Coroner slams hospital after woman dies

Jul 18 2007



AN INQUEST has criticised communications at Leighton Hospital after a gravely ill Crewe woman's medical notes were left blank for up to five days before she died.

Elizabeth Dodd, 67, died on February 9 after an operation to remove gall stones caused a tear in the lining of her bowel.

Mrs Dodd, of Rolls Avenue, underwent two further operations in order to correct the problem, but never recovered.

At an inquest on Thursday, it emerged because Mrs Dodd's medical notes had not been filled in for a period of five days, it appeared she had not been examined for nearly a week.

The inquest, before Cheshire deputy assistant coroner Robert Wilson-Hunter, heard evidence from Mrs Dodd's daughter Julie Leach who spoke of the family's anger at her treatment.

'I'm livid, the whole family is. When they talk about care, we hardly saw anyone until she went to the high dependency unit.' She added it was only once her mother was moved to the intensive care unit the family felt they were properly informed. 

The inquest also heard a scoring system to determine the seriousness of a patient's condition was miscalculated, and although it could not be said the human error contributed to Mrs Dodd's death, coroner Dr Wilson-Hunter said a correctly tallied score would have alerted doctors there was a problem sooner.

Mr Arif Khan, the surgeon who operated on Mrs Dodd, said: 'There are times when you get the optimum care and there are times when you expect more and it does not happen.'

He said the hospital trust needed more staff and better resources the same old excuse .

The inquest heard that Mrs Dodd had seen a member of the surgical team during the five days her notes were left blank, but Dr Wilson-Hunter criticised the communication breakdown.

He said: 'Nothing was written, and it's imperative there are good entries made.'

He returned a verdict that Mrs Dodd had died due to multiple organ failure.

Dr Wilson-Hunter added: 'She died as a result of a recognised complication in a necessary surgical procedure, but there appeared to be problems with doctors communicating with each other.'

I have a friend - who is 93 years old - in Leighton Hospital. When he was first in, we (a group of us who are friends - he has no proper relatives), objected because, with a broke femur, he was constantly being shuffled to the back of the emergency list - 'in case someone might have a car accident because of the icy weather'.

In the end we stated that we were aware that they were waiting until he developed pneumonia, when they would probably refuse to operate on him anyway - and then he would die. So then he got his operation, because a few of us were complaining - and showing that we would continue.

Following his operation, he could not eat the food.

Being a lifelong vegetarian, he found what was presented, to be inedible. We complained that he was turning his face to the wall. He existed on bananas for the first week - which were brought in by concerned friends. When I asked the staff nurse whether he was seen to be eating at all - because was aware that he was not eating - I also asked whether anyone had sat with him to ensure that he was eating. I was told that "he has the use of his hands".

Curiously, I do not feel that this is a good attitude - in a nurse.. especially to a man of 93 years old, who - refusing pain relief - has just had a major operation..

It took far too long - over a week - to get a dietician to see him.

I am aware that the nurse who was seeing off the elderly. at Leighton, has been jailed - eventually - for her actions. But, I am sure that others, who possibly knew what was going on, are still working at Leighton. On current experience, I am not reassured by the behaviour of nurses. I feel the need to watch them - and their practices. My friend seems to be going through his third gut infection, in that hospital, at the moment.

Is that really good enough?

Charlotte Peters Rock