11th December 2005. Papworth NHS TrustA Day With No Sunlight
My father died in an NHS hospital. Actually, he was found dead by our family.
He was in an acute cardiac unit, had been left unmonitored in the hospital of Clinical Excellence. Papworth NHS Trust is not compelled by the laws of this land to record of father as a statistic [see email from the Department of Health below]. So apart from this article, there is no record of his death within NHS statistics. He just joins everyone else in the UK number of deaths.
In addition, because the doctors cleverly failed to take blood cultures, the MRSA found in his sputum and the high white cell count is not recorded as a MRSA death. He is not part of the MRSA statistics yet he should be.
My father was a consultant surgeon. His doctors were as follows
1. Mr Samer Nashef
2. Dr MC Petch
3. Mr Wells.
4. Mr Robert Bonser
5. Dr Francisco Leyva Leon.
I can say his doctors were negligent because they were. They have no argument against me because they have no defence. I am very matter of fact about these issues because I have miles of evidence. I don't sue because that would be pointless. I do though write.
I do still recall the day when my father was coughing violently and having problems breathing. Mr Samer Nashef stated " Take him back home in your car ". It was at that point that you realise and understand the sheer wickedness of certain surgeons. He expected me to carry my own 6ft2 father myself into my car and drive him without oxygen home from Cambridge.
Robert Bonser, the elderly decrepit surgeon in Birmingham had refused him a life saving operation for aortic stenosis earlier that year. His reasons were invalid in science. An independent US opinion opposed Robert Bonsers. Mr Wells of Papworth NHS Trust opposed Mr Bonser. Mr Bonser was categorically wrong as were his Trust. In fact, few people of good repute supported Bonser. The best people in the US offered to operate on my father to give him the chance to live. They made this known through various emails and letters.
It should be noted that this unilateral refusal to operate was not made following discussion with his MDT. It was not a team decision. It was a Bonser decision based on the wrong information.
The time wasted by Bonser ensured that a nail was placed in my fathers coffin. He took my money privately, he had no qualms in that. Indeed, these doctors have no qualms in private money to feed their private golfing habits. Mr Bonser failed to answer the questions put to him. after my fathers death. That is because this negligent surgeon feels he is does not have to answer to anyone. Bonser though is past his sell by date and should retire. It is a great shame he cannot tell the difference between acute and chronic renal failure. I questioned him on this aspect and he had no answers. I also told my him that my father had died with practically normal renal function. He had no answers for that either.
Mr Bonser had ignored the fact that the cardiologist had caused the slight acute renal problems via the angiogram dye and it was short lived. This was only because Franscico Leyva had failed to check the electrolytes properly prior to the angiogram itself and he had failed to correct the hydration state. So, one mismanagement led to another catastrophic decision. Mr Bonser had been careless and not paid attention to the issues and made an invalid judgment on something that wasn't even true. When the issues were pointed to him in bright technicolour evidence, he had no responses to make.
It is a shame they hide behind each other because these glaring mistakes are clear to see.
I though expected these doctors to do their job. They didn't.
Having got the chance, we transfered our father to Papworth NHS Trust. He was rushed by emergency ambulance.
There, standing at the front of his bed, Nashef pronounced my fathers fate because of his friend Bonser. There was no independent assessment made. He didn't care about capacity assessments or Department of Health guidance. Nashef cared about his mortality rates. He was a arrogant, selfish man whose pictures of his wonderful family in his office makes a mockery of the conceited, disgusting man he is. When I told him of the US opinions, he stated " Ah well, they will do anything for money". Really?! So he is stating that all US surgeon are without ethics or scrupples. The true face of Nashef is that he was the one without ethics or scrupples. A man who is all about facades and positivity on elderly patients in the public forum and cannot even communicate properly to his patients. He had no respect for my father. He was in a rush, he had no time, he wanted an easy death for Mr Pal. Nashef's easy ride to throw my father out of the hospital was turning into a nightmare for him. I was there challenging him on his every move and this was heard by each nursing staff. He did not have justification for his refusal. He didn't follow the Department of Health or the GMC guidance on assessments. Essentially, he was playing God.
It was at that point you saw the lights dim in my fathers eyes. He gave Nashef the look that told us " Hey, I have saved many people from the brink of death, I made an effort, I don't give a damn what your views are because you are a pathetic surgeon with no insight". And that will be the look that told us all that he did not wish to be humiliated anymore.
Before I left, I told Samer Nashef that my father's death would haunt him for the rest of his life and it will. I know it does because of his limp responses to the Health Commission. There Nashef has consistently lied about examining my father. There was no examination of any kind at all. His snide manner in which he tries to save his sickly wicked self is always entertaining to observe. In his letters, he accepts that my points were all right and that he had no objections in "principle". So my question is this - if he had no objections why did he not carry out these assessments according to the guidance? See, no one asks Nashef this important question.
The point here though is that it is too late. It makes no difference because he didn't act when it mattered. He was one of the architects in the time delay that resulted in my father's death. He was also one of the architects who robbed my father of his life saving operation.
More importantly, he robbed a sick man and forced him to beg for his life. He not only robbed him of his life but he robbed him of his dignity.
It made no difference that the next opinion was a positive one. We had finally got my father's opportunity to live after Nashef and Bonser had sentenced him to death. An operation was finally agreed by Mr Wells. It is simply that the obstacles placed in the way of the operation date came one after the other due to the mismanagement of the medical staff and the time delays caused by the previous doctors meant that time was running out.
It was I who spotted that his white cells were increasing, it was me who asked the juniors to prescribe him with antibiotics, it was I who tried to do what we all do as doctors - the right thing through the guidelines. There was no communication or ward rounds or decision making or planning. I think you realise that - actually people don't care anymore. They really don't.
Papworth NHS Trust though were clearly out to allow my father to die. They achieved their quest. They didn't though manage to salvage their reputation.
I have nothing against death bar the irony that a surgeon who worked to save so many people in his career, was never given the opportunity to live.
And that is the legacy of an NHS today. This isn't about personal tragedy. It is about accountability.
As I told them all - there will be a day when they are in an NHS Hospital. There will be a day when they are at their death bed and doctors look on and watch them die. There will be a day when the doctors medical families watch over, helpless to do anything for their relatives. That will be the day when they also realise that they themselves never sought to improve a failing system.
There will be a time when each doctor above will face their fate. It comes to all of us with the progress of time.
This is written in memory of my father because he would want his death to be counted. I know it will be seen as a bereavement reaction. Of course, my bereavement has passed. Grief is always compounded by the unacceptable low level care my father was subjected to. I know there is no accountability within systems. I do though know that if someone else can benefit from this write up then that is all my father would want.
He would also want it known that the doctors who treated him were not worthy of him and that he deserved better as a UK tax payer and a British Citizen.
I know full that wherever the old man is - he would always smile and forgive the above men because he would say that they never learned the most important lesson of life - to treat everyone with respect no matter who they are.
He would then continue to munch his chocolate supply and do more important things in the world and leave the day of judgment to God - if there is one :).
Dr Rita Pal
NB The above picture was taken by mobile a few minutes after he was found dead. We have no explanation for the light. It was an overcast day with no sunlight.
Email from the Department of Health.
DE00000364718
Dear Dr Pal,
Thank you for your further email of 6 November to the Department of Health about mortality rates. I have been asked to reply on this occasion. I can confirm that there is no regulation or law requiring individual hospital wards to calculate patient death rates. I hope this reply clarifies the Department’s position.
Yours sincerely,
James Butler
Customer Service Centre Department of Health
He was in an acute cardiac unit, had been left unmonitored in the hospital of Clinical Excellence. Papworth NHS Trust is not compelled by the laws of this land to record of father as a statistic [see email from the Department of Health below]. So apart from this article, there is no record of his death within NHS statistics. He just joins everyone else in the UK number of deaths.
In addition, because the doctors cleverly failed to take blood cultures, the MRSA found in his sputum and the high white cell count is not recorded as a MRSA death. He is not part of the MRSA statistics yet he should be.
My father was a consultant surgeon. His doctors were as follows
1. Mr Samer Nashef
2. Dr MC Petch
3. Mr Wells.
4. Mr Robert Bonser
5. Dr Francisco Leyva Leon.
I can say his doctors were negligent because they were. They have no argument against me because they have no defence. I am very matter of fact about these issues because I have miles of evidence. I don't sue because that would be pointless. I do though write.
I do still recall the day when my father was coughing violently and having problems breathing. Mr Samer Nashef stated " Take him back home in your car ". It was at that point that you realise and understand the sheer wickedness of certain surgeons. He expected me to carry my own 6ft2 father myself into my car and drive him without oxygen home from Cambridge.
Robert Bonser, the elderly decrepit surgeon in Birmingham had refused him a life saving operation for aortic stenosis earlier that year. His reasons were invalid in science. An independent US opinion opposed Robert Bonsers. Mr Wells of Papworth NHS Trust opposed Mr Bonser. Mr Bonser was categorically wrong as were his Trust. In fact, few people of good repute supported Bonser. The best people in the US offered to operate on my father to give him the chance to live. They made this known through various emails and letters.
It should be noted that this unilateral refusal to operate was not made following discussion with his MDT. It was not a team decision. It was a Bonser decision based on the wrong information.
The time wasted by Bonser ensured that a nail was placed in my fathers coffin. He took my money privately, he had no qualms in that. Indeed, these doctors have no qualms in private money to feed their private golfing habits. Mr Bonser failed to answer the questions put to him. after my fathers death. That is because this negligent surgeon feels he is does not have to answer to anyone. Bonser though is past his sell by date and should retire. It is a great shame he cannot tell the difference between acute and chronic renal failure. I questioned him on this aspect and he had no answers. I also told my him that my father had died with practically normal renal function. He had no answers for that either.
Mr Bonser had ignored the fact that the cardiologist had caused the slight acute renal problems via the angiogram dye and it was short lived. This was only because Franscico Leyva had failed to check the electrolytes properly prior to the angiogram itself and he had failed to correct the hydration state. So, one mismanagement led to another catastrophic decision. Mr Bonser had been careless and not paid attention to the issues and made an invalid judgment on something that wasn't even true. When the issues were pointed to him in bright technicolour evidence, he had no responses to make.
We went to Bonser at the suggestion of another surgeon Mr Jatin Desai. Bonser was supposedly the best at his job. We found him to be the worst. I certainly hope no one choses him privately or in the NHS. He is a discriminatory person and failed in a full assessment of our father. If I could reverse time, I would never have gone to Robert Bonser or Jatin Desai. I hope no one else goes to him either.
It is a shame they hide behind each other because these glaring mistakes are clear to see.
I though expected these doctors to do their job. They didn't.
Having got the chance, we transfered our father to Papworth NHS Trust. He was rushed by emergency ambulance.
There, standing at the front of his bed, Nashef pronounced my fathers fate because of his friend Bonser. There was no independent assessment made. He didn't care about capacity assessments or Department of Health guidance. Nashef cared about his mortality rates. He was a arrogant, selfish man whose pictures of his wonderful family in his office makes a mockery of the conceited, disgusting man he is. When I told him of the US opinions, he stated " Ah well, they will do anything for money". Really?! So he is stating that all US surgeon are without ethics or scrupples. The true face of Nashef is that he was the one without ethics or scrupples. A man who is all about facades and positivity on elderly patients in the public forum and cannot even communicate properly to his patients. He had no respect for my father. He was in a rush, he had no time, he wanted an easy death for Mr Pal. Nashef's easy ride to throw my father out of the hospital was turning into a nightmare for him. I was there challenging him on his every move and this was heard by each nursing staff. He did not have justification for his refusal. He didn't follow the Department of Health or the GMC guidance on assessments. Essentially, he was playing God.
It was at that point you saw the lights dim in my fathers eyes. He gave Nashef the look that told us " Hey, I have saved many people from the brink of death, I made an effort, I don't give a damn what your views are because you are a pathetic surgeon with no insight". And that will be the look that told us all that he did not wish to be humiliated anymore.
Before I left, I told Samer Nashef that my father's death would haunt him for the rest of his life and it will. I know it does because of his limp responses to the Health Commission. There Nashef has consistently lied about examining my father. There was no examination of any kind at all. His snide manner in which he tries to save his sickly wicked self is always entertaining to observe. In his letters, he accepts that my points were all right and that he had no objections in "principle". So my question is this - if he had no objections why did he not carry out these assessments according to the guidance? See, no one asks Nashef this important question.
The point here though is that it is too late. It makes no difference because he didn't act when it mattered. He was one of the architects in the time delay that resulted in my father's death. He was also one of the architects who robbed my father of his life saving operation.
More importantly, he robbed a sick man and forced him to beg for his life. He not only robbed him of his life but he robbed him of his dignity.
It made no difference that the next opinion was a positive one. We had finally got my father's opportunity to live after Nashef and Bonser had sentenced him to death. An operation was finally agreed by Mr Wells. It is simply that the obstacles placed in the way of the operation date came one after the other due to the mismanagement of the medical staff and the time delays caused by the previous doctors meant that time was running out.
It was I who spotted that his white cells were increasing, it was me who asked the juniors to prescribe him with antibiotics, it was I who tried to do what we all do as doctors - the right thing through the guidelines. There was no communication or ward rounds or decision making or planning. I think you realise that - actually people don't care anymore. They really don't.
Papworth NHS Trust though were clearly out to allow my father to die. They achieved their quest. They didn't though manage to salvage their reputation.
I have nothing against death bar the irony that a surgeon who worked to save so many people in his career, was never given the opportunity to live.
And that is the legacy of an NHS today. This isn't about personal tragedy. It is about accountability.
As I told them all - there will be a day when they are in an NHS Hospital. There will be a day when they are at their death bed and doctors look on and watch them die. There will be a day when the doctors medical families watch over, helpless to do anything for their relatives. That will be the day when they also realise that they themselves never sought to improve a failing system.
There will be a time when each doctor above will face their fate. It comes to all of us with the progress of time.
This is written in memory of my father because he would want his death to be counted. I know it will be seen as a bereavement reaction. Of course, my bereavement has passed. Grief is always compounded by the unacceptable low level care my father was subjected to. I know there is no accountability within systems. I do though know that if someone else can benefit from this write up then that is all my father would want.
He would also want it known that the doctors who treated him were not worthy of him and that he deserved better as a UK tax payer and a British Citizen.
I know full that wherever the old man is - he would always smile and forgive the above men because he would say that they never learned the most important lesson of life - to treat everyone with respect no matter who they are.
He would then continue to munch his chocolate supply and do more important things in the world and leave the day of judgment to God - if there is one :).
Dr Rita Pal
NB The above picture was taken by mobile a few minutes after he was found dead. We have no explanation for the light. It was an overcast day with no sunlight.
Email from the Department of Health.
DE00000364718
Dear Dr Pal,
Thank you for your further email of 6 November to the Department of Health about mortality rates. I have been asked to reply on this occasion. I can confirm that there is no regulation or law requiring individual hospital wards to calculate patient death rates. I hope this reply clarifies the Department’s position.
Yours sincerely,
James Butler
Customer Service Centre Department of Health
5 comments:
Rita, I can't really say anything to this post.
I'm just very, very sorry.
I've quoted it on our blog here http://foundationtrustwatch.blogspot.com/2008/12/more-local-nhs-excellence.html
We too, are struggling with "Excellent" NHS services.
Best Wishes.
Its ok. No one has to say a thing. Its just there as a personal writing thing. I write and think about lots of things.
Papworth Foundation Trust is unaccountable as you well know. I have a email from the DOH about the lack of accountability. I shall see if I can dig it out.
Should we swap links :)
RP
Here it is - From the Department of Health
In the case of Papworth hospital, this is a foundation trust and NHS foundation Trusts are no longer accountable to the Department of Health or Ministers. They are instead directly accountable to their local communities and to Parliament. Due to their independent status and separate and local route of accountability, Ministers and Department of Health officials are no longer in a position to comment on or become involved in the day-to-day management within foundation trusts. Therefore, I would advise you to take up your concerns directly with the Trust. The contact details are:
Stephen Bridge
Chief Executive
Papworth Hospital
Papworth Everard
Cambridge
Cambridgeshire
CB3 8RE
Tel: 01480 830541
I hope this reply is helpful.
Yours sincerely
Susan E Gill
Ministerial Briefing Unit
Customer Services Directorate
We would be most flattered to swap links with you.
You've been blogrolled over at ftw.
Best Wishes.
This is sad, and I too am sorry. This is a story about doctors who do not care, betraying the charges in their care.
This gets worse because they are training the next generation of doctors and are upheld as "centres of excellence"
My thoughts are with you Rita, and is there a God? I don't know, but peoples' spirits live on regardless.
Post a Comment