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Family of gran may sue nursing home
THE family of a grandmother who died after developing an infection from the worst type of pressure sore are considering legal action against the Sheffield nursing home where she lived.
Doreen Betts' son Stephen and daughter Joanne Thompson told The Star they may sue, after a coroner ruled things "have not been done that should have been done" in the run-up to their mother's death.
Mrs Betts, aged 78, was a resident at Kersal Mount Nursing Home on Manchester Road, Broomhill, before she died at the Northern General Hospital from a blood infection caused by pressure sores.
A Sheffield inquest heard the care home had been advised three months earlier by Mrs Betts' GP to get expert advice on care for her pressure sores.
But no visit was arranged – and the mum-of-two and grandmother-of-one died on May 9 after one of the sores on her left foot became infected with sepsis, a serious blood infection.
Mrs Betts was taken to hospital only after daughter Joanne Thompson visited the home and saw her mother was very unwell. She told staff – who had been waiting for an out-of-hours GP – to dial 999 instead.
Nurses at the Northern General found Mrs Betts' sore had penetrated so deeply it reached the bone.
The inquest heard that at Kersal Mount, records were updated once during a shift, making it possible for things to be missed.
And Mrs Betts' family told the court they had been concerned about their mother's care in the weeks leading up to her death.
It took three weeks to replace a faulty pump on a specialist mattress designed to help relieve pressure sores for Mrs Betts, who had dementia and was immobile. And Stephen said the day before his mother was taken to hospital, she had not been washed or changed.
Assistant deputy coroner David Urpeth said he did not accept parts of Kersal Mount manager Fatima Tuz-Zohka's evidence, in which she disputed the GP had told the care home to arrange for a sores expert to visit, and in which she claimed Mrs Betts had no sign of sepsis when she left.
Mr Urpeth, who recorded a narrative verdict into Mrs Betts' death, said: "It is clear there were things that have not been done that should have been done."
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Weather for Sheffield
Saturday 26 May 2012
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Temperature: 9 C to 21 C
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