£45k payout after patient was kept alive against her will for 2 years

THE family of an 81-year- old stroke victim have received a £45,000 payout after she was kept alive against her will for almost two years.

Brenda Grant did not want to be a ‘ burden’ and feared going into a nursing home after watching her own mother lose her independence through dementia.

Ten years before the stroke, she had made a living will stating that she did not want treatment to prolong her life if she became seriously ill.

However, her family did not know about it and doctors were unaware because it was hidden in the middle of a pile of medical notes.

It meant that after a stroke which left her unable to swallow, she was artificially fed for 22 months against her wishes.

Eventually her GP alerted the family and the feeding tube was withdrawn. She died a few days later, in August 2014.

Her daughter Tracy Barker said she was speaking out to highlight the case so the same thing did not happen to others. She said: ‘I’m very, very angry with myself that I let my mum suffer for two years that she didn’t need to suffer for.

‘I didn’t want my mum to die, nobody wants their mum to die. But ... I know she would not have wanted to live like she was.’

Mrs Barker, 55, said her mother was left ‘totally incapacitated’ after the stroke, and when she found out she would be allowed to die, she was overjoyed.

Mrs Barker said: ‘She cried and said “yes, yes”. She was so relieved but it should never have taken the hospital so long to fulfil my mum’s wishes.’

Mother- of-four Mrs Grant, a former Marks and Spencer shop assistant from Nuneaton, Warwickshire, had drawn up the living will – also known as an ‘advanced directive’ – to say she should not have treatment to prolong her life if she were no longer of sound mind or had suffered from a list of medical ailments. It also confirmed she Ignored: Brenda Grant, above, and daughter Tracy Barker should not be given food, and that distressing symptoms should be controlled by pain relief, even if the treatment might shorten her life.

She suffered a stroke which left her unable to walk, talk or swallow in October 2012, and spent nearly three months in the George Eliot Hospital, Nuneaton, where, because doctors did not know about her wishes, she was fitted with a stomach ‘peg’ so she could be fed directly.

She was then discharged into a nursing home. Once there, she became agitated and tried to pull out the tubes in her arm, prompting staff to put mittens on her hands. She was later readmitted, at which point her GP made the hospital and her family aware of her living will.

After they appealed to doctors to respect Mrs Grant’s wishes, all treatment was withdrawn and she died.

Her family have since sought legal advice and the trust has now apologised and agreed to pay a £45,000 settlement.

Solicitor Richard Stanford, of law firm BTTJ, said: ‘ We instructed a human rights barrister very early on because the case appeared to be unique.’

Mrs Barker told the BBC: ‘ She never wanted to be a burden to anybody, so she wouldn’t have wanted any of us to look after her.’

Kath Kelly, chief executive at George Eliot Hospital NHS Trust, said: ‘Respect for the dignity of our patients is of paramount importance to us ... The Trust recognises that it got it wrong in Mrs Grant’s case.’

The trust said it has now begun recording the existence of an advanced directive on the front page of a patient’s notes.

‘She wouldn’t have wanted to live’