My mother was admitted with an acute Rt arm embolus to my surprise as a Senior Consultant the very senior Surgical Registrar said she was a surgical risk and they would anti-coagulate her and not operate. Next day morning 16 hrs later the next Reg came in and said, “if we had seen her yesterday we would have removed the clot under local anaesthetic but now we will have to amputate her Rt arm”. I said she was in the Hospital 2.30 pm yesterday. The Consultant held back and proposed leaving her to die of gangrene. The gangrene proceeded as they didn’t operate for another 10 hrs. Recovery was slow as had type 2 Respiratory Failure and needed some oxygen but not too much.
The failure to operate resulted in a 5 figure settlement by the Trust some years later. The Consultant Surgeon in an Internal Report said he he had discussed her case with the Reg on admission and that the arm wasn’t viable on admission in which case they should have amputated immediately. Our expert totally disagreed. When I complained to the GMC the Consultant claimed he had never discussed the case with the Registrar and the GMC dismissed the complaint. They said they couldn’t take any action against the incompetent Registrar who would become a Consultant after one more year.
But there’s more and far worse. On the surgical ward mother needed oxygen but not too much. When requiring more she went for an XR at 9.15 with portable oxygen, when I visited 10.30 she had been laid flat without oxygen and was near death with an oxygen saturation of 69%. We are sure that was deliberate and the Nurse responsible was on a 2 week break and knew that she would likely be found dead by the drug round nurses at 11.30. Impossible to prove. When reviewed by a Respiratory Consultant she was sent to the Elderly not the Respiratory Ward. There recovering slowly with needing less oxygen. Friday night a Night Nurse proposed not monitoring her oxygen levels as per the oxygen prescription This was very dangerous as a Senior Consultant I and a family member by phone discussed this with 3 Senior Nurses the last a Director of Nursing, the on call manager. The nurse was instructed to stay away from mother and change nothing.
In the morning she was in a coma as a result of a deliberate oxygen overdose contravening the Medical Oxygen prescription. We ensured she recovered over the weekend but the Trust Senior Medical Team were intent on demanding a DNR order. On the Tuesday in a 2nd meeting with other family on teleconference 5 Senior staff attempted to bully us into agreeing DNR ….they asked 20-30 times including after the end of the meeting when they had me pinned in alone in a narrow room! No action was taken by the Trust against the Criminal Actions of the Nurse in question who in the notes we saw years later made her intentions clear. They did however try to silence myself. The Coroner’s Office declined a Coroner’s Inquest despite our concerns that a crime had been committed and we had obtained a crime incident number on the Friday evening.
This is my story as a: Family member
NHS Trust (or Provider): Don’t know/prefer not to say
Timespan: 2012
Did you complain?: Yes
Did the Trust (or Provider) retaliate?: Yes
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Would you recommend PALS as an impartial intermediary?: No
After investigation, did the Trust (or Provider) respond satisfactorily?: No
Did you take your complaint to the Ombudsman (PHSO)?: No
Your ethnicity: White British
Have you experienced suicidality due to this?: No
Are you autistic?: No
Are you disabled as defined under the Equality Act 2010?: No
