Congratulations on your article "MRI appeal heard" (Leader, November 20).
I too was impacted by the absence of an MRI machine at Sutherland Hospital.
At 1am on Tuesday 30 th January 2018 I went to Sutherland Hospital Emergency with extremely severe pain in my right leg.
They provided strong pain relief and conducted various tests and scans.
They suspected there was something seriously wrong in my spine but they needed an MRI test to confirm it. For that, I would have to be transferred to St George Hospital later in the morning for the MRI test to be done.
At about 9am I was transported by ambulance to St George Hospital and admitted. The transport with spinal problem was painful.
At St George they said they believed "it's a broken disc in the spine, but I can't get an MRI today".
The doctor marked my case "urgent" but I still had to wait all that day and night as there were others before me.
At 9am Wednesday 31 st January after another painful night, I had the MRI.
I was then officially diagnosed with a broken disc in my spine and needed surgery. I was then discharged after the specialist saw me.
I was operated on at St. George Private Hospital on Tuesday, February 6.
If there had been an MRI machine at Sutherland Hospital, I would not have had to suffer the
transport with a spinal injury where any bump could worsen the problem, or take up a bed overnight at St George.
An MRI test on my admission at Sutherland Hospital would have meant I could have been operated on earlier than the following Tuesday, saving days of being in extreme pain and anxiety.
Greg D. Swords, Caringbah South
I recently spent most of a Saturday night at Sutherland Emergency with my elderly dad, bleeding after an eye op - he is now home and fine. The elderly man brought in by ambulance in the next bed... who knows? He broke his neck gardening! pulling out a weed. He had to wait for another ambulance to transfer him to St George for an MRI, with what the X-ray showed was a broken neck! He was still there close to midnight when we left. The shire needs this machine urgently.
Rob Johnston Gymea Bay
