‘I didn’t know mum was sent to hospital’
Son received call to explain loved one unlikely to live
When his mum’s care home closed to visitors following the coronavirus outbreak, Stephen Martin thought it was the most sensible and safest option.
The 56-year-old did not expect to receive a call from Maidstone Hospital to explain his mum Doreen was unlikely to recover from Covid-19, having been admitted three days earlier.
Mr Martin says it is the first notification he had that his 78-year-old mother had been moved from Pilgrims Way nursing home in Maidstone.
However, the Bower Road care home - where Mrs Martin had been resident for two and a half years after suffering a stroke says it made several efforts to contact Mr Martin.
Son Stephen had not seen his mum since the beginning of March.
Two days after hospital admission, Mrs Martin passed away. Mr Martin, 56, said: “The doctor was surprised to hear I had not been told.
“I’m disappointed more than being angry. I know I wouldn’t have been able to go and see her but that’s not really the point. “I thought it was really good when they closed to visitors as I thought it would be one of the safest places for her to be.” He added: “There’s nothing on the website about Covid-19 being in the care home. They still haven’t called and I’m not in the right frame of mind to call them myself.”
Deputy manager at the care home Jeeja Chacko says staff made numerous calls to both Mr Martin’s mobile and landline number, when his mother became ill and then also when they called an ambulance during the night. Ms Chacko said: “We left messages and told him to call back as we needed to speak to him about Doreen. It will be in her notes.” Another member of staff added she had tried to make calls since Mrs Martin’s death for her son to collect his mother’s possessions. But Mr Martin says he did not receive any calls or messages from the home.
Doreen Martin was a mother-ofthree - Mr Martin had a brother and sister who have sadly also passed away - and was married to Robert Martin for 40 years before he died in 1992 due to cancer. She lived in Cambridgeshire for most of her life, but moved to Kent to be closer to her son. ,She’d only been living in Pembury for three weeks before she had the stroke and was moved into the nursing home.
Mr Martin, who lives in Tunbridge Wells with his wife Gill, said: “She was very independent and creative too. We were always close when I lived up in Cambridgeshire, but we grew closer when she moved down here.”