I know I might be in for a kicking with this topic- but I would like to know what people think of it.

I recently had the dis-pleasure of visiting the hospital after my fiancees step-dad passed away due to 'Multi Organ Failure' a week ago in the Huntsman section of northern general.

The people we met there- the staff were excellent dont get me wrong, they do a great job Im sure.

Im going to go into a rant now - so please read on.
Here are the facts.

Our lasses step-dad was wrongly diagnosed 3 times by his local GP's who said his back problems were very small and insignificant and could be treated with painkillers...
FALSE: He had internal bleeding diagnosed a few days later at NG before he died.

It took them from 12am-9am the following morning for him to get seen in the Northern General when he was in extreme pain.
TRUE: His wife waited all that time with him thru all of this.

NG xrayed him after the wait- and caught the bleeding- fair play- he was sent to surgery to fix the problem.
TRUE: Nuff said.

A lot of stuff went wrong in that operation that we eventually found out after his death:

The bleeding was stopped 'successfully' according to one doctor- then started problems with his legs- not enough blood flow turning his feet blue- his kidneys and liver failed and also they had to keep him in a medical induced coma to stop the pain.

AND to top it all off-
They managed to damage his bowel during the 1st operation which we found out afterwards, and they tried to cover it up- by saying his heart gave out.. only for the coroner to rule this out and declare MOfailure.

And they said he was going to get better too... ********!

Now I know I sound really bitter about all of this but due to the fact that a lot of negligence has happened I and the family want to know who to speak to about this and we want some kind of legal action for this case as well.

We cant bring the guy back- sure- but we can make sure that people who have ****ed up with this will be punished.

You have a few routes you could take.
1.Make a complaint to the hospital. You can ask to see all the medical notes.
2 See Irwin Mitchell solicitors, they specialise in this type of claim. If the body has not yet been buried then you can pay for a second post mortem to check on the facts; the coroners post mortem may have been carried out by a doctor who works at that hospital.
3.Walk away.

I think the last option is best for you. Doctors don't cock things up on purpose. They may have made an honest mistake.

Thanks for the reply mate.

It would be easy to walk away- but they may have caused something to go wrong which could have been avoided which resulted in death.

I'll look into Irwin Mitchell mate- thanks for that.

Sympathys to everyone involved.
If you can afford it look into it as far as you can. It sounds like a cock up from begining to end and it could end up happening again to somebody else.

If you feel that strongly then sue everybody involved.
Its a tricky one though cos how do you actually know FOR SURE that anybody stuffed up?
It may be that you havent got the story straight or have got info from a number of different sources and the translation lacks a crucial key.

Just dont be too upset if which ever firm of ambulance chasers you choose to use tell you theres no case for them to pursue.

What will you do then?

There is a chance here that everybody at the hospital did their job well and it was just one of those unfortunate things.

I wonder how they would feel when a legal action drops through their door?

d

Hi ANGELUS, what a harrowing tale.
My thoughts about the episode would be along the lines of:-

1)We are used to such high expectations from medical science and are used to hearing about medical survivors and miracle cures regularly in the press. But doctors are just `body mechanics' and real life is sometimes less forgiving.
2)If you succesfully sue someone in the NGH, then you will indirectly cause someone else to suffer due to lack of resources.
3)Maybe your Father in law was more seriously unwell than you are aware of, and the efforts to repair his internal bleeding, were just attending to the symptom rather than the cause. And he might have not survived anyway.

Thankyou for the wonderful replies to my topic.. it does bring me great comfort that I can speak to you on here!
Thankyou.

We've thrown different ideas around in the family and we are at the minute going to let it go.. it wont bring the guy back and we dont want his widow going thru any more grief than she already has to... and also we have really run out of time as the funeral and cremation are on tuesday this coming week.

Thanks again.

I can't imagine what emotions your family are going through. But I'm glad that you have had some comfort from your friends at the forum.

Maybe, in time, you could do something in your father in law's memory along the lines of raising some money toward the purchase of some equipment which may have helped with an earlier diagnosos of his illness.

I know how you must be feeling angelus, in 2003 i had the misfortune to have to see my best friend die and there was nothing Icould do, wasnt to do with the northern general, but the very same day she died She had just been discharged from Barnsley hospital after being in there for a week after suffering a severe asthma attack.

We went back to hers for the night and sat watching an episode of Buffy, one which even tho is one of my favourites I can never bring myself to watch it again.

She started having another bad asthma attack, So I ran downstairs to get her grandma who she lived with, she called for an ambulace, 3 more phone calls and approx 40 mins later, the ambulance arrived and she was already dead, this was reported on calendar as this had happened to a substancial amount of people.... the reason the ambulance was late... from the first phone call we were allocated to an ambulance that wasnt on duty for another 20 mins, if the ambulance had come straight away she would still be here today!

I say follow your case up as far as you can... we tried and things are still on going, this goes back to September2003.. good luck with everything, I sincerely mean that!


Susie
xx

Thankyou all again
xxx

Susie - I've just moved from Kiveton Park!

Have you just moved there or have you been living there a long time?

If we all walked away from errors/disasters etc no one would ever work to put right the wrongs, and learn that prevention is better than cure.

All very valid points made from all your replies, but you will feel like you need to do something that justifies the negligence. If I cocked up that bad in my job i'd get the sack i'm sure, so no, it's not quite the mechanic failing to spot a leak on an engine, is it really?

I had an almost similar experience but not as prescriptive as yours to be able nail anything down to blame on the hospital's part even though it should have been routine. But I have to agree that nature plays its usual (as we know only to well) unpredictable self and that's probably how we learn to live with these things.

I would just say that no doctor cannot know everything about the human body and its ailments, certainly not the ones we have around here. The top notch ones will be in top notch jobs no doubt.

So there will always be two sides to this...human and nature...
time will tell you which one it is.

Give you love to your lass from all of us.

I work at the northern...........

at the moment there is a bed crisis, which means the hospital is experiencing 1000 extra admissions a week!!
all this means is that wards that are not designed to recieve medical patients, are doing so at alarming rates...

for a trust the size of the northern, believe me, allocation of patients is almost on a THIRD WORLD, type basis....

the trust is like all trusts, alot of good,,, occassion bad is done.....


complain in writing to THE CHIEF EXECUTIVE...and always do so....the complaint is only regisitered as a formal complaint, if it is done so in that way

good luck

Originally posted by Natane
If we all walked away from errors/disasters etc no one would ever work to put right the wrongs, and learn that prevention is better than cure.

All very valid points made from all your replies, but you will feel like you need to do something that justifies the negligence. If I cocked up that bad in my job i'd get the sack i'm sure, so no, it's not quite the mechanic failing to spot a leak on an engine, is it really?

I had an almost similar experience but not as prescriptive as yours to be able nail anything down to blame on the hospital's part even though it should have been routine. But I have to agree that nature plays its usual (as we know only to well) unpredictable self and that's probably how we learn to live with these things.

I would just say that no doctor cannot know everything about the human body and its ailments, certainly not the ones we have around here. The top notch ones will be in top notch jobs no doubt.

So there will always be two sides to this...human and nature...
time will tell you which one it is.

Give you love to your lass from all of us.

Thanks for the message mate- and our lass gives a big kiss to everyone on here to say thanks!!
xxxx

Originally posted by crowefan
I work at the northern...........

at the moment there is a bed crisis, which means the hospital is experiencing 1000 extra admissions a week!!
all this means is that wards that are not designed to recieve medical patients, are doing so at alarming rates...

for a trust the size of the northern, believe me, allocation of patients is almost on a THIRD WORLD, type basis....

the trust is like all trusts, alot of good,,, occassion bad is done.....

complain in writing to THE CHIEF EXECUTIVE...and always do so....the complaint is only regisitered as a formal complaint, if it is done so in that way

good luck


Thanks for the reply- I will make a note of writing to The CE and see what they say about it all-- cheers for that.

I gotta admire you guys who work in a hospital, especially those who work in NG - you must be under a hell of a lot of stress and you deserve more credit than you all get presently.

Just wanted to say I'm sorry to hear about your loss and good luck with trying to get it sorted.

Did anyone hear on the news the other day about a manager at the Northern General Hospital being arrested for having stolen bones??

It was several hours later that they said why he'd been stealing them, and it turns out he was (allegedly???!) selling them on. He'd made £12,000 or something.

Pretty grim really.

Yeah.
Its pretty sick isnt it!

Another reason why I dont ever want to go to this particular hospital if Im ever ill godforbid.

Maybe crowefan knows the person- who has been selling the bones?

Crowefan? U know this person?

Originally posted by mrchinnery
You have a few routes you could take.
1.Make a complaint to the hospital. You can ask to see all the medical notes.
2 See Irwin Mitchell solicitors, they specialise in this type of claim. If the body has not yet been buried then you can pay for a second post mortem to check on the facts; the coroners post mortem may have been carried out by a doctor who works at that hospital.
3.Walk away.

I think the last option is best for you. Doctors don't cock things up on purpose. They may have made an honest mistake. do not walk away, stick with it, give any compensation you get to charity if you like but see this through, it happens all to often,my mum was treated fot bronchitus for 11 years she died of lung cancer,her gp tried to recover the drugs he was giving her from me to protect himself from mis-diagnosis,my own gp advised me after i told him what had happened to write a letter of complaint to the bma, the fool who was the gp got a bollocking but is still working,they stick together like shixe on a carpet but dont make my mistake, keep on at them, if you cocked your job up you would be sacked, these people are toying with peoples lives and tend to get away with a mis-diagnosis,if they arent stopped some one else will die because of there negligence......

Originally posted by crowefan:
complain in writing to THE CHIEF EXECUTIVE...and always do so....the complaint is only regisitered as a formal complaint, if it is done so in that way


This is sound advice. It ensures that the issues will be investigated by the hospital managers, which is essential if you later decide to take the matter further.

So sorry to hear your sad news.

Originally posted by purplepippa
Did anyone hear on the news the other day about a manager at the Northern General Hospital being arrested for having stolen bones??

It was several hours later that they said why he'd been stealing them, and it turns out he was (allegedly???!) selling them on. He'd made £12,000 or something.

Pretty grim really.

Yes, two articles from the Sheffield Star:

HUMAN BONES 'SOLD' (http://www.sheffieldtoday.net/viewarticle2.aspx?ArticleID=921586&SectionID=58) - 18th January 2005

NHS boss is jailed for selling patients' bones (http://www.sheffieldtoday.net/viewarticle2.aspx?ArticleID=924347&SectionID=58) - 20th January 2005

He sold the parts on to private hospitals. What a nice chap eh :)

Angelus,

My thoughts are with you, your lady and her family at what I know must be a really difficult time.

Kristian x

Originally posted by crowefan
I work at the northern...........

at the moment there is a bed crisis, which means the hospital is experiencing 1000 extra admissions a week!!
all this means is that wards that are not designed to recieve medical patients, are doing so at alarming rates...

for a trust the size of the northern, believe me, allocation of patients is almost on a THIRD WORLD, type basis....

the trust is like all trusts, alot of good,,, occassion bad is done.....


complain in writing to THE CHIEF EXECUTIVE...and always do so....the complaint is only regisitered as a formal complaint, if it is done so in that way

good luck

I think you should check your contract of employment, you may find that by making the statement you have made,as an employee you will be breaking publicity and confidentiality rules.

Originally posted by tango2
I think you should check your contract of employment, you may find that by making the statement you have made,as an employee you will be breaking publicity and confidentiality rules.
I work at NGH and agree with crowefan.Publicity rules what are they ? Patient confidentiality has not been broken.The whole place is third world and full of people who would not recognise a patient if one bit them on the back side.

Im not having a go,,,i was making a reference to publicity and confidentiality rules in relation to the NHS and their employees.

For example:

You must must not make any statements to the Press,TV or Radio unless prior permission has been given by a senior Manager.

Tango2,I did not think you were having a go.Under the freedom of information act I think asking them would be a legitimate question.
Cheers

I think this forum is NOT a press release
and to say that 1000 extra admissions per week!!?? that infomation will be in the public domain....

I wish I could really whistle blow!!! believe me
and the nhs has had 21 years of my life, I think they OWE me not the other way round

I'm very sorry to hear about your loss.
Your first course of action should be to make an appointment to discuss the case in deapth with the consultant concerned.
From your description, it sounds as though you feel someone is trying to cover up negligence, but this may not be the case.
Multi organ failure can happen to people who are very ill, it isn't usually anyones fault it is just part of the natural disease process and the mortality rate is very high once an illness reaches this stage.
Don't forget that medicine is not an exact science and patients rarely follow the textbooks.
I hope you will have your minds put to rest soon.

Firstly I'm really sorry for your loss

I agree with the previous poster that discussing the situation rationally and in depth would be the best initial option. Honest mistakes do happen in medicine and if this has occured then it is up to you to decide to take it further or not.

Depoix mentioned that someone making a mistake should be sacked which I cannot agree with. While doctors and nurses are overworked and hospitals are understaffed mistakes will occur with increasing frequency. To scapegoat the doctor involved is often of no constructive benefit. After working a 20 hour shift with little or no breaks you will be much more likely to make errors (whether you are a doctor or a factory worker, tho one has much more serious results). If the doctor had refused to treat the patient he would be villified as s/he would be if he makes an error. If every doctor who had made a mistake was sacked there would be no doctors left (most mistakes are rectified/caught in time and therefore go unnoticed by the general media). If you want to blame someone then blame the government for allowing the NHS to become what it is today.

I was treated at the Northern General for meningitis. The staff were excellent thoughout the time I was there. The hospital itself however was a different story as it was dirty and understaffed and overcrowded. 2 of the nurses who looked after me were transferring to the |Hallamshire and were delighted as they obviously hated working there. So spare a thought for the people who work under these conditions when you leap at the first opportunity to criticise.

Diagnosis of disease is a very difficult science (something which I have studied in depth as a biomedical chemist) there is no right or wrong, things are not presented in black and white. Public belief appears to be that tests are run and results are obtained which conclusively indicate what is wrong with a patient. In many cases the doctor has to interpret the results of many tests and different symptoms expressed by the patient and try to discover the problem and it is this interpretation which can lead to mis-diagnosis. It is sometimes the case that symptoms will indicate a problem which is far from the truth (which can only be discovered by expensive tests that may be actively discouraged due to budget constraints).

I wish you all the best for the future whatever your decision. I just felt the need to present the other side of the story.

Thankyou for all your help to everyone that has posted on this topic for me.

It has brought a lot of happiness to me and to our lasses family to read your kind messages and words of help and advice.

Thankyou again.

Angelus
xxx