LEGAL action is planned against a hospital blamed for the death of a lad from a blood clot.
Charles and Lynn Lowden have launched legal action against Ashington’s Wansbeck General Hospital after an inquest heard how a team of doctors failed to spot their son Charlie had developed the potentially fatal condition.
The 20-year-old became seriously ill just 10 days after undergoing a routine hernia operation at a different hospital in November 2009.
He was rushed into the hospital’s accident and emergency department with agonising chest and back pain and had been vomiting blood.
But despite his horrendous symptoms, medical staff failed to investigate a possible pulmonary embolism – a blocked artery – and discharged him the next day, without further investigation.
Just two weeks later, Charlie, a scaffolder, collapsed at his home in Rosalind Avenue, Bedlington, and died on December 9 2009.
Postmortems found he had died from a huge blood clot which formed in his left leg and travelled to his heart.
During a two-day inquest this week, it emerged how doctors ruled out a blood clot – despite Mr Lowden having undergone recent surgery, having an abnormal blood test and heart scan.
Now, his anguished parents have instructed a solicitor to initiate civil proceedings against Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, which manages Wansbeck General Hospital.
Lynn, 52, said: “Nothing has changed at that hospital at all since our Charles died.
“They haven’t learnt by their mistakes and by no means is this finished with as far as we are concerned.
“They have ruined our lives and somebody has got to be made accountable for it. It’s about getting justice for our Charles. The whole system in that hospital let him down.
“It was supposed to help him, but on that day, it collapsed and not one of them did their job properly.”
The Trust carried out its own investigation into Mr Lowden’s death and said it had since reviewed its admissions forms, but had yet to implement new patient discharge procedures.
Ben Gent, of Simpson Millar solicitors, in Gateshead, is representing the family.
He said: “It may be that Northumbria Healthcare Trust now feels that the time is right to accept responsibility for Charlie’s death.
“If not, Mr and Mrs Lowden have given a clear indication that they will be seeking accountability through the court system.”
Chief executive of Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, Jim Mackey, said: “We are deeply saddened by the death of Mr Lowden.
“Mr Lowden died of a rare complication of surgery which we have fully investigated.
“The report of this investigation, which we shared with Mr Lowden’s family, highlighted areas of care where we felt we could improve and we have implemented new systems as a result of this.
“Furthermore we are going to include the NEWS (Northumbria Early Warning System) score on the discharge documentation which alerts staff to contact senior medical colleagues when the NEWS score is higher than anticipated for a patient going home.”
Via: www.chroniclelive.co.uk