Terminally ill dad denied home care dies in hospital
A TERMINALLY-ILL pensioner who was controversially trapped for seven months in hospital, despite his family wanting to take him home, has died.
And yesterday Allan Sheppard’s devastated daughter Simone claimed her father’s death was hastened with controversial opiate drugs.
She says not only was her father allergic to the medication and wore a warning bracelet to alert medics, he was also fully capable of making choices and did not want to die.
Mr Sheppard, 69, who was suffering from Motor Neurone Disease, died on Wednesday morning in Wycombe Hospital, part of the Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust.
Concerns
The plight of the former mechanic caught the attention of the nation after he and his daughter were featured in the Daily Express last week.
Commissioners at the Trust wanted to send Mr Sheppard to a care home 77 miles away instead of paying the extra needed to allow him to live at his Buckinghamshire home.
This week, after three days of what Miss Sheppard considers was “vile care and attitude” from some doctors and senior nurses at the hospital, Mr Sheppard died.
Miss Sheppard, 34, who was her father’s main carer since his diagnosis in 2016, said neither she nor her father had any control and in her opinion medics seemed “intent on managing his death”. She has raised concerns that he was not given oxygen or blood tests and said medics were slow to prescribe antibiotics after it became clear he had an infection.
She also claimed a doctor had told her they were giving her father an opiate to “make him comfortable”.
“I told the doctor to tell my dad, because my dad could understand, he was fully aware, what the opiate was likely to do,” she added. “And the doctor would not.”
Use of opiates is currently under the spotlight in the wake of a public enquiry which found hundreds of deaths linked to their use at Gosport War Memorial Hospital in Hampshire.
Miss Sheppard, who turned to a solicitor and family advocate to help her communicate with hospital staff, now wants a post mortem,
“The hospital had already told me they will not resuscitate him if something happens, which was not what he wanted,” she added. “He wanted to live.” Jayne Connery, founder of the Care Campaign for the Vulnerable, described Mr Sheppard’s case as “tragic” and called for other terminally ill patients to be allowed to spend “precious” time at home with family.
Chris James, of the Motor Neurone Disease Association, said: “It’s important that people with terminal conditions like MND have maximum choice and control over their care package including their place of treatment.”
Being cared for at home “has a massive impact on the quality of life for those living with the disease,” he said.
A NHS Buckinghamshire Clinical Commissioning Group spokesman said: “The CCG is always willing to review decisions on patient care. Sometimes, however, a patient’s health may deteriorate unexpectedly and rapidly, which means there is no time.
“Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust is working closely with the family to look into their concerns.”