NHS payout for sepsis death following chemo
AGRIEVING family have received an undisclosed payment from a Birmingham hospital trust following the death of a man from sepsis after undergoing chemotherapy.
Dad-of-four and grandad-of-six Frank Bird was just 55 when he died from multiple organ failure after spending three years in and out of hospital with abdominal pains.
His family took legal action against University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, which runs Queen Elizabeth Hospital, and secured a payout for an undisclosed amount.
Mr Bird was diagnosed with lymphoma cancer in April 2019 and underwent chemotherapy.
Youngest daughter Sharan explained: “We didn’t know he had sepsis. If I had, I wouldn’t have agreed for chemotherapy to go ahead. Chemo suppresses your immune system and I’d have been concerned having treatment would have made his condition worse.
“When the doctors said there wasn’t anything they could do, we took dad home because he wanted to be at home surrounded by his family. We looked after and made him as comfortable as possible until he passed away. To see dad go from the person he was into a fearful, confused and tearful man will never leave me.
“When the post-mortem was carried out and we were told that dad had died from sepsis, we were so shocked. It’s worrying to think that sepsis accounts for so many deaths, yet it remains a condition that too many people don’t really understand or know about. Dad wanted us to raise awareness of what had happened to him so we just hope that by speaking out we can help others.”
The University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, which runs Queen Elizabeth Hospital, has admitted a breach of duty in that it should have removed Frank’s gallbladder in 2016.
Jade Elliott-Archer, specialist medical negligence lawyer at Irwin Mitchell representing Sharan, said: “Frank’s death has had a profound effect on his partner and the rest of the family who are all still struggling to come to terms with the events that unfolded. Frank spent the last weeks of his life in discomfort and pain which had a traumatic affect on his family. Understandably, the family had a number of concerns, particularly around how his condition deteriorated after he was admitted to hospital. We now call on the trust to learn lessons from its admitted breaches of duty to improve patient care for others.”
Mr Bird was first admitted to the
QE in 2016 with abdominal pains, vomiting and weight loss, when he was told his complications were caused by his gallbladder and would require surgery. However, he received no follow-up appointment to carry out the operation.
Over the next two years, Mr Bird continued to struggle on with his discomfort, being admitted to hospital on several occasions. In April 2019, he was diagnosed with cancer lymphoma, but at this point his family were unaware Mr Bird had developed sepsis so gave him the ‘all-clear’ to undergo chemotherapy forcancer.
Following chemo, Mr Bird spent several weeks in intensive care.
He was then transferred to a new ward and his family believed he was recovering, but doctors said nothing more could be done to save him. On May 13, Mr Bird returned home to be in the comfort of his family and he died a week later.
A spokesperson for University Hospitals Birmingham said: “The trust extends its deepest sympathies. In such sad cases, the trust is committed to ensuring that the right lessons are learned to continually enhance the care we provide.”