Apology over pensioner released from hospital with a fatal infection

HOSPITAL chiefs have apologised to the family of a pensioner who was discharged by doctors who failed to realise she was suffering a fatal infection.

Test results on 83-year-old Gladys Wood were received by Doncaster Royal Infirmary doctors the day after she went back to a care home, and were not passed on.

An inquest heard there was a separate mix-up at Richmond nursing home in Allendale Drive, Sprotbrough, Doncaster, which meant staff delayed giving her antibiotics.

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Doncaster Royal Infirmary has apologised for its actions and has since changed procedures to ensure test results are reported after patients have been discharged.

Detectives investigated Mrs Wood’s death but found there was no criminal case to answer. Her family said they were satisfied with the outcome of the
inquest.

Mrs Wood, a mother of three sons, was taken to the hospital in April 2011 after falling at the home and breaking her thigh.

After undergoing successful surgery, a nurse took a urine sample because of concerns about a possible infection but Mrs Wood was discharged.

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Her son, Brian Leivers, visited the next day, and he told the inquest: “I went the next day and hoped to see a real improvement but she was the worst I’d ever seen. She looked really poorly and I was taken aback by her appearance.

“I asked a nurse about the antibiotics and she kind of shrugged her shoulders. She said she was not on any antibiotics.

“That was when the prescription was found and I realised she’d not been on them. They told me she’d only got about a week to live.”

Det Insp Rich Partridge told the inquest: “The medication that was omitted would not have prevented the death of Mrs Wood and there was nothing to suggest any criminal activities in the care home.”

Coroner Mark Beresford recorded a narrative verdict.