Devastated relatives of Sheffield mum who died after ‘serious lapses’ in hospital warn: ‘Get checked out’

Retired chef Susan Bamford, aged 64, from Chapeltown, died after developing multi-organ failure due to sepsis in 2021 at the Northern General Hospital, four days after being admitted, feeling unwell.

An inquest in March concluded Susan died as a result of the hospital’s neglect. The trust which runs the Northern General and Hallamshire Hospitals has apologised and taken action to avoid similar tragedies in future.

After it emerged hospitals had failed to regularly replace essential ureteric stents, Susan’s family is urging other patients to chase replacement appointments and get checked out. Stents are devices inserted to keep a patient’s bodily tubes open.

Susan received stents placed through the kidney and down to the tube which passes between the kidneys and the bladder to allow urine to drain away normally, in February 2018 at the Hallamshire.

On December 3 2021, she was admitted to the Northern General. A scan showed abnormal enlargement of the kidney.

The next day, Susan and her medical records were reviewed. It was noted she had stents from February 2018, not changed for four years.

Susan deteriorated and died on December 6, 2021. Her family has asked Wake Smith solicitors’ clinical negligence team to take on the case.

Susan’s daughter, Nicole Critcher, said: “We are just wanting to raise awareness of what happened to my mum because we do not want it to happen to anyone else. There will be people out there who may have had this type of stent and have not had them replaced which was unfortunately fatal in my mum’s case.”

Scott Haslam, Wake Smith clinical negligence director, said: “The coroner found Susan died as a result of neglect by the hospital. She didn’t have her stents replaced for a period of nearly four years, when usually they would be changed every six months to a year.

“The coroner found areas of concern and we are now liaising with Susan’s family to explore different legal options with the aim of trying to ensure this terrible circumstance does not happen again.”The inquest concluded Susan died from an infection, caused by failure by the hospital to identify the need for replacement or removal of stents, amounting to neglect.

Dr Jennifer Hill, medical director at the Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said: “We fully accept that there were serious lapses in the care which Mrs Bamford received, and this tragically contributed to her death in 2021. Whilst this was a rare incident, it has been very important to conduct a full review of what happened so that changes could be made as soon as possible to limit the chances of it happening again.

“One of the changes is that a new tracking process is being introduced to ensure that patients who have these stents are followed-up in a timely manner to have the stents changed. We have shared the findings of the review with Mrs Bamford’s family and made a full apology although we do realise that an apology will never be enough to alleviate the loss her family and friends are feeling.

“We have also shared the learning widely with other hospitals who provide the same type of care.”