Great-grandad dies after hospital fails to spot broken ribs
A GRIEVING family are demanding an investigation after an 85-year-old great-grandfather died three days after being discharged from a hospital where staff allegedly failed to spot he had three broken ribs.
William Driver, 85, was rushed to hospital after injuring his chest and head in a fall at his home in Enfield, north London, on October 31.
Medics at North Middlesex University Hospital discharged him after just one night saying CT scans and X-rays showed he was suffering “just bruising”, his family claim.
But after “a night of agony”, his youngest son Brett, 48, called paramedics who took his father to the Whittington Hospital in Archway, north London. Further X-rays revealed he had suffered three broken ribs, had fluid on the lung and pneumonia.
Justice
Mr Driver died November 4.
Around a third of people over 65 with rib fractures contract pneumonia because they cannot breathe deeply or cough.
Brett Driver, from Tottenham, north London, who lived with his father as a carer, said: “I want justice for my dad’s death.
“We want the whole thing investigated. Something must be done. He was sent home with broken ribs and pneumonia. The whole family is devastated.”
Mr Driver had recently been diagnosed with dementia but a hospital of pneumonia on check-up on October 22 declared him “constitutionally well”.
His daughter Tracey, 55, said she had complained to the Patients Advice Liaison Service on behalf of the family following her father’s treatment at North Middlesex.
Tracey, Brett, and William’s eldest son, Perry, 60, are now demanding an investigation into the quality of care their father received at the hospital.
In a statement yesterday, the North Middlesex University Hospital NHS Trust said: “We extend our sincere condolences to Mr Driver’s family on the loss of their father.
“We are now making contact with Mr Driver’s next of kin to ask them to share any concerns with us directly so that we can investigate, and will keep the family fully involved in the progress of any investigation.”