.
“My mom and dad moved in with us to take care of me.”
Despite the scolding, Ms Wilson says her condition has improved since she raised the concerns. Her doctor even said she might be recommended for surgery.
She also joked that if she survived she would have to buy new clothes and shoes because she had thrown away all of hers.
Ms Wilson married her long-term partner Daniel, 35, on February 18. She said she planned her wedding in a week because she was told she would die.
The couple have three children: Darcey, 14, Harry, six, and Nelly, four.
She said: “I asked for my children to be tested because I was worried that my cancer was hereditary, but I was completely ignored about this.
“As a mother I tried to keep their lives as normal as possible, Harry went to football, Nelly to ballet and Darcey to kickboxing.
“I couldn’t have done it without the help of my mom, aunts, cousins and best friends.”
Ms Wilson married her long-term partner Daniel, 35, on February 18. She said: 'We got married in a storm, the weather was crazy but it didn't stop us keeping our vows and throwing the most fabulous party of all our family and friends'
She said she planned her wedding in a week because she was told she would die
Ms Wilson, from New Eltham, said over the course of her treatment she was told at various times she had cancer and then didn't have cancer or vice versa.
She said: “It was a constant battle, being told one thing and then another.
“One moment I have lung cancer, the next I don’t, the operation on my intestines is successful and then again it’s not.
“There were days when I wanted to end it all myself, I even considered going to Switzerland for a lethal injection.
"I thought about taking all my pills and not waking up, but then I thought, I'm still fighting and the fight is for my children and they need to know to never give up and they are the reason I'm still alive now."
A Fundraising page was founded by the Wilson family to pay for private treatment abroad.
She said: “We are looking at every attempt and therapy to keep me alive for as long as possible.”
A spokesman for Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust said: “We cannot comment on individual cases due to patient confidentiality.
“Harriet will receive a full response to her complaint once we have completed our investigations and in the meantime we wish her all the best with her treatment.”