Pensioner died in ‘routine’ hospital procedure

Margaret Morley died aged 71 undergoing a bronchoscopy, a technique to check the airways and lungs, at Dewsbury and District Hospital in November 2008.

Mrs Morley was given an overdose of the anaethetic lidocaine, the inquest was told, but it is disputed whether this was a factor in her death from broncho-pneumonia.

The hearing heard that the hospital failed to get her written consent for the procedure.

Staff said they got her verbal consent but her family claimed she was too confused to understand what was happening.

It is also claimed by the family that medics failed to consult them on a decision not to resuscitate Mrs Morley in the event of her heart or breathing stopping.

Her daughter, Jacqueline Hussain, said her mother had undergone one bronchoscopy but had not wanted to have another one the following day.

Shortly before her death Mrs Morley, who had lung and kidney problems, begged family to get her moved to another hospital or take her home.

Her family, from Batley, claimed that she would have lived had the second bronchoscopy not been carried out.

Mrs Morley’s granddaughter, Stevie Oliver, said that standards of care and communication at Dewsbury had been poor.

Miss Oliver said she was “incensed at the cavalier way our concerns were ignored” in the days before her grandmother’s death.

Serious questions were raised by the family’s barrister, Claire Watson, over procedures at the hospital which she said breached General Medical Council guidelines.

Miss Watson said there was no input from Mrs Morley into the decision by doctors to withhold resuscitation in the event of her heart or breathing stopping.

Dr Kavitha Nadesalingam told the inquest that it would not have been appropriate at the time to talk to Mrs Morley about resuscitation because she was very poorly.

The hearing was told that procedures relating to checking the weight of patients before lidocaine anaesthetic had been changed in the light of Mrs Morley’s death.

Nurse Cathryn Everett said patients’ weights were not previously checked in the endoscopy department but this had now changed. She also said that cardiac monitoring was not carried out on those with abnormal hearts but this was to change as a machine was “on order”.

Nurse Everett admitted she failed to check whether Mrs Morley had signed a consent form.

The inquest, which is being heard before a jury in Bradford, continues.