My father in law is being starved to death in hospital

milliemonster

Ok, so to cut a long story short, fil aged 82 collapsed at home last sept, ended up in ICU for 4 weeks then on a ward until he came home in January. He collapsed as his airways closed up completely due to an acute condition called laryngeal palsy, this is irreversible so he has a tracheostomy now and had a PEG tube inserted into his stomach for feeding. He can no longer eat or drink normally and never will be able to again.

So, fast forward to him finally getting home, he was only home 3 weeks when he developed pneumonia and a stomach infection and went back into hospital on 10th feb. He also had a swollen abdomen at the time and they thought he might have an obstruction so stopped feeding him for the time being, and put him on IV fluids.

Now, we did think those first few days he was going to die as he was very poorly, however. He's rallied round, recovered from the pneumonia, and is now back off oxygen and antibiotics and out of bed, reading magazines etc.

However, they're till not feeding him.

I am a senior nurse myself at a different hospital trust and beginning to get angry and appalled at his treatment. I accept that even for the first week he was so ill feeding him wasn't a priority, but what angers me is that the staff have repeatedly lied to my mil, husband and his 2 brothers by saying he's getting everything he needs in his iv fluids, which is untrue, and they have understandably believed what the staff have told them.

I accept that they cannot feed him by His PEG tube yet as they are now concerned it's not in the right place, but appear to be doing very little about it and there doesn't seem to be any sense of urgency to sort this out.

He is frail, emaciated, malnourished and at severe risk of further infections now which due to his physical state he will not be able to fight off.

In this situation, they should be giving him IV nutrition (called TPN), I asked by husband to ask them about it when he visited on Sunday and the nurse told him that they 'dont do TPN'

So Monday night I managed to locate their Trust's nutrition and hydration policy which clearly shows that they should refer for TPN when a patient has had no food intake for 5 days, we are now at 13.

Husband phoned to speak to the ward manager yesterday who initially said that they were giving him iv fluids and that was enough, until hubby told her that he had their hospital policy in front of him and what it said, she didn't say anything after that but admitted he had had no nutrition at all since he'd been in. She is now blaming the doctors and saying it's not the nurses fault.

We've now spoken to PALS who are appalled at this and are taking it further, however, we still have the immediate problem that he is not being fed and is in effect being starved to death.

I know I'm a nurse myself but I don't know what to do next? We can't wait until this goes through the normal internal complaints system as that will take weeks, I've thought about contacting their safeguarding team today but it says on the hospital website it's just for staff

My poor fil said last night that he is absolutely starving hungry, I can't sit back and just let this continue?

KRB2725

Can you arrange to see the doctor in charge of his care or be there when the ward round takes place? If they can't see you within a few hours, I think I would be inclined to go there and refuse to leave until I had seen a senior enough member of staff to get it resolved.

It sounds an absolutely awful situation, I hope you get it sorted and that your FIL is better soon.

Nicki

Are you able as an NHS employee yourself to get hold of the email address of his consultant and email him direct about this asking for an immediate response?

Paper trails in these situations to the person who will end up before the MFTP tribunal are always a good way of getting things moving.

Hope you get it sorted today and so sorry for your poor FIL who must be feeling very ill again by now due to all this.

harrys_nan

I am so sorry you are going through this, I'm sorry I haven't any advice to give you.
Could you speak directly to the doctors that are looking after your FIL, bypassing the nursing staff?
It must really be awful for FIL.
Sending you and family some (((hugs)))

milliemonster

Thank you for your replies. Unfortunately I don't have much faith in his consultant, we had a meeting with him before Christmas about a separate issue during his last admission and he wasn't very proactive. We can't be there during ward rounds as visitors aren't allowed but so far even the doctors keep giving excuses, a week ago they said they were waiting for the gastro team to come and review his PEG, they told us the exact same thing on Sunday, then they said yesterday they were going to inject dye into his PEG yesterday to see if it's in the right place then they would be able to start feeding him, but again, this didn't happen.

I accept that these things don't always happen in a timely fashion, but in the meantime until they do, he should be getting IV nutrition!

I think I might ring the safeguarding team anyway, for the ward manager to not be ensuring that their own policy is followed is disgraceful really, even though TPN has to be prescribed, she can't just wash her hands of the responsibility of being the patients advocate and should be ensuring that patients in her ward are being cared for properly.

I am so angry, I've been a nurse 20 years and never experienced a patient being wilfully without food for so long, it's one of the basics of care

snowleopard61

This must be awful for all of you. Some suggestions:

Print a copy of the nutrition policy you have found on the website then:

a) Find out the name of his consultant, speak to his/her secretary (via switchboard) and ask to send an urgent email to the secretary which can be forwarded direct to the consultant. (S/he may object to being emailed direct and you don't want to start off on the wrong foot.)

b) Via switchboard, ask to speak to the hospital's patient liaison team (known variously as PALS, Patient Services, Complaints).

c) If you feel this is not being taken seriously, you could email the Chief Executive via his/her secretary.

Try to stay calm when speaking to them because that way you are more likely to be taken seriously. Tell them you are a nurse yourself.

Good luck - please let us know how you get on.

ETA: Sorry, cross-posted with your own comments.

tea_lover

Do you know what it is that PALS will be doing to take it further? Are they able to give you contact details for the chief exec?

I think your idea of ringing the safeguarding team is a good one. Sometimes you need to bang on a lot of doors to find someone who's willing to listen - which is not as it should be of course!

Hope you manage to get something sorted today.

milliemonster

tea_lover wrote: »

Do you know what it is that PALS will be doing to take it further? Are they able to give you contact details for the chief exec?

I think your idea of ringing the safeguarding team is a good one. Sometimes you need to bang on a lot of doors to find someone who's willing to listen - which is not as it should be of course!

Hope you manage to get something sorted today.

I'm not sure actually as hubby spoke to them yesterday, I believe they are sending out a complaints pack in the post, but they did say that if they didn't do the dye injection yesterday to ring them back today, as I explained above, that didn't happen so I believe hubby is planning to phone them when he gets home from work at lunchtime

snowleopard61

Sorry, missed that you had already spoken to PALS - should have read more carefully!

EpsomOldie

The press? A last resort as it offers the reptiles an open sesame into your / your fil's private lives, but perhaps the other options would take more time than your fil has? And it's ultimately tomorrow's chip paper.


Edited to add that social media like Facebook and Twitter are immediate, and extremely far-reaching. I don't use either but am aware of how powerful they are, and how much regard / fear the public sector's publicity machine holds them. I don't know if you use either but if not, do you have a young family member who can guide you?

There's nothing like the high heid yins being exposed to sunlight to get a log jam moving. As one of my old pals used to say, sunlight is disinfectant.

I do hope this gets sorted quickly. Utterly indecent but the Chief Execs and their minions are impervious to that accusation...now a bit of exposure, that's another thing. And it'll take some activity at that level to bypass the ward-level / doctor / consultant hierarchy.

Best wishes to you and your fil.

EO

pigpen

PALS are a waste of time.. they are friends with the staff why does anyone think they would do anything to help a patient??

Ring the police!!