A family watched their beloved mother die in hospital after medics took the wrong patient's notes that included a "do not resuscitate" (DNR) form.
Pat Dawson, 73, was taken by ambulance from her home in Rawtenstall, Lancashire, to the Royal Blackburn Hospital, on September 19 last year. But just over four hours after she arrived, the much-loved mum was dead.
The family said Pat had not been ill before and had not been in hospital. An inquest into her death is due to take place next week.
East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs the hospital, carried out an investigation and found nurses might have checked the wrong patient records before halting CPR.
An inquest into Pat's death is due to go ahead next week (Submitted)"She was taken by ambulance to A&E at Royal Blackburn Hospital around 5pm with a suspected stomach blockage, by 9:30pm she was dead," Pat's daughter-in-law, Paula Dawson told LancsLive. "During those short hours she went into cardiac arrest, the hospital staff checked 'her records' and said she was DNR so she was left to die. Five minutes later the staff realised the wrong records had been checked and she wasn't DNR. If she had been resuscitated who will ever know if she would have survived."
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Paula, who lives with Pat's son John, said alarm bells were ringing when her husband had a call from the hospital about her apparent DNR form. "I said to him 'no she didn't have one, she would have told us'," she continued "But also, she'd never been ill before, or in hospital, so she couldn't have had one. About 20 minutes after Pat died a senior nurse went to see John in the family room and said 'there's been a mix-up'."
After Pat died, John was sat in the room with her and on three separate occasions she said staff came into the room and did not realise she had passed away. "My husband was in the room with her, a junior doctor entered the room asked what had brought them to A&E that day. He looked down at the bed and asked John if she always looked like that.
Dawson was beloved by her family (Submitted)"John was shocked at the comment and explained she had passed away. He couldn't believe they didn't know. We then also had another two occasions where people entered the room, one lady asking for some leads to use and one who asked if they could take Pat's health/ten-ways-banish-high-blood-9621402>blood pressure. I told them they could try but it wouldn't do much good."
Paula and John said they are not set on a "witch hunt" and do not want to blame individual employees at the hospital. But they raised concerns about staffing in the NHS and in hospitals, with Paula adding: "A&E departments are very chaotic to the point mistakes are being made and people are dying."
A spokesperson for East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust told LancsLive: "There are no words that will lessen the pain felt by Mrs Dawson's family following her death. We offer our sincere condolences and would be happy to talk to them about their concerns. However, it would be inappropriate to make any other public comment until the inquest is concluded."
An inquest into Paula's death is due to be held on April 15.
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