FOSTER: HOSPITAL STAFF ‘MISSED SIGNS’ OF INFECTION
A pensioner died two months after a major operation when hospital staff failed to notice she had an infection, an inquest heard.
Irene Foster, 82, suffered constant nausea and pain from a hidden abscess after having part of her bowel removed in an operation last December.
She had been treated for gastrointestinal disease diverticulisis and doctors assumed she was simply taking a while to recover.
But she died at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Woolwich, southeast London, on February 22 when the infection had spread to her lungs.
Mrs Foster, from Bexleyheath, Kent, was even temporarily moved from the hospital to a rehabilitation unit staffed mainly by nurses in January, Southwark Coroner’s Court was told.
An internal investigation by the step-down unit at Queen Mary’s Hospital in Sidcup has since found there were ‘failings’ in her treatment.
Nurses had failed to carry out some of her doctor’s instructions, including advice to take regular blood pressure readings, the inquest heard.
Giving evidence, Mrs Foster’s son Martin said the family had been ‘very surprised’ when she was transferred to the recovery ward.
He said: ‘Every time I spoke to my mum she told me she didn’t feel well and even as a layman I could see she was too ill when she couldn’t even stand.
‘If the care had been delivered properly she wouldn’t have gone to Sidcup – we all feel that was the switching moment when she started to deteriorate.’
Mrs Foster, of Mera Drive, had been a ‘fit and active’ woman, he added, despite suffering from diabetes, heart disease, an underactive thyroid gland and osteoporosis.
She was admitted to Queen Elizabeth’s Hospital with stomach pains in October last year.
When her diverticulisis failed to respond to antibiotics, doctors decided she needed an operation to remove part of her bowel which carried a 50 per cent risk of death.
Recording a verdict of death from complications of a necessary treatment, deputy coroner Dr Adela Williams said it was not her place to make judgements about medical negligence.
She added: ‘The only circumstances in which I am permitted to record matters that could touch on medical negligence is where there has been a failure to provide basic care.
‘That’s a pretty extreme situation and I don’t think I can make that judgement in this place.
‘Mrs Foster seemed to make a slow recovery after the operation and ultimately the decision was made to transfer her to the step-down unit.
‘I understand her family has some concerns about whether that was appropriate but at the time of the referral she was not thought to need intensive medical care.’
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