Medical negligence

[KOKOagainandagain]

My 84 year old mother was admitted to hospital having had a stroke behind one eye that caused permanent loss of vision and acute rapid onset delirium - delusional thinking, hallucinations etc just after Easter.

Her 'care' in hospital was a catalogue of disasters. A doctor misread her notes taken in a&e and assumed that 'arthritis' said 'Alzheimer's' at the start and she was treated as if she had dementia despite correct history being given to multiple staff. Her hospital notes were not requested, her rheumatologist was not informed of her admission for five weeks, staff were unaware that she was on injectable biologics and a high risk of infection and she was left without pain being medicated.

She was an in-patient for about 9 weeks during which time she was deteriorating physically. She had lost a great deal of weight and put on a supplemental diet and had consistently been complaining of stomach pain. All staff - nurses and doctors - dismissed reports of pain with lots of excuses - probably because she had an injection in her tummy, probably constipation, probably a UTI and it was finally decided by the consultant that it was just anxiety.

Mum was discharged to my DB's with no care package. The discharge SW told me that mum would have to pay from day 1 and gave me the contact details of local care agencies and recommended morning and evening visits as mum was independent, continent etc. She was not at the point of discharge and continued to deteriorate at home.

A week and a half following discharge a new GP saw her and said she was dying. She appeared to be in agony and was distressed. The DN came and gave an end of life cocktail of drugs but she was still in pain and put on a syringe driver to deliver continuous morphine. She died a couple of days later.

A PM was conducted that recorded pneumonia as the cause of death but the coroner told me that this does not mean that there was not a malignancy in her stomach and which was the cause of pain, just that malignancy was not the cause of death. He was not able to tell me as this is beyond his remit and I have had to request a copy of the full report.

I spoke to irwin Mitchell who implied that I can't bring a case as my dad died some years ago and my mum has no dependent under 18.

Does anyone have any advice - anything would be of use

[schlooby]

I'm sorry for your loss. Did she have a malignancy in her stomach then?

it's quite usual for pneumonia or some other infection to be the immediate cause of death when an elderly person dies, even if overall they died because of a cancer or something else.

(I'm not a legal bod but health care)

[schlooby]

The fact she died just a few weeks after becoming unwell may suggest she was already very poorly and the correct diagnosis/treatment would not have meant she lived longer. I have seen a similar case where the family sued but were awarded next to nothing on that basis.

I don't believe you can claim for pain and suffering on her behalf only financial loss as a result but I may be mistaken.

[todayisnottheday]

I've no experience or training but it sounds wrong that you can't bring a case if no dependents/partner. Surely the point of a negligence case is investigating poor care and putting plans in place to avoid it happening again not compensation to give to family? I'd get further advice tbh and get her notes/coroners report etc to go through. There may not have been any negligence rather a series of unfortunate incidents that didn't contribute to the loss of life but I don't think you have enough information at the moment to judge that.

[schlooby]

a formal complaint about the possible errors in her care may be more effective than suing if your aim is to avoid this happening again

[Annietheacrobat]

Apart from the stomach pain what other evidence is there to suggest that she had stomach cancer? I would have thought that the PM would have identified a stomach cancer.

I'm not sure what the outcome would be from pursuing a negligence case. Even if a stomach cancer had been 'missed' it is unlikely to change the outcome as it does not sound like she was fit enough to receive treatment or that a diagnosis would have changed the outcome. In that sense you would be unlikely to receive compensation for this.



I agree with the above poster that a formal complaint about any concerns regarding poor care might be more appropriate.

[Annietheacrobat]

Meant to add I'm not minimising what happened to your grandmother's care. It does sound like she wasn't treated well. It's just that compensation tends to be based on harm sustained, financial loss, ongoing care needs etc. for example if someone was injured due to negligence and needed full time care as a result.

[KOKOagainandagain]

I contacted PALs whilst mum was an in-patient and they were of no help just advising a complaint once things were stable.

I will not know if there was a malignancy until I have read the report which the coroner will send. He said that she couldn't have had an operation anyway and she probably would not have lived longer (which I heard as 'she was old and was going to die anyway). The PM was conducted by another hospital so that the pathologist was independent of the original hospital.

I am shocked by the whole thing - mum was lucky that she had both my DB advocating for her but essentially it did not matter. Mum was on a dementia ward and everything she said and did was ignored. DB and I were wrong to assume anything was real.

No 'care' took place on the ward at all. I had to be with mum on the ward otherwise she would be ignored. Zimmer removed so she can't wander, water jug removed so she can't throw it at a nurse to get her attention, likewise the call button placed out of reach etc.

The dementia ward relocated whilst mum was an in-patient and this totally freaked her out (she threw a fax machine) and so was put on Haliperidol due to challenging behaviour. She was discharged with three a day supply for three months. She developed severe akathesia and despite unmedicated severe rheumatoid arthritis was unable to sit for longer than a couple of minutes. It is not known whether severe shaking and facial grimacing were due to a side effect of the drug or waves of intense pain. The shaking and grimacing were about 10 to 20 seconds apart and lasted less than 30 seconds. During this she would call out (no more, I can't stand any more) rub her stomach and attempt to raise her legs.

I want to prevent this from happening again but having had to advocate for my two DS with an ASD know that the bureaucracy can take over your life for years. I want to hand it over to solicitors because I am interested in justice not compensation.

I cannot believe that an in-patient could be left to suffer severe pain. Pain that was never believed and so never investigated.