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Do not resuscitate order placed without consent

Posted By ALdo64

"Do not resuscitate order placed without consent"

About: Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh at Little France

(as a relative),

My mother was admitted to hospital in April 2020. She had underlying health issues, she tested positive for covid also, but I firmly believe that was a false positive.

On the morning of the 6th April my sister called my mother to check on her. My mother said that the doctor told her "he would not perform CPR".

My sister could not really take in what she said at the time due to concern for our mother. Later in the day my sister called to check on my mum and was advised she was being moved to a covid ward.

All this time no communication from hospital. She was then passed to a doctor who informed her mum was not well and poorly, no mention of a DNR. My sister then called the ward to check on mum. They advised she was sitting up and ok.

Then fifty minutes later they called to say that my mother had passed away. That was the only call we got during my mum's time in hospital.

This news devastated the family. If my mum was so poorly we as a family should have been consulted that a DNR was in place and at least allowed into hospital to visit her. None of this happened.

I believe our basic human rights as a family were breached and my mother was not given proper care.

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Responses

Response from Simon Dunn, Associate Nurse Director, Royal Infirmary Edinburgh, NHS Lothian 4 years ago
Simon Dunn
Associate Nurse Director, Royal Infirmary Edinburgh,
NHS Lothian

lead nurse of the site

Submitted on 07/12/2020 at 13:47
Published on Care Opinion on 08/12/2020 at 09:29

picture of Simon Dunn

Dear Aldo64,

I would like to begin by offering my deepest condolences for your loss. I can only imagine how difficult a time this must have been for your family and I am grateful that you have taken the time to bring this to my attention.

I am so sorry that there was such a lack of communication around your mother’s condition. This is not what I would expect for any family with a relative in our hospital and it is really disappointing to read. I am keen to have this looked into further, to ensure that you and your family receive an explanation for what happened. Can I ask you to contact our Patient Experience Team on 0131 536 3370 or by emailing them at feedback@nhslothian.scot.nhs.uk. They will then forward the specific details to me so that I can ask the clinical team to investigate this for you.

Once again, thank you for highlighting your experience and I hope that you will give us to opportunity to provide a full response once we have been able to look into this further.

Kind Regards

Simon

  • {{helpful}} {{helpful == 1 ? "person thinks" : "people think"}} this response is helpful
Response from Ann Thomson, Team Leader - Patient Experience, Patient Experience Team, NHS Lothian 4 years ago
Ann Thomson
Team Leader - Patient Experience, Patient Experience Team,
NHS Lothian

Submitted on 08/12/2020 at 11:32
Published on Care Opinion at 15:16

Dear Aldo64,

I was so sorry to read your story via Care Opinion and I would like to offer my sincere condolences to you and your family at this very difficult time. Thank you for taking the time to share this with us.

I see that Simon Dunn has already asked you to contact the Patient Experience Team with some more information. If you feel able to do this then we will make sure this is passed on to Simon at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh.

The team at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh will be able to look further into what happened once they know your mother’s name, date of birth and address and if you can also provide us with your details, then we will be able to respond to you directly. Our contact details are email: feedback@nhslothian.scot.nhs.uk and telephone: 0131 536 3370.

Once again please accept my condolences to you and your family at what has been such a difficult time.

Best wishes,

Ann

  • {{helpful}} {{helpful == 1 ? "person thinks" : "people think"}} this response is helpful

Update posted by ALdo64 (a relative)

Thank you for your response but I did that and guess what the response was structured in a way that because I was not down as next of kin my complaints fell on deaf ears and I felt basically fobbed off

Update posted by ALdo64 (a relative)

Thank you Ann,

But you are just repeating the process I have already attempted and was basically shut out and closed ranks on by medical professionals.

While I understand it was a trying time for everyone staff and patients mistakes have been made and no amount of reading from a doctors input to a patients records can deviate from the facts.

My sister is still having issues in coming to terms with the fact that she was not informed of DNR and we as a family would have did everything in our power to reverse decision we also had resources to put mother in private care.

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