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Having had to watch my hemoglobin, I wanted to jump in and tell you to get there ASAP. But I saw your reason for not wanting to, and read your later post, and can only say that I have to respect your outlook and wish the best for you.

In one sense, you bring back memories of my late wife, who opposed transfusions based on her spiritual beliefs. When she lost a huge amount of blood internally, transfusions in the E.R. was the only thing that kept her alive.

But then, our E.R. experiences are not those of the general public. One of her daughters is an RN in the E.R. At 3:00 a.m., we sped through city streets at 60mph and over the bridges at 80, and she was escorted directly to a treatment bay. She had the doctors' immediate attention (luckily, at 3:00 a.m. there was almost no other activity there) and within two hours she had blood replaced and all the tests necessary to diagnose her condition.

Too many stories of conditions in other hospitals' E.R.'s justify your outlook on the subject. So again, best wishes for your outcome.

As I said earlier up the thread I totally understand DancesWithCats reasons I have had too many experiences of A and E or ER as you call it.

I must say though when mum was taken in for the last time even though there was nothing they could do for her she was immediately seen and put into the resuse area.

It was a Saturday but they quickly did tests and got results from the lab which confirmed that due to her frail condition there was not point in doing any more aggressive treatment.

If they had put her on life support her lungs would never have been strong enough to come off it and with her Alzheimer's as developed as it was it was kinder to just put fluids in her but let her go peacefully, which she did about 10 hours later. She was so dehydrated that they had to put the fluid in very slowly as otherwise it would have sent the body into total shock and she would probably have died of a heart attack or something similar.

They were great the only time I would say when the NHS does do what it should is when there is a real emergency and they acted quickly and kept me informed all the time. I was allowed to ring the ward every hour during the night and they rang me near the end. I did not get there in time but I believe that was providential as really I do not know how I would have coped with seeing her passing, I saw her just after and she was finally at peace. It was a strange way to begin Christmas Day but I can say in a way it was the best Chritsmas present I could have been given she was at long last at peace.