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Dear Editor, On Thursday, December 14, I presented to my doctor with pain in my leg and extreme shortness of breath.
His diagnosis was deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolisms. He gave me a letter and told me to take it to Hairmyres. This I did, and arrived at Hairmyres at about 5.45pm. Four hours later I was seen by the triage nurse who took a blood sample and I was returned to the waiting room. Two hours later I was seen by a doctor who confirmed my doctor’s diagnosis. I was given a blood thinning injection and, because of a shortage of beds, I was given the option of returning home and coming back at 10am, with the assurance that ward three would be advised and that I would get a scan.
When I arrived at 10am nobody knew I was coming, but I was admitted. Strangely enough, only one bed was occupied. At 11.30am a nurse arrived to fit a cannula, saying nobody had told her I had arrived. At 2pm nothing had happened, and after repeated requests I was told to make my way to the scanning unit and I would be scanned. This confirmed I had embolisms on both lungs. I returned to ward three and two days later I was discharged. However, owing to pressure on the department I was advised that an echo cardiogram would have to be done at a later date. Owing to a cancellation, I was given a cardiograph a couple of days later. What became crystal clear was:
Every professional I met was excellent and working very hard, however there did not seem to be any liaison between departments.
Some of those presenting at A&E were neither accident or emergencies and should have been filtered out by triage before they got into the waiting room, and should have been advised to seek help elsewhere.
A number had injuries sustained by falling, and had they taken more responsibility for their safety they would not have clogged up A&E.
The problems I experienced were certainly not the fault of the excellent professionals I came in contact with.
John Rimmer Address supplied Dear Editor,
Having recently started to
follow a vegan lifestyle, I was a little taken aback at the views expressed by J Rimmer last week on veganism.
Regarding the case of the chef who admitted “spiking” a vegan’s meal, she was in the wrong and has paid the price with her job.
On his other points, do vegans berate people for eating meat? Has he had personal experience of this? I was a meat eater for over 40 years and wasn’t aware of any hassle from vegans. I have watched many clips on Youtube of vegans in public outreach groups all over the world and they are never anything other than polite. I would recommend he watches clips from Earthling Ed, Joey Carbstrong and James Aspey and he will see that for himself. It was watching these guys and the UK film Land Of Hope and Glory that convinced me to go vegan.
Mr Rimmer talks about the negative impact of veganism on the environment. This is nothing compared to the damage animal agriculture is doing to the planet. Cattle-rearing generates more global warming greenhouse gases than all transportation. (Source: UN News Centre). On his point about vast areas of forest cleared to grow soya, much of this is for animal feed as well as for us.
Roughly 815m people are living in a state of starvation and yet we grow enough food to feed ten billion people. The world’s population is estimated at 7.6billion. People are starving to death because the food that we grow is fed to livestock animals. The world feeds 56 billion land animals every year. According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the UN, the grain used to feed American livestock alone could be used to eradicate world hunger. As more people go vegan, farmers would adjust by breeding, raising and slaughtering fewer animals. With more people choosing plant-based meals and milks, farmers could switch to growing any number of different plants.
Regarding his point on shoes, there is vegan footwear available, made from synthetics. Brands like Toms, Vans, Etnies and Doc Martens have a range of vegan shoes. And I’ve not even mentioned the widely-accepted health benefits a vegan diet. I would politely suggest that Mr Rimmer does a bit more research on veganism.
Scott Harrison Hamilton