Health Service Commissioner : first report for session 1982/83 : selected investigations completed April- September 1982.

  • Great Britain. Health Service Commissioner.
Date:
1983
Catalogue details

Licence: Open Government Licence

Credit: Health Service Commissioner : first report for session 1982/83 : selected investigations completed April- September 1982. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    rectly ’ and that nothing further could be done except to assure him that it was ‘felt by all persons concerned that everything possible was done for the wife whilst she was with us at [the hospital] ’. 10. The complainant’s daughter told my officer that when she visited her mother on the evening of Thursday 17 April, her father told her about her mother’s heart attack. She left her mother’s bedside for only about one hour during Thursday night and a further hour during Friday ; otherwise she remained constantly with her mother until shortly before she died on 19 April. Initially she and her father were asked to move away from the bed- side when nursing procedures were taking place and the curtains were half drawn ; but she had been able to see through the gap in the curtains what the nurses were doing to her mother and no drugs or drinks had been given to her. However, as time went on the nursing staff accepted their presence and they were allowed to remain by her bed while the nursing staff were carrying out their duties—ie turning her mother at about three hourly intervals and washing her. She said they appeared to be much more concerned with keeping her mother clean than with giving her treatment to try to save her life. She added that her mother was not given anything to drink from Thursday evening until Friday evening when, with the help of one of the nurses, she had managed to give her mother a little to drink from a feeding cup. 11. A senior house officer (the first SHO) told my officer that he had examined the complainant’s wife on 16 April and again on 17 April after she had suffered an attack which he had diagnosed as either a heart attack or pulmonary embolism and he had ordered cardiac enzyme tests to be carried out to establish her condition. The tests, he explained, were carried out at another hospital and it took three to four days to get the results but mean- while the treatment for both conditions was the same—ie monitoring the patient closely, prescribing pain killers and giving oxygen if necessary. He said that he would have examined her again during his morning ward round on 18 April and that later he had discussed with the complainant the two possible diagnoses of his wife’s condition He told him that her condition was critical and there was a possibility she might die. However he did not, he said, indicate that she had only a short time to live. 12. Another senior house officer (the second SHO) told my officer that he had admitted the complainant’s wife to the hospital on 15 April and that he had been duty doctor on 19 April. He was asked by a nurse to speak to the complainant early on the morning of 19 April but, before speaking to him, he carried out a routine examination of the complainant’s wife and learnt from the medical notes of the attack she had suffered on 17 April and of her rapidly deteriorating condition. He discussed with the complainant the treatment being given to his wife and her poor prognosis but he did not remember being told by him that his wife had not been given anything to drink for two days. He had then left the ward but had returned later to find that her condition had deteriorated further. He had therefore set up a drip which included a drug used in cases of heart failure. Shortly afterwards, however, she suffered a cardiac arrest and failed to respond to resuscitation.