Family receive £45,000 after relative ‘kept alive’ by medics

A GRIEVING family of a stroke victim have received a £45,000 NHS payout after doctors kept her alive for almost two years against her will.

Brenda Grant, 81, suffered a stroke that left her unable to walk, talk or swallow in October 2012. Without telling her family, she made a living will, also known as an advanced healthcare directive, instructing doctors not to “prolong her life” if she was unlikely to recover.

Mrs Grant said she feared “degradation and indignity more than death” after seeing her own mother lose independence after suffering from dementia. The document said Mrs Grant should not have treatment to prolong her life. “If I suffer from one or more of the conditions mentioned in the schedule, and I have become unable to participate effectively in decisions about my medical care, and that two independent doctors (one a consultant) are of the opinion that I am unlikely to recover from illness or impairment involving severe distress or incapacity for rational existence,” it said. It also confirmed she should not be given food, but that distressing symptoms should be controlled by pain relief.

But doctors at the George Eliot Hospital, in Nuneaton, Warks, lost the document among a pile of medical notes, meaning Mrs Grant was fed through a tube for 22 months.

She was fitted with a tube to enable her to receive food artificially before she was discharged into a nursing home. Mrs Grant became agitated and tried to pull out tubes in her arm, prompting staff to put mittens on her hands.

She was re-admitted to hospital at which point her GP made the hospital and her family aware of her living will.

After appealing to the hospital to respect their mother’s wishes, all treatment was withdrawn and Mrs Grant, from Nuneaton, died on Aug 4 2014.

Mrs Grant’s family launched legal action against the George Eliot Hospital NHS Trust claiming they had breached their mother’s legal rights. The trust apologised for its failure and admitted liability and the family were awarded £45,000 in an out-of-court settlement.

Mrs Grant’s daughter, Tracy Barker, 55, said: “She had a fear of being kept alive because she had a fear of going into a nursing home.”