Grandmother, 92, bled to death after nurses failed to pass on worried ... trends now
A great-grandmother bled to death after nurses failed to pass on worried relatives' concerns to doctors as her condition deteriorated over more than a week, an inquest heard.
Hospital bosses accepted there had been a 'very serious error' in the treatment of retired weaver Margaret Clement, a mother of three, grandmother of six and great grandmother of nine, known by family and friends as Peggy.
The 92-year-old was being treated by the same hospital trust criticised last month over the death of retired nurse, Pat Dawson, 73, who was not revived after her medical notes were mixed up with those of a 90-year-old man who had a Do Not Resuscitate notice.
Concluding an inquest into Mrs Clement's death this week, Area Coroner Chris Long said he will be issuing a prevention of future deaths notice containing a series of recommendations.
He added: 'What I've found is a number of nursing and clinical failures in her care. Her death was not as it should have been.'
Mrs Clement's granddaughter, Rebecca Jane Sutton, a GB News broadcaster and former deputy leader of UKIP, said: 'The pain and distress my gran felt at this time is beyond immeasurable, but the undignified ending is something she would have been furious about.
Peggy with her grandchildren Rebecca and Tony, and their children Paris, Peaches and Lewis
The head of nursing at East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust, conceded that it had been a 'very serious error'
'I think it's a culture within the trust. The culture of the ward she was on was basically to do nothing.
'Nobody with a serious medical condition should be safer at home than in a hospital.
'It's outrageous but there's been so many people I've spoken to with similar experiences. I'm concerned this may be happening in other trusts.
'We trusted in the hospital trust but we were gaslit. 'They told us she just needed fluids but she was dying.'
Mrs Clement, from Burnley, Lancashire, had been admitted to Royal Blackburn Hospital on May 23, 2022, after breaking her hip in a fall - with the surgeon telling her family the procedure had been a success and that she had 'another five years'.
But after being transferred closer to home, to Burnley General Hospital, to continue her recuperation, the pensioner - whose late husband Jim, a Royal Navy veteran, died aged 92 in 2019 - began to deteriorate.
By June 6, her family said they had started to raise concerns about her condition.
But to their horror, she was then transferred to another respite unit, the Reedyford ward at Pendle Community Hospital, Nelson, on June 10, to continue her recovery - and not back to an acute unit.
Two days later, on June 12, Mrs Clement deteriorated further – with concerns again reported by relatives - but nurses still failed to alert doctors.
The inquest heard that at this point, she had symptoms of internal, gastrointestinal bleeding which should have been noticed.
It was not until June 14 – eight days after the family first reported concerns and by which time she suffered significant rectal bleeding, then vomited blood - that the pensioner was returned to the A&E department at Blackburn by ambulance.
The following morning, on June 15, Mrs Clement was taken for an endoscopy to locate the source of the bleeding but she suffered a cardiac arrest and died.
During an inquest held this week at Preston Coroner's Court, Nicola Robinson, the head of nursing at East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust, conceded that it had been a 'very serious error' when nurses had failed to alert doctors when Mrs Clement became unwell.
Ms Robinson admitted to the coroner that she 'can't promise' the situation will not happen happen again.
But she said that training improvements were ongoing and that she believed Reedyford had 'turned a corner'.
Dr Fozia Shah, a doctor at Reedyford at the time of Mrs Clement's death, was visibly shocked as she was
