This situation, and five years of trying to get justice, has caused PTSD in members of my family. We have experienced an enormous amount of stress and upset.

If these matters are not addressed it could happen to your family too.

I have since found two associations where hundreds of people are affected by similar situations, many have PTSD, and nothing is being done about the matter. 

Our Mother, Elsie Norton of Waltham Abbey, was admitted to the Princess Alexandra Hospital, Hamstel Rd, Harlow Town, CM20 1QX on 17th October 2018

The Treatment Escalation Plan TEP form asks: Life Expectancy “Would you be surprised if this patient died within the next 12 months” Answer  "Yes" They would be surprised...

Why then did the hospital call so many meetings about putting Mum on end-of-life “care”? and why is the outlawed Liverpool Care Plan still being used under another name? 

There were more meetings than listed here, and we began to feel hounded when visiting Mum. 

The meetings were supposed to be about relating medical information for the family to make the best decision [we had Power of Attorney]. Instead the information was clearly heavily weighted toward putting Mum on and End of Life "Pathway".

19/10/18 - Friday FIRST REQUEST FOR US TO CONSIDER "Do Not Resuscitate order" and End of Life Care

22/10/18 ANOTHER MEETING ABOUT THE END-OF LIFE PATHWAY 

31st October Wednesday at 2.30pm

2nd November Friday TWO meetings with different doctors

3rd November – My sister forwarded a photo of mum sitting up in bed smiling, chatting, and perfectly alert. [What a good thing we hadn't agreed to putting Mum on the death route on 19th October. She probably would have been dead by the 22nd October]

5th November – Two nurses told me mum had been sitting up in bed at breakfast singing along to Whitney Houston “I want to dance with somebody”…  Later that evening my mother got hold of my hand and squeezed it. She said: “PLEASE help me. Please get me out of here”…

ANOTHER MEETING ABOUT THE END-OF LIFE PATHWAY

7th November FOUR members of Mum’s family had a meeting with one doctor. [We have since discovered he was a registrar and his specialism was Rheumatology, not elderly care]. He told us “Good news. Mum is fit for discharge. She’s in good shape”

HE advised if we therefore agreed to “no further treatment” Mum could be fast tracked discharged to any care home or a rehabilitation hospice of our choice. It was on this basis we agreed as a rehabilitation hospice agreed to take Mum. 

On my hospital visit 48 hours later, I found Mum in a semi-comatosed state. She was only able to raise her brows and flicker her eyelids in response to asking if she knew I was there. A nurse was reprimanded by the senior register when she kindly took Mum’s blood pressure [at my son’s request]. The doctor was unable to be contacted.

Mum was given none of her usual medicines, no food, and no hydration, other than a damp sponge to her lips. She was given Midazolam and Morphine. 

The whole situation had gone to a point of no return. We were unable to communicate last words.

Mum died in front of me, on Monday 12th November 2018 at 9.15am, as I was tending to her.

The registrar verified Mum’s death claiming it was pneumonia. The coroner later found she died of a changed heart rhythm. 

When I acquired the medical notes I found a whole page of A4 notes which are completely fabricated. It was written by the senior registrar who claims another doctor was present. There wasn’t. He claims WE, the family, asked for Mum to be put on the End-of-Life (Liverpool Care Plan). This is a complete lie. We wouldn’t want our worst enemy to die like that. In our opinion it is barbaric.

For over four years I’ve been contacting numerous health and government people about the situation.

Two factors that most concern me are…

[A] On two occasions I took out cases with the Parliamentary Ombudsman for Health [2016-2018 and 2018-2013 … that’s how long it took them to look into two simple cases]

Both cases involved outright lies and forgery on medical notes; one with a physiotherapist, the second with a senior registrar… the latter leading to Mum’s death. Both events were at the same hospital.

In both cases the ombudsman has ruled nothing wrong was done. They insist they must go by medical notes, even though I told them they were forged.

Since then I have contacted the General Medical Council who claim the doctor did no wrong, that they cannot comment on what four members of the family thought they heard, or how we interpreted what was said.

The Parliamentary Ombudsman for health recommended the hospital trust pay me £250 for my “Time and inconvenience” as the hospital took an unnecessary length of time to answer questions. This is an insult. 

I am calling for an independent witness to all meetings and medical notes about putting people on an End-of-Life Pathway.

I am also calling for serious disciplinary action against anyway who falsifies medical notes; and for such an act to be criminalised.

I am requesting the Parliamentary Ombudsman for Health does not ignore alerts about false medical notes, and does not continue to use false medical notes to form a decision.

In memory of what our Mother and we suffered I request such a ruling is called “Elsie’s Law”