Grandmother died after being rejected by three hospitals
A GRANDMOTHER suffered a brain haemorrhage and died after three hospitals rejected her due to a lack of beds, an inquest heard yesterday.
The case investigation prompted an apology from a senior NHS official after the coroner ruled that Mary Muldowney, 57, could have survived if one of the units admitted her “promptly”.
Mary Hassell, the inner north London coroner, wrote letters outlining her concerns to NHS England, and each of the hospitals in question. In response Sir Bruce Keogh, the NHS medical director, admitted a serious patient safety issue had been raised.
He wrote: “I was very sorry to read of the circumstances around her death, and would like to express my deep condolences to her family.”
The inquest into Ms Muldowney’s death heard she was first admitted to East Surrey Hospital in Redhill at around 10am on July 20 last year, where doctors immediately suspected a bleed on the brain. Their worst fears were re- alised in a CT scan taken just over an hour later, and they appealed to the specialist neurosurgical units at St George’s Hospital in Tooting, south London, the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton and King’s College Hospital in London for an immediate transfer for surgery.
The request was refused due to a lack of intensive care beds so one of the doctors, realising the severity of the situation, rang a former colleague with neurosurgical expertise at the Royal London Hospital.
He accepted her transfer, and Ms Muldowney – who was at “high risk” of a rebleed – was placed in an ambulance to travel there after a final interaction with her daughter, Sharon. But en route her condition worsened, and even though she was admitted to surgery on her arrival at 4.40pm, she later died.
Outlining her concerns, the coroner wrote: “With prompt transfer and surgery, Ms Muldowney would probably have survived.” She recorded a narrative conclusion.
Ms Muldowney was a mother-oftwo who was living with her son Sean, 27, his partner and their young son in Crawley, West Sussex. Neighbours described the Virgin Atlantic employee as a “proud grandma” and a “real family woman”.
NHS England worked with each hospital to investigate the circumstances and Sir Bruce wrote that specialists noted Ms Muldowney did not initially fall into their “universal acceptance policy” because she did not require life-saving surgery at first before her condition worsened later in the ambulance.