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Coroner slams ‘cruel situation’

27/ 2/2008

CORONER John Pollard has criticised health bosses for the ‘cruel’ way a pensioner was treated while in hospital.

Harold Wilde, of Richmond House, Grosvenor Street, Ashton died without receiving important assessments.

He was fed intravenously for nine days before he died because a speech therapist had not got round to assessing whether he was capable of eating and drinking normally.

He went into hospital on 20 September complaining of backache and constipation. He was due to leave on 26 September but had a fall during the night.

Mr Wilde had three brain tumours, one of which had bled into his brain. The former engineer also suffered a stroke while in hospital.

He died of bronchial pneumonia on 6 October.

At an inquest, Mr Pollard said: "An MR scan wasn’t taken even though it was required, and it is not acceptable for a speech therapist to take so long to see a patient. It should be 24 to 48 hours maximum. It was a cruel situation that he was kept so dry in his last days of life.

Mr Wilde’s daughter, Joan, said: "My sister and I were concerned by the lack of urgency over his treatment. I wrote down ‘is this because he is 89?’"

"The staff said they would do a CT scan but this wasn’t done until two days after the fall. My father was dying for a drink. The doctors said he couldn’t be given food or drink until a speech therapist had been to see him."

Dr Shahbaz Ahmed, Mr Wilde’s consultant, said: "I can’t comment on the speech therapist not seeing Mr Wilde as I do not know his situation. We tried to get a tube into Mr Wilde’s stomach to feed him, but he was unable to take this. He was given intravenous fluids.

"Mr Wilde was suffering from pneumonia and needed to be stable to have the scan."

Pathologist Piyal Pal said: "Bronchial pneumonia was the cause of death. Being nil by mouth for that time didn’t contribute to Mr Wilde’s death."

She said the bleeding tumour was a contributory factor, and caused by a new trauma.

A Tameside Hospital spokesman said: "A CT scan was performed on Mr Wilde. Mr Wilde was also scheduled for an MR scan. Unfortunately when this was due to be carried out his condition had deteriorated to a point where it was no longer clinically appropriate.

"The results of the MR scan would have had no effect on the deteriorating condition which sadly led to Mr Wilde’s death. It is not in the interests of the dignity of terminally ill patients to undergo unnecessary procedures."

A Spokeswoman for the PCT said: "We were sorry to hear of the death of Mr. Wilde and offer our sympathies to his family.

"Ward staff did request a swallowing assessment for Mr. Wilde and the speech and language therapy service followed this up within 48 hours.

"No appointment was made because they were advised by the hospital that the patient was too poorly for assessment.

Verdict: natural causes