The family of a man found out he had been declared dead by hospital staff on his medical records.
Colin Dawson, who is 76, apparently died for a period of two minutes in May. However, his daughter said she only learned about this when she saw 'RIP' on his medical notes much later.
Pam Le Ballois said the discovery is just one incident of many that her family have had with the Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Trust since her dad, who is from Chester and has Parkinson's disease, was admitted to the hospital after falling ill in a restaurant in the city back in April. Pam fears that her dad's health has declined to a point where this could be his last Christmas.
However, she said it has been incredibly difficult to get a meaningful response from the trust. She said her last contact was four weeks ago, reports CheshireLive.
The hospital acknowledged that it "fell short of standards" and it hasn't “dealt with the complaint in a way they (the family) had a right to expect”. However, they have not responded to the following specific claims put to them by CheshireLive and the ECHO :
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 told CheshireLive: “He should have been supervised but he was not. Because he has Parkinsons 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 added: “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 going unanswered, 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 questions Dr Dawson’s family want answers to are why his risk of delirium was apparently not picked up, why the feeding tube was seemingly not checked before the medication was administered, and why they were never told he had been diagnosed with an infection after first being admitted.
They have said they will go to the Parliamentary and Health Services Ombudsman if answers are not forthcoming.
A spokesperson for the Countess of Chester NHS Foundation Trust told the ECHO : "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 and so it would not be appropriate for us to comment publicly while that process is ongoing and before we have given a detailed response to the patient and family involved."
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