FAILED BY HOSPITAL
Laura, 82, was over-medicated, malnourished, infected and totally..
Health board probe recommends 16-point action plan to prevent repeats of shocking treatment
A GRAN who died in hospital was subjected to a catalogue of care failings, an investigation has found.
Laura Small, 82, passed away four months after being admitted to hospital with a broken hip caused by a fall.
A Lanarkshire Health Board investigation found staff had given her too much medication on 14 occasions.
They also failed to notice she had malnutrition.
The health board set out a 16-point action plan to ensure such mistakes don’t happen again.
Laura’s daughter Tracy Thomson, 55, complained repeatedly about her mum’s care in Hairmyres Hospital, East Kilbride.
Tracy said her mum had surgery for her broken hip and when she later complained about being in pain, an X-ray showed a screw had come loose.
Despite this, Laura was forced to have physiotherapy, even though she was in agony. Tracy said: “It was barbaric.”
A full hip replacement followed but the wound became infected and Laura died of sepsis in April 2017.
The health board published an “adverse event report” in which they detailed errors that saw Laura, of Hamilton, over-medicated 14 times with a vitamin D deficiency treatment.
The report said there was poor communication between the hospital, Laura and her family and it criticised staff for not making loved ones know the gran had a very poor prognosis.
Tracy added: “This is about justice for my mum. The report has not answered all our questions. The hospital carried out their own investigation but the main suspect in a case shouldn’t be able to investigate itself. It should be someone completely independent.”
Susan Friel, chief of nursing services at Hairmyres, said: “We are very sorry Mrs Small’s family does not feel we have adequately addressed their concerns.
“The review identified learning points which have been shared across all NHS Lanarkshire hospitals to help improve the care and support we provide for patients and their families.”
This is about justice for my mum TRACY THOMSON