I had my SAH on May 19th 2011. I got up around 9am feeling fine.  Around 10.15 am I went to the bathroom to wash and next thing I knew… BAM!  I felt like my head was exploding.  I screamed with the pain and my son came to see what was wrong.  He helped me to my room where I fell onto the bed screaming and holding my head.  I couldn't open my eyes and my neck was painful. My son called an ambulance.

When they arrived, the paramedic told me I was having a panic attack and to calm down.  By this time I was curled up on my bed sobbing with the pain, semi conscious.  The paramedic asked me if I could walk to the ambulance?  When I moaned "No", he told me "Well, either you walk or stay here; I’ve got a bad back." My son and a neighbour had to carry me to the ambulance.

On arrival at the Liverpool Royal hospital at 10.55am, I was seen by a junior doctor.  He diagnosed a bad headache and gave me paracetemol.  He didn't examine me except for taking my blood pressure.  My daughter told him that I had lost both my parents, a brother and a sister to brain haemorrhage. He told them this was irrelevant and didn’t even put it in my notes.  By this time I was shaking violently, vomiting, unable to move my limbs, couldn’t open my eyes, was semi-conscious with slurred speech.

Three hours later, the same doctor told me he would give me more analgesic and see about sending me home.  Eventually, after 8 hours of being treated for a bad headache, a nurse in the A&E department took it upon herself to call for a senior doctor.  He examined me and sent me for a CT scan where it was discovered I'd had a bleed.  I waited a further five hours before being transferred to a neuro unit and underwent an MRI scan.  I went to theatre to have my aneurysm coiled at 1 am.  I spent 3 weeks in ICU.

My family and I are very angry at my lack of treatment at the A&E.