NHS pays settlement over death of father, 51, dismissed ‘as alcoholic’

A 51-YEAR-OLD father died in front of his devastated wife and three daughters two days after an ambulance crew left him at home with a hernia which was cutting off blood to his bowel.

His widow, who has experience of working in the medical profession, believes he was “dismissed as an alcoholic” after she told the crew he had liver sarcoidosis, caused by alcohol dependence.

In fact had he had surgery it was “likely” he would have survived. NHS Resolution, representing Yorkshire Ambulance Service, has offered its “sincere apologies for the substandard care” and agreed an out-of-court settlement, following legal action on the woman’s behalf by Hudgells

Solicitors. The man was finding it hard to breathe and was dizzy and had a high heart rate of 130 beats per minute.

But his widow, who wasn’t allowed into the ambulance, says he told her he signed a waiver saying he was happy to stay at home and was told to take anti-sickness medicine. She said: “I believe they dismissed him as an alcoholic.

“They robbed him of his life, of his chance to walk his daughters down the aisle and meet his first grandchildren. He’d had his problems with alcohol but he knew that and he’d been off it for a month.

“As soon as I mentioned that though they decided it was alcohol-related, despite my husband lifting his shirt to show them the hernia. They were actually rude.”

She wishes she had done more, and blames herself for not taking him to hospital as he got progressively worse, vomiting and looking “terrible”. He died on the morning of April 7 2019 despite the efforts of two “caring” crews who were called and “could not have been better”.

NHS Resolution admitted his history of pain and vomiting were suggestive of the potential for strangulation of an existing hernia, and his high pulse rate “should have prompted consideration of the potential for serious underlying illness and the need for further assessment in a hospital”.