As part of the Special Commission of Inquiry into Acute Care Services in NSW Public Hospitals Ray Blunden yesterday told a room full of people about his horrific experiences at the hospital three years ago.

Mr Blunden suffers from Crohn’s disease and was first diagnosed when he was 14 years old.

Outside the inquiry yesterday he described his experiences when he went into hospital on October 8 2005 for what he thought was a small bowel obstruction.

“My Crohn’s disease was inflamed and I had to have surgery. The doctor said my stomach was like a lump of concrete and was difficult to work on,” he said.

“I woke up and my bowel had been nicked in three places.

“I was sent home and five days later my wife offered me a slice of toast to eat. It made me sick and I got up to go to the toilet. As I started to walk to the bathroom my stomach fell out onto the floor … I’m lucky to be alive.”

Mr Blunden said the nicks in his bowel had allowed his stomach contents to leak out, rotting his stitches and leading to septicemia.

He was rushed to Dubbo Base Hospital where he underwent a number of surgeries including the removal of some of his lung.

“I had about seven operations to stabilise me and then the hospital told my wife they couldn’t do any more … they left me for dead,” he said.

“If she hadn’t have jumped up and down and said get him out of here I would be dead.”

Mr Blunden spent five-and-half months in Royal Prince Alfred Hospital after being transferred from Dubbo Base at his wife’s request.

Now he can hardly eat anything and what he can has to be mashed up to a similar consistency to baby food.

He said his life had been destroyed by the haste of surgeons at Dubbo Base Hospital.

“They should have sent me to RPA straight away and not attempted it here.

“I can’t eat. I am on the scrap heap,” he said.

keely.bell@ruralpress.com