When Christian Cousins suffered a leg injury while playing with a ball in his friend's garden, he could never have imagined how the next eight weeks of his life would pan out.

The 28-year-old already suffered from varicose veins and the injury worsened the condition.

He put up with the pain for a while, but his GP put him on painkillers when the leg started to swell up.

The injury slowly worsened and, on September 26, Christian awoke at 3am in his house in Stanier Street in excruciating pain.

He had suffered a blood clot and could barely breathe: the clot shifted from his leg to his back and was throbbing against his lung. His condition had become life-threatening.

The next day his landlord dropped the bombshell that he would no longer be able to stay at his house; he was left homeless.

He stayed with his fiancee Emma Dolphin at her sister's house for a while and they are now staying at her grandfather's house in Greenmeadow, but neither are long-term options.

The couple had been due to get married three weeks ago in Greece, but events overtook them and the wedding has been postponed.

Christian was admitted to PMH on October 3 at about 1.30pm.

He was taken to the Accident Assessment Unit but it was more than 12 hours before he was seen by a doctor.

He was led to the Martin Sell Ward, where it was agreed almost immediately that he had a deep vein thrombosis.

The doctor took his blood pressure which was very low and Christian was put on a course of painkillers and other medication.

He was told at one point that his leg might have to be amputated if the clot grew worse and that he would have to be kept in for observation until his condition improved.

He was parked on a trolley for the night and for most of the following day, only to be moved at 11.40pm on October 4 to Yatesbury Ward, where he was again left on a trolley outside the ward office.

"I was there for two days, lying on a trolley several feet off the floor, sweating and unable to move my leg, which had to be kept elevated," said Christian. "It was really uncomfortable and I felt cocooned."

Finally, he was given a bed on the ward on October 6 and he was comfortable for two days, until a man in his 40s was brought in seeming to have suffered a stroke.

"He looked in a much worse condition than me, with an oxygen mask and IV drips and things, so I volunteered to give up my bed," Christian said.

"I was moved to the small nurse's office where I was left on a mattress on the floor overnight, and I figured that was only temporary.

"But then the next day I saw the stroke patient walking past the room to the showers looking fine and I was stuck in there and could hardly move.

"He then left but I never got that bed back and I spent the next ten days cooped up in that awful room."

Like Advertiser columnist Shirley, he found the room claustrophobic, draughty and uncomfortable. And like Shirley, he made no criticism of the nursing staff.

The nurses were brilliant," he said. "They did whatever they could when they could but they are over-run with patients and it is obvious their morale is low.

"You can see there are auxiliaries doing the job of staff nurses and people rushing about trying to cope."

Christian was waiting for his blood pressure to return to normal and at last it did.

He was discharged at about 4.45pm on Tuesday, but not before spending nearly seven hours with Shirley in the office, which is barely large enough for one.

He is far from fully recovered and cannot walk more than 20 yards without severe pain in his leg.

"I just wanted to get out because it was really getting to me being stuck in there," he said.

He was due to return today for another appointment and his condition will continue to be monitored, but he is relieved to be able to sleep in a bed again, even though it is not his own.

"I'm homeless and thoroughly depressed, but at least I'm not still in there," he said. "I can't even look for a place properly because I've got no money, no transport and I can barely walk.

"If it hadn't been for my fiancee Emma and her family helping me out, I don't think I'd have coped."

He now shares Shirley's concern for the hospital's ability to cope through the winter.

"I can imagine it's going to be bedlam over the winter," he said. "The nurses will always put on a brave face, but I blame the management and the Government.

"And to hear they intend to build a new hospital with 60 fewer beds is ridiculous if anything it should have far more beds."