GP DIAGNOSED MY WIFE BY PHONE WITH CHEST INFECTION... BUT IT WAS SEPSIS

ERIC JONES lost his beloved wife Joyce, right, in August when a bout of pneumonia swiftly developed into fatal sepsis.

The grandparents, from Wilmslow, had been married for 57 years and had two sons.

Keen gardener Joyce, 75, was ‘fit as a flea’, says Eric, 76, and was even looking after him after recently suffered two strokes.

But she began feeling ‘weak and knackered’, and the next day couldn’t get out of bed, so Eric dialled the NHS 111 helpline for advice. The service then contacted his GP, who rang him back the same day.

‘I was trying to describe what was wrong – it was as if her lights had gone out,’ he says. ‘I was emotional, as this wasn’t like her at all. The GP said it was nothing more than a chest infection and sent round antibiotics. There was no suggestion of a visit.’

But soon Joyce couldn’t walk. In desperation, and unwilling to navigate through to the GP again, Eric rang his physiotherapy clinic, which advised that he dial 999. An ambulance was dispatched which took Joyce to Macclesfield District General Hospital, but she died later that day.

‘I can’t prove that if the GP had seen her in person it would have changed the outcome,’ Eric says. ‘But part of me believes that if they’d seen how ill she was, she may still be alive today.

‘The nurse on the intensive care unit where Joyce was taken was livid – she couldn’t believe the GP was relying on me to tell them what was wrong.

‘I’m devastated. It’s still so raw. We had a lifetime together.’