A man whose 86-year-old mother bled to death following an operation to improve blood supply to her legs has rejected an apology from Kingston Hospital, after an investigation catalogued a series of errors in her post-procedure treatment.

The report recommended hospital staff be trained on the use of observation charts, recognition of shock and documentation of medical notes, following the death of Putney resident Jean Swing, who died of significant haemorrhaging on July 16 last year.

The hospital’s serious untoward incident investigation showed ward staff wrongly noted Mrs Swing’s observations as stable when she arrived on the ward at 4.30pm, despite her suffering decreased blood pressure and increased heart rate.

This was only recognised 45 minutes later after a further drop, but although a junior doctor was called the request was not urgent, and she did not review the patient until 6.30pm, the report said.

After Mrs Swing was given fluid treatment to correct what the doctor wrongly thought was post-operative dehydration, staff failed to recognise a lack of improvement in her condition, and Mrs Swing died following a heart attack at 8.55pm, the report revealed.

Her son Ray Swing said: “I’m a bit speechless about it to be honest. It is basically saying they had non-trained staff there. If they are going into an old person’s veins it does not take an expert to see those veins would be fragile.

“It was not until I got there and created hell that anyone felt there was anything wrong, and I am not a medic. I kept screaming at them that she was haemorrhaging but no one believed me.

“She would not have died that day. If you read between the lines there is no way she would have died.”

Mr Swing met senior hospital staff on December 2, but he said: “The woman did apologise for my mother’s death but not in writing.

“I do not accept an apology because it means nothing to me. It is meaningless. Anyone can say sorry.

“I am going to be looking for compensation. I cannot put her to rest because of the severe pain I saw her in. The whole family has been traumatised to an extent. They still talk about it.”

A hospital spokesman said: “The circumstances of Mrs Swing’s death were very distressing. We have met with Mrs Swing’s son, discussed the findings of the detailed investigation, which was carried out at the highest level. We have apologised for what was an unacceptable lapse of care.

“Our staff were deeply upset by her death. On completion of the investigation we immediately updated the staff concerned and are developing a structured educational programme for doctors and nurses to ensure that staff recognise this type of patient deterioration and importantly how to respond, involving more senior staff if they are worried.

“The relevant staff on the ward at the time have already been assessed to ensure they understand the procedure. As well as ensuring that relevant staff receive this training, all new staff will receive it automatically.”

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