Terminally ill woman left 'crying and forgotten' in Sandwell Hospital bed, family claim
The family of a terminally ill woman claim she was left 'neglected and forgotten' as she lay in her hospital bed crying for help.
Sandwell Hospital bosses have now issued an apology to the relatives of great-grandmother Caroline Fellows and have admitted the care she received fell below their standards.
Mrs Fellows, from West Bromwich, died aged 77 on July 30, 2014 after battling secondary lung cancer, which she had been diagnosed with in May that year.
She spent her last 10 days at Sandwell Hospital but daughter Loraine Yarnold claimed that while there her mother suffered unexplainable bruising.
She claims her mother was 'forgotten' by staff, with her distressed cries for help captured on dictaphone at her bedside by the family.
A further 17 months went by before the family were given the autopsy results which found Mrs Fellows' death to be 'inconclusive' – due to the vast amount of time that had passed.
Loraine, from Dudley, said she was disgusted by her mother's treatment.
The family said the dictaphone picked up an incident where Mrs Fellows had fallen out of bed at 2am, but when Loraine and her husband Robert arrived at the hospital, they said staff admitted they didn't know how long that she had been lying on the floor.
The family continued to complain to bosses at Sandwell Hospital as they did not believe Mrs Fellows was being looked after properly, ending up with 'bed sores', 'covered in bruises' and they said she was 'left for hours in a soaking wet bed up to her neck'.
Loraine remained by her mother's bedside for her final three days.
She later lodged a second complaint and demanded a post-mortem examination to fully understand whether her mother died of cancer or whether the care she received while in hospital had played a part.
The family met with the hospital's Patient Advice and Liaison Service team on April 26 to discuss the outcome of the investigation.
"We kept moaning as my mom was not being looked after properly, just left in a bed all day and night and not being cleaned," Loraine said. "She ended up with bed sores, covered in bruises all over both arms and was left for 14 hours in what was a soaking wet bed.
"When we listened to the recording, staff talked about my mom as though she was not there."
Colin Ovington, Chief Nurse at Sandwell Hospital, said in a statement: "We would like to offer our deepest sympathy to Caroline's family and friends.
"We have fully investigated the concerns raised by her family and where we found some areas where care fell below our high standards we have put plans in place to address them.
"One area cited in the investigation was that Caroline's bed was in a bay which was not within the line of sight of the nursing desk.
"On occasions where we are caring for terminally ill patients we would usually locate these patients closest to the nursing station, and in Caroline's case this did not happen. We are very sorry for that.
"We are proud to be a 'Listening and Learning' organisation where every complaint is studied to ensure we change our practice when we see where we could have done better.
"The complaint into Caroline's care will be used as an example when we are training staff. I am confident we provide safe care on our wards."
