Family’s sorrow at Northampton General Hospital’s treatment of Amy in last days
Amy Ellen Page, died March 31, 2011 at NGH. Inquest held January 11, 2012.
RELATIVES of Amy Page have spoken of their sorrow at the care she received during the final days of her life at Northampton General Hospital, following the inquest into her death.
The 23-year-old, formerly of Greenwood Road, St James, Northampton, died from peritonitis and pneumonia while in intensive care in the early hours of March 31, three days after undergoing abdominal surgery.
An inquest on Wednesday heard she had been in severe pain following the operation on March 28, but failures to follow procedure and a lack of escalation of her case to senior medical staff meant opportunities to diagnose and treat her infections were lost.
Recording a narrative verdict, coroner Anne Pember concluded Miss Page’s death might have been avoided if hospital staff had intervened promptly.
In a statement released to the Chronicle & Echo yesterday, Miss Page’s family described feeling “relieved” the inquest was now over, but “extremely devastated” at the pain Miss Page endured in the last hours of her life.
They criticised nurses’ and doctors’ failure to follow established protocol, and the poor documentation of Miss Page’s care in medical and nursing notes.
They said: “This level of care is completely unacceptable.
“There are hospital protocols in place which were ignored systematically by several staff members. Sadly no matter what verdict was given, or what disciplinary action is taken, it will not bring back Amy.”
Miss Page had undergone several operations to treat on-going abdominal pain, including the removal of her gall bladder in 2006 and surgery to repair a resultant hernia in 2008.
The operations were followed by a further procedure to separate her bowel from the prosthetic mesh used in the hernia repair in 2010 but, when this failed to alleviate her pain, she underwent surgery to remove the mesh on March 28, 2011.
She died at about 4am on March 31, after emergency exploratory post-operative surgery was unable to determine what was causing her deterioration.
Her family said: “Amy touched the hearts of many in her short life. She had her dreams even through all her pain and was always there for others, despite how she was feeling. She still managed to smile and laugh.
“Her aim was to look on her operation as a new start, go back to college, study hard and become a midwife. She adored children and longed to have some of her own.”
“Amy was a joy that was sadly and prematurely taken away,” they added. “Hopefully she can still help others through the suffering she endured by the lessons learned and different procedures being implemented as promised at the inquest by the representative of Northampton General Hospital.”
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ladyblue
Friday, January 13, 2012 at 12:04 PMWhen will NGH up its game with regards to nursing care? Too many foreign HCAs who can barely understand English yet are employed over and above British applicants - as I know well. Start nurse training in the wards to sort the wheat from the chaff. Then escalate to university whenif competent in basic humanity.
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