Why did they all have to die?

Grieving families of Covid victims demand answers over NHS and care home ‘failures’

FURIOUS relatives of people who died from coronavirus are demanding answers about the treatment their loved ones received from the NHS and in care homes.

Grieving families have voiced serious concerns about what they called a lack of proper care.

They have blamed both the UK and Scottish Governments for failing to take proper measures to safeguard lives during the pandemic.

Some believe care home staff and residents have died unnecessarily due to inaction and blunders by Ministers.

Others have accused health authorities of failing to provide elderly family members with the same level of care given to younger patients. Two families claim their loved ones were not put on lifesaving ventilators because they were deemed to be too old.

Last night, Scottish Tory health spokesman Miles Briggs said: ‘These families have all been let down by the SNP Government’s lack of preparedness and failure to protect our citizens.’

Labour MP Ian Murray, Shadow Scottish Secretary, said: ‘I urge Ministers to take the time to read all these personal stories of grief and loss. We spend a lot of time focusing on numbers, but this shows the human cost of coronavirus.’

Today the families of six people who died – Karen Hutton, Helen McMillan, Jessie Scott, Danny Cairns and Maureen and Vic Sharp – speak out about the care their relatives received.

Lauren and Mike Wharton, the daughter and son-in-law of dementia nurse Ms Hutton, 58, from Carnoustie, Angus, have called for a public inquiry into the way the Covid-19 crisis was handled in UK care homes. They said: ‘Many care homes, both private and public, have dealt with the SARS-CoV-2 situation badly. As such, lives have been put at risk or, in our case, lost.

‘The Governments’ advice to care homes during the early stages of the pandemic was clearly insufficient, wrong and it put lives at risk.

‘Priority was given to optics and political expediency over public safety. There needs to be an independent inquiry into how the situation in UK care homes unfolded and on what advice, scientific or otherwise, the Governments’ guidance was issued.’

The daughter of Helen McMillan, 84, has demanded more information about the circumstances surrounding her mother’s death in a home in Drumchapel, Glasgow, on April 9.

Jackie Marlow, 54, believes Mrs McMillan contracted coronavirus but fears she will never know for sure, as her mother was not tested.

She said there was a number of ‘suspected’ cases in the care home and that one woman was taken to hospital, then returned before showing symptoms of the virus again.

She said the woman was allowed to socialise with other residents.

The family of Jessie Scott, 84, feel she did not receive the same level of care afforded to younger patients.

When Mrs Scott’s 63-year-old son, James, was diagnosed with coronavirus, he was taken more than 90 miles from the family home in Oban, Argyll, to Glasgow’s Queen Elizabeth University Hospital (QEUH). There, he was put in an induced coma and put on a ventilator. But when his mother contracted the virus, she was admitted to the local Lorn and Islands District General Hospital. She died on April 8, after 17 days of fighting the virus without the aid of a ventilator.

Mr Scott, who woke from a coma to find that his mother had died and been buried, said: ‘When I went to the doctor after I came back from Glasgow, I asked them why they put me in the QEUH rather than stay in Oban. He said they have far better expertise in the Queen Elizabeth.

‘Then I asked why my mother was not sent there and he said there was a board decision made that, because of her age, they didn’t think it would be worth doing. She died. That was their decision and I’ve got to accept that, and that’s the hardest part for me.’

The widow of Danny Cairns, 68 – the first person named publicly to have died from the virus in Scotland – said her husband was refused ventilation because he was deemed too old and overweight. Former nurse Eunice Cairns, from Greenock, Renfrewshire, told how medics said they were going to move her husband to intensive care and give him a ventilator, but changed their minds. She said: ‘I asked why they didn’t ventilate him. The doctor said it was his age and he was overweight. I said to the doctor, “Are you going to let my husband die?”. He didn’t answer, so they made that decision not to put him on the ventilator.’

Yvonne Sharp’s parents, Maureen and Vic Sharp, both 74, also died after contracting the virus.

She said the shielding letters the couple, from Oakley, Fife, received from the Scottish Government arrived too late, and that her parents had gone out shopping and been mixing with people who may have been infected.

She said: ‘We’re all so angry, we have been left. You’re talking about nearly 40,000 people who have died and they said we wouldn’t be forgotten but we families have.’ A spokesman for Helen McMillan’s care home denied that any resident with confirmed or suspected Covid-19 had been allowed to enter the home.

In Jessie Scott’s case, an NHS Highland spokesman said it could not comment on individual cases.

In response to claims about Mr Cairns, a spokesman for NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said the decision to ventilate a patient was based on a ‘patient’s realistic chances of recovery’.

The Scottish Government said Scotland had never exceeded intensive care unit or ventilator capacity during the outbreak, adding that clinical decisions about care and treatment, including ventilation, should always be made on an individual basis.

‘There needs to be an independent inquiry’ ‘We’re all so angry – we’ve been left behind’