Grandmother from Wednesbury feels 'like a prisoner' as she waits years for operation

A grandmother from Wednesbury says she feels like lockdown hasn't ended after an injury from an accident in 2017 left her "almost housebound".

Stella Morris fell down the stairs in 2017 and has been living in pain ever since.

However, it took a year to discover that she had broken her sternum in multiple places and the cause of the pain was that one of the breaks hadn't healed.

The injury has completely changed her life. For the first three years she lived in her living room, but since a lift was installed two-and-a-half years ago she has been able to access her bedroom and bathroom. She also has carers twice a day.

She said: "I can't bend far enough forward put pants and trousers on over my feet, I can't bend far enough to shower myself I have to have help with showering.

"Because of the same reason with my clothes I have to have someone come at bedtime to help me get ready for bed.

"I can't go out and do my own shopping, my son has to do it.

"I can't do anything in the house where I have to do anything with weight in because any weight in my hands pulls across my front and it moves the bones."

Stella was booked in for an operation to fix the bones in February 2020.

That was cancelled on the day, after her bed was needed for an emergency, and the rearranged date was then cancelled as lockdown had begun.

Since then she had hospital appointments, but no date has been set for the operation.

The grandmother says it has left her feeling "like a prisoner."

"For a lot of people Covid was a big deal, with people restricted and being isolated in the house, but I was already like that, Covid lockdown didn't make much difference for me since it's been lifted, I'm lucky if I go out once a week."

Stella is hoping that a new operation date will come quickly so that she can get "some freedom back."

Today the new Health Secretary, Therese Coffey, said that she would "champion patients" by reducing the backlog and increasing access to GPs.

Stella says this is something that she thinks would help.

"It was actually getting appointments with people in the first place to speak to them about it.

"If I'd been able to see someone a lot sooner, and had the x-rays a lot sooner, we'd have found out a lot sooner and got it done before Covid."