"My mum's experience with the NHS"

My mum was suffering from COPD, got many years. Lived a full life, if she got infection it hard. But she always bounced back, her condition worsened to the extent where she had to have oxygen 24/7 but still had quality of life. My dad would take her for days out, she loved visits from her growing family. She never complained, she went from being very in control to having to be cared for, she had many hospital addictions due to infection but always bounced back, she was 74 and recently got admitted with the flu. She was very ill. And yes we got the same call we’ve had several times: your mum won’t make it though the night. We went through that several times, and she did make it.

Just lately she was admitted again. Flu, after a week blood tests revealed her system had responded to treatment. Which was great, but her delirium had kicked in due to being in hospital without her normal environment. She’d get agitated, which is understandable, the doctors and nurses decided the agitation was enough to justify putting her on a driver.

Myself and my dad went from week one, she was eating and drinking unaided to week two having to feed her.  We asked for the driver to be taken away as we felt it was sedating her too much. We were told she needs to be comfortable! It got to a stage that she was unconscious. Couldn’t prompt fluids never mind eat.

My mum was ill and on palliative care but in my opinion this was slow euthanasia because I believe the nurses were understaffed. It seemed to us that she had been ignored, there would be times we’d go in and she was so thirsty and hungry that myself and my dad had to stay at the hospital from 11-8!

I don’t have a problem with palliative sedation at the end of somebody's life. But we felt that there weren’t enough staff and perhaps my mum was over-sedated because, in my view, they didn’t have enough time to give her care.