The family of a dad who has Parkinson's disease were left horrified after finding out that he had died for two minutes - but that no-one at the hospital had told them. Colin Dawson’s daughters only found out about the incident in May after seeing 'RIP' written on his medical notes.
Pam Le Ballois said the shocking discovery is just one of many issues her family have faced during her dad's time at Countess of Chester Hospital. The 73-year-old was first admitted after falling ill in a restaurant back in April.
Now, his daughter believes this could be his last Christmas due to the decline in her father's heath. Mrs Le Ballios says it has been near impossible to get any kind of meaningful response from the 'faceless organisation', and that the last time they were even in contact with the family was four weeks ago.
Bosses at the Countess of Chester Hospital have admitted that they have not 'dealt with the complaint in a way they had a right to expect', but failed to properly address the specific claims put to them by CheshireLive.
These include that:
while in a confused and delirious state and not being supervised, he fell and suffered a bleed on the brain;
following the fall, his wife Frances was contacted at 4am and asked if she wanted resuscitation efforts to continue;
Parkinson’s disease medication was then pumped into his lungs rather than his stomach, apparently causing an infection and pneumonia;
his family were told that if he suddenly stopped breathing, there would be no time for surgical intervention and no attempt would be made to revive him.
Mrs Le Ballois: "He should have been supervised but he was not. Because he has Parkinson's and needs daily medication they said he’d need a nasal feeding tube to give him his meds. They put it in the wrong place and before they realised they had administered medication into his lungs.
"He got pneumonia and a lung infection and I was told he was lucky to survive. There was then a protracted waiting time for him to be discharged, trying to get him physio on a rehab ward so he could regain strength.
"He was transferred to a rehab ward at Wrexham Maelor hospital, went home for three weeks and then over again three weeks ago.
Mrs Le Ballois said that Dr Dawson, who has a PhD from Imperial College, 'is unlikely to ever come home'.
She continued: "He has four granddaughters, some living in Australia, and they are all coming over at Christmas because it could be the last time they see him."
She added that complaints to The Countess of Chester were falling on deaf ears, saying: "They are a faceless organisation. We put in a complaint and still have had no response.
"You can’t talk to anybody. You leave a message on the answerphone and they don’t reply. We asked our MP to send letters and they did not get a reply.
"For an organisation that is supposed to be caring, this is awful. Talking to them is like talking to a brick wall. I’m at a loss now. Unless I go and stand in front of the hospital or the chief executive’s office, how am I going to get an answer?"
Among the family's questions are why their dad's risk of delirium was apparently not picked up, why the feeding tube was seemingly not checked before the medication was given, and why they were never told he had been diagnosed with an infection after first being admitted.
If they still don't get answers, the family have said they will go to the Parliamentary and Health Services Ombudsman.
A spokesman for the Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust said: "Our complaints procedure is there to support patients and their families to raise issues and ensure they are dealt with quickly however we recognise that on this occasion, we fell short of the standards we set for ourselves. We would like to apologise to the family for not having dealt with the complaint in the way that they had a right to expect.
"We are in direct contact with the family so that we can discuss and resolve the complaint and the specific issues they have raised. We are actively investigating the complaint but we won’t comment further at this stage as it is our duty to protect patient confidentiality."
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