£45k payout after doctors kept woman alive against her will
THE family of an 81-year-old woman have received £45,000 from the NHS after doctors kept her alive for almost two years against her will.
Brenda Grant had a catastrophic stroke in October 2012 that left her unable to walk, talk or swallow.
Without telling her family, she had made a living will, which instructed doctors not to “prolong her life” if she was unlikely to recover.
Mrs Grant said she feared “degradation and indignity more than death” after seeing her mother lose independence from dementia.
Consultant
The document, also known as an advanced healthcare directive, said Mrs Grant should not have treatment to prolong her life if “I have become unable to participate effectively in decisions about my medical care, and that two independent doctors [one a consultant] are of the opinion that I am unlikely to recover from illness or impairment involving severe distress or incapacity for rational existence”.
Doctors at George Eliot Hospital in Nuneaton, Warwickshire, lost the document. As a result she was fed through a tube for 22 months.
During that time she was discharged to a nursing home. Once there, she became agitated and tried to pull the tubes out of her arm. She was re-admitted to hospital. Her GP then told medics and her family about the living will.
The family appealed, asking for her wishes to be respected, and treatment was finally withdrawn. Mrs Grant, from Nuneaton, died on August 4, 2014. Her family launched a legal action against the George Eliot Hospital NHS Trust for breach of her legal rights.
Daughter Tracy Barker, 55, said: “I’m so angry with myself that I let my mum suffer for two years.”
The trust apologised and admitted liability and awarded the family £45,000. In a letter it said: “It is accepted the trust failed to act in accordance with the deceased’s advanced directive and failed to store the advanced directive in a way that it could easily be noted.”
Ex-shop worker Mrs Grant had four children and grandchildren.