We lost our Mum on Mothers Day last year. She was 78, completely independant, still drove and was very active. She broke her right arm in the January and needed help with mobilising and developed pressure sores, which were being treated at her local heath centre. From the xray and various scans it was discovered she had renal cell cancer metastasized to her bones, but there was talk of treatment to halt the spread and giving her another few years. She then broke her left arm on 7th March and was hospitalised. We gave the hospital all her medication and advised them of her pressure sores.
Only one person was allowed to visit her for one hour a day. During those visits, whoever was seeing her would bed-bath her, clean her teeth and brush her hair. She complained of back pain too but the hospital would give her more pain relief. She had her arms “pinned” on 11th March and the surgery was a success.
However, she was not encouraged to get out of bed, or have physio (apart from “wiggle your toes/fingers” and she was still complained of back pain.
On 17th March, her 79th birthday, she was put on “end of life” care with no family consultation (as per APoC guidelines) and she was allowed two visitors at all times so we (13 of us) took two hourly turns to spend time with her so someone was with her at all times. She developed sepsis but they “could not” confirm the source of the infection. We kept asking for the hospital to investigate but as she was on end of life, all care had been withdrawn and we’re prioritising her comfort, yet still she complained of back pain.
After complaining to the hospital about her lack of care, we eventually got Mum transferred to hospice on the afternoon of 23rd and for the first time since she went into hospital, she had a change of clothes and a bed bath by staff. On 24th my sister saw Mum’s sores for the first time since admission. She had a hole at the base of her spine that you could fit a child’s fist in and it was so obviously the source of her sepsis.
Mum slipped into unconsciousness on 25th and she passed at noon on Mothers Day with her family around her.
Initially the hospice listed the cause of her death as cancer, however because of the open wound the Coroner might request a post-mortem. After making a complaint against the hospital, we had a meeting in July last year and the hospital admitted that “they failed” our Mum, but did not apologise at all, so we referred our case to a solicitor.
The post-mortem revealed that the cause of her death was attributed to Pulmonary Embolism due to DeepVein Thrombosis and Bronchopneumonia, so an inquest was set for November and six of us attended.
As you can imagine, we had questions but the hospital did not attend the inquest so it was adjourned and the hospital were summoned to attend.
Fast-forward to July this and after a scan on his chest (my Dad has history of heart problems), it was discovered he has Stage 4 lung cancer, spread to his spine, pelvis and ribs, but has been having chemo and immuno therapies to halt the spread, and we are waiting for the latest scan results to see if the treatment is working.
Mum’s inquest was on 6th September and two hospital staff attended as well as six family members including Dad who had only had a chemo/immuno session five days before.
Neither of the hospital staff could comment on the lack of care for Mum as, despite providing “contemperaneous” evidence from other people’s reports “they were not there and did not witness anything” so there really was no point in them attending.
Our saving grace was that the Coroner confirmed that Mum died from two causes that were not present when she was admitted to hospital and that they were “hospital acquired” leaving the door open for us to go forward with a negligence claim against the hospital.
As you can imagine, all this has taken it’s toll on the family, and we are all still grieving for Mum with no end in sight. I am currently signed off work with stress and anxiety due to bereavement, but as a mental health first aider, I am good at listening to other people however find it extremely difficult to talk about my own mental ill health.
Does anyone have any experience of this kind of situation, and how did you get through it?
TIA x
