"Lincoln County Hospital"

Mum had lung cancer and wasn’t at end of life care, as it was contained with immunotherapy. However, she started to show toxicity in November 2021. She attended the Oncology Unit for her treatment and collapsed there. At that point she was vomiting so much she was unable to keep food and drink down for 4 weeks. She struggled to attend to toilet needs and subsequently collapsed with severe dehydration. The nurses were brilliant but the doctors sent her back home again. 

I received a call from a family member who was distressed as mum wasn’t coherent at home and hadn’t eaten for 6 weeks. I saw my mum and witnessed the state she was in. She had fluctuating capacity and when she did she said she couldn’t get to the upstairs toilet and had fallen and hit her head. She hadn’t released her bowels for a week and was peeing once a day when my dad tried to get her to the toilet. Her body was swelling up and when present, mum received a call from her oncologist, who was so rude to me I am appalled. They would speak to mum, who couldn’t get any words out by this stage. They said they will see her tomorrow and put the phone down. I rang Waddington Unit by this point and a fantastic member of staff said they needed mum in urgently,  but they read back to me all the symptoms the unit knew about from 2 weeks prior to this, yet nothing was done.

Mum was admitted and after a week, sent home with no care in place and the wrong medication. She couldn’t walk but didn’t even have a commode downstairs and the nurses that visited stated they didn’t know why they were there. Two days later she started vomiting again and we ended up back at the same place, this time within days.  Again, we got her to hospital after a fight with the doctors who pushed for my dad to sign a DNR which he didn’t understand, as mum wasn’t at end of life cancer. He was so distressed. I turned up to the hospital in December and found the doctors had put mum into end of life care with not much discussion or anything with the family. By this point mum had given up mentally because of the treatment and she died 3 days later. The nursing staff were so short staffed, but were amazing and none of this is about them.

I made a formal complaint about the lack of mum’s care 3 weeks prior to her death as this could have been avoided, but I was told to get mum’s permission which was so rude and wrong when she was unconscious. Then I got told I had to go to her executer of her will which is actually not legally correct. Nobody would allow this complaint to go through because they wanted me to prove I was her daughter. What is this? I am a professional in a mental health trust, and nobody would have been treated like that. We treat ALL family and carers with the compassion and respect they deserve. This Trust didn’t do anything of the sort.

1: the lack of care given to mum when she collapsed was unprofessional, especially when my dad heard clearly that they weren’t helping her because of beds

2: the lack of respect and courtesy of the Oncologist, who was so rude and appalling, it seemed that her dying was just another one off their caseload

3: the lack of communication between departments, my poor dad received calls on mums phone after she died asking her to go for another Covid test before her next treatment. Nobody bothered to read her notes.

4: the disgusting treatment of myself as her daughter and carer by this hospital.

 I am in conversation with the CQC about what has happened and will be seeking legal advice. I do not want anyone else to go through this. Covid is NOT an excuse.