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OAP launches legal fight to have husband sent home to die
A FURIOUS pensioner has started a bitter legal battle against a Yorkshire NHS Trust's "inhumane" ruling that she can no longer care for her dying husband at home.
Dorothy Townend has looked after her 86-year-old husband Harry since he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's six years ago and spent thousands of pounds adapting their Leeds home to meet his needs.
But after he fell at their home in March, he was taken into residential care which Mrs Townend describes as "a prison".
He has been there since and the local NHS Trust is refusing to let him return home as they insist his 78-year-old wife cannot give him the care he needs, despite her desperate pleas for them to spend his last months at home together.
Mrs Townend says her husband cries each day when she leaves him and fears his anxiety at being away from home will kill him
before Alzheimer's does.
She has hired a solicitor and is preparing to battle through the courts, supported by their local MP who has branded their treatment at the hands of the Leeds Partnerships NHS Foundation Trust "inhumane".
"We may only have a few months left," Mrs Townend said. "Let us spend our last bit of time together. He has fallen at least three times while he has been in there.
"They are killing two people with their tactics. It's a nightmare for both of us. They think they are doing what's right, but it's wrong for us.
"Why can't they let him have the time he has left with his family? I don't want him to die in a care home."
Mrs Townend says over-zealous staff at Asket Croft in Leeds had even taken offence to her helping to dress her ailing husband whom she visits daily.
Local Labour MP George Mudie said: "The Government's policy is to keep people in their homes as long as possible, which makes it even more unbelievable that this couple are being separated in this inhumane way.
"The authorities were quite content to let Dorothy look after Harry before. At some stage they will have to justify it."
The Trust, which runs Asket Croft, say he needs 24-hour care which Mrs Townend cannot provide. Nursing staff are not allowed to care in their home because of fears Mr Townend might lash out at them, as he is alleged to have done once before.
Leeds Partnerships NHS Foundation Trust declined to comment on the case, citing patient confidentiality.
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Sunday 12 February 2012
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