Durham Mother: “Hospital Sent My Son Home To Die”
13/06/2011
A clinical negligence lawyer has called on hospital bosses to learn “serious lessons” after they admitted that the premature discharge of a seriously ill 32-year-old man contributed to his death.
Lawyers representing Durham mother Edith Blacklock, whose son Martin was wrongly discharged from the University Hospital of North Durham on December 3rd 2009, have urged the hospital to improve standards are procedures after it admitted serious shortcomings in Martin’s care.
Mr Blacklock had previously been receiving treatment as an in-patient for ulcerative colitis, a serious bowel complaint, since 30th November 2009. But, despite being in agonising pain and being barely able to walk, he was escorted away from hospital three days later.
He was prescribed steroids but remained in agony while his condition deteriorated for almost three weeks and, by the time he returned to hospital on December 23rd, he had suffered serious complications and it was too late to save him. A series of emergency operations followed in early 2010 but he died on February 23rd.
Lindsey Henderson, a clinical negligence solicitor at Irwin Mitchell who is representing Mrs Blacklock, said that expert reports showed these operations could have saved Mr Blacklock’s life if they had been carried at the start of December when he was incorrectly discharged.
Mrs Blacklock has spoken of the heartbreak at losing her son and has sworn to continue the legal fight in a bid to ‘educate others’ about the importance of not being afraid to challenge medical opinion in cases where patients strongly feel they are not being treated correctly.
“No parent expects to lose a child, but we have to live the rest of our lives knowing that our son would have lived if he had been treated correctly,” she said.
“No words can really say how we feel – he was a special son who was so full of life and we miss him so much. Our son underwent five painful operations in such a short space of time – he was suffering, in absolute agony, and died the most horrific death.
“No parent should have to witness their child dying in this way and we want to send a message to others – don’t be afraid to question and challenge decisions made by those in the medical profession.
“We didn’t know what was wrong with Martin but we could see how ill he was – he wasn’t a complainer and never made a fuss, but it was obvious that something was seriously wrong. We felt very much that it was more of a priority to free up another bed in the hospital than it was to treat my son correctly – I feel as though he was sent home to die.
“I promised to Martin on the day he died that I would seek justice and this admission of fault is a major step towards this.”
Lindsey Henderson added: “Although the hospital trust has now admitted serious shortcomings in Mr Blacklock’s care that will be of little consolation to the family. They felt as if they were forced to watch their son die an incredibly painful death and Mr and Mrs Blacklock have been left with a void in their life that will never be replaced.
“He was a strapping, healthy man and ulcerative colitis occurs in about 1 in 500 people – this was not a particularly rare condition and treating it should have been routine. But instead of being operated on, Mr Blacklock was discharged from hospital and sent home where his condition rapidly worsened, leaving him in such poor health that very little could be done to save his life. We only hope that lessons are learned from this.”
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