Bassetlaw hospital ignored family’s concerns before young mum’s death – inquest
Neglect and the failure of staff to listen to a family’s concerns contributed towards the tragic death of a young mum at Bassetlaw District General Hospital, an inquest has found.
Emily Rose Hewerdine collapsed and suffered cardiac arrest before dying on May 6, last year, aged 29, following bowel surgery for Crohn’s disease.
A post-mortem found she died of a combination of factors, including “overwhelming sepsis with multi organ failure,” lung injury, a small bowel obstruction, and dehydration which led to acute kidney injury.
"Had necessary treatment for (the) bowel blockage and evolving dehydration, been provided on May 3 as it should have been, on balance Emily would not have died on May 6,” Dr Elizabeth Didcock, assistant coroner for Nottinghamshire, said last week.
“Emily’s death was contributed to by neglect.”
The inquest heard Emily’s fluid intake, dehydration and malnutrition weren’t assessed, there was no accurate record of her vomiting and no blood tests were carried out in the days before her death.
Staff failed to recognise the serious deterioration in her clinical state, didn’t carry out a CT scan of her abdomen on May 3, and concerns raised by her family weren’t listened to “throughout her admission but particularly from May 2 onwards.”
Emily's mum, Julie Gleeson, said: “We all feel let down by the NHS. We were not listened to on a daily basis and, when visiting, family were doing Emily's personal care.
“We were trying to let staff know how Emily was deteriorating. Staff did not think about Emily's post-operation needs and possible complications until she went into cardiac arrest which was all too late.
“Emily was a very loving, caring person and was always upfront and honest.
"She is missed every day by all her family and friends.”
Emily leaves behind long-time partner Mark Marshall, Retford's one-armed golf world champion, and their daughter, Elle.
She had surgery at Doncaster Royal Infirmary, in April, but was swiftly readmitted to Bassetlaw after becoming confused and hallucinating because of steroid-induced psychosis.
“There are outstanding matters that give rise to concern that future deaths will occur,” said the coroner.
She has written to Doncaster and Bassetlaw Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust about monitoring patients’ hydration, the deterioration of vulnerable patients, and patients being discharged from the emergency department without clinical assessments.
Dr Nick Mallaband, acting executive medical director, offered condolences and sincere apologies to Emily’s loved ones.
He said the Trust has already made changes to their care after an internal investigation and is working to quickly address the coroner’s concerns.