Alice had a top secret role in the war...but she died after health worker advised her to urinate in bed
FACES OF VICTIMS’ AMONG THE 300
A WOMAN helped keep Britain safe from the Nazis – only to die needlessly in a scandalhit NHS hospital when she was 92, relatives said.
As she neared the end, Alice Morfett’s dignity was allegedly treated with contempt by an NHS worker who told her to wet the bed when she could not get to the toilet.
Hers was one of 300 unexplained deaths at the North Middlesex hospital in two years.
The situation at the hospital in North London – revealed by the Sunday People this month – is now being compared to the Stafford Hospital scandal.
The family of Alice, who carried out secret work at an RAF base in the Second World War, have lodged an official complaint about her treatment.
Her heartbroken daughter Yvonne said last night: “People of mum’s generation grew up with the NHS from its birth but it has let her down terribly.”
Mother- of- six Alice was an active woman before she ended up in the North Middlesex Hospital, a few miles from her home in Tottenham.
Fall
She was sent there last year for convalescence after keyhole surgery for blocked arteries.
But her family say there was no buzzer for her to call staff to take her to the toilet.
After a week in the hospital she was advised to urinate in the bed by a health care assistant.
Alice, who prided herself on her cleanliness, was shocked. And after nurses allegedly left the side rail of her bed down she attempted to get out. But she became entangled with a monitor, which came crashing down on her, relatives say.
Daughter Yvonne, 68, recalled: “Her leg was covered in bandages and a nurse told me, ‘Your mum had a little fall.’
“I asked Mum what happened and she said the stand fell on her.
“I peeled back the bandages to see this very large wound on her lower leg. It was down to the bone. I asked if a doctor had been called and I was told no. It was in the evening.
“I was told a consultant was coming. But no doctor saw Mum until the following morning, when a consultant looked at the wound and did nothing.
“The wound was so deep that it needed surgery to close it. But they just left her like that.
“Mum was never the same woman again. The care on that ward was appalling. To tell an old person to wet the bed because you won’t take her to the toilet is sickening.
“And Mum should have never been able to get out of bed. I always made sure the side bar was up when I left.”
Alice’s son, Allen, 69 a retired cabbie, of Cheshunt, Herts, said: “There were elderly people on the ward desperate for water. I went to the kitchen to get a drink for one old lady.”
Within days the hospital discharged Alice but she suffered a gash on her arm and was readmitted.
Yvonne said: “Mum was mortified to be back there. She just lost the will to l i ve. She refused to eat and in the end just wasted away. She said she wanted to j oin our dad, Alexander, who has been dead for more than 20 years.” Other people slammed the treatment loved ones received at the North Middlesex. Toddler Armagan Denli di ed of meningitis at the hospital in April 2015. His parents Yucel and Fatma claim staff were slow to diagnose the condition. They are now considering legal action. Yucel said their son had a temperature of 39 degrees but doctors sent him home when his temperature fell.
He continued: “Armagan got worse so we brought him back to the hospital. This time they diagnosed him with meningitis but by now it was too late.”
The couple, of Harlow, Essex, added: “We believe his death could have been avoided.”
Pain
Chef Murat Alabogaz, 30, died in February 2015. He was sent away with painkillers after going to North Middlesex A&E with stomach pains.
But overstretched staff had failed to diagnose pancreatitis, an inflammation of the pancreas that can kill if not properly treated. His family say when he returned to A&E he was kept waiting on a bed in a corridor for hours before he died.
His uncle Salman Ganidagl said: “We couldn’t find a doctor to attend to him. He spent the whole time crying with pain.”
His cousin Murat Baglan, of nearby Enfield, said: “Murat’s death was avoidable.”
The Sunday People also revealed in February that A&E patients at North Middlesex were told: “Go unless you’re dying.”
The Stafford Hospital scandal led to Mid Stafford NHS Trust being broken up in 2014.
Ken Lowndes, a campaigner who helped form patients’ group Cure The NHS said: “North