Annex A > Chapter 17 - Communication Between Healthcare Professionals and Patients > Communication after the operation and when the child died > Evidence from parents
<< previous | next >>
Evidence from parents
350 Antonio Chiarito, father of Maria, stated:
`[The staff] said that they had taken Maria to the Chapel of Rest, if we wanted to see her again. We went to see her ... but she had already been taken away. We both found this distressing ... Since I have taken up my new employment, as a psychiatric nurse, I now understand how to treat people during times of emotional crisis. I do not think the staff at the BRI knew how to do so. I think that someone should have taken the time to explain things, and to answer our questions. As it was I got the impression they were covering up for some mistake.' [410]
351 The UBHT responded to Antonio Chiarito's comments:
`Evidence has been given to the Inquiry as to the bereavement and counselling facilities made available by the Trust. Unfortunately, they were insufficient to meet the needs of some parents. [411]
352 Rosemary Walker, mother of Ryan, stated:
`After Ryan died, we did not really see anyone in the hospital. We did not know what to do, or where to go. We were not even offered a cup of tea or coffee - there was certainly no offer of counselling.' [412]
353 Philippa Shipley described talking to Mr Dhasmana immediately before and after Amalie died:
`Mr Dhasmana came out of the ITU and spoke to us with tears in his eyes. He explained that Amalie was dying, and that he had tried everything he could to save her. I said that I wanted to be with her. Andrew and I went to the ITU and sat with Amalie. Within seconds, her heart had stopped beating. A male nurse said "She has died now." We sat there for a few minutes, holding her.' [413]
354 Philippa Shipley told the Inquiry:
`... I spoke to Mr Dhasmana in the corridor after Amalie had died, when we were still waiting for my parents at about 7 in the evening, he walked over and said "Amalie would never have been able to run and play like other children, she would not have been as strong as them" and went on to say there was significant evidence that the Fontan operation caused chronic damage to the liver and she may have needed a transplant when she was 13. I should certainly have known about the liver damage prior to that operation and I still cannot understand what was the point of doing the operation if it was not going to improve her quality of life.' [414]
355 Paul Bradley, father of Bethan, told the Inquiry:
`Within a few days [after the death of Bethan] our GP, Dr Hayes, came along to see us at the house, and at that time we just wanted to be left alone; we just wanted to be on our own. But we did appreciate his call to us. He just wanted to make known his sympathy. I think at that particular point, if he offered help, counselling, I am not sure if we were in the right frame of mind to take in what he said. But we do acknowledge his sympathy coming to us ... I think we were of an expectation that something would come to us in a written form, and - we say this with hindsight, but we feel that if it had been done even before Bethan's operation, and I think we are thinking about the counselling role, that if there had been some sort of liaison with us as to what the facilities were that were available, even before the operation had taken place, because at that particular point, after Bethan died, it was so difficult for us to be of sober thinking and of a proper mind, and to have had as a reference point in the house something which had been sent to us, even well before the operation, I think that that might have helped us.' [415]
356 Paul Bradley explained further:
`We did not receive any letter, no appointment was offered to us in writing to go back to the hospital, and we had a terrible ordeal with a series of events, when it seemed as if Bethan had just been forgotten. Bethan before the operation, the day before, she had done some drawings. We asked for these drawings to be returned to us. We were informed they had been thrown away and we were shocked by that. We were very upset by that. We had no meeting with Mr Wisheart until we asked for one and then we had no meeting with Dr Joffe until, again, we asked for one. That was 18 months after the operation. When we asked for the meeting with Dr Joffe, we did that through Helen Vegoda. We expressed our grief that he had not met with us. When Helen Vegoda responded, this was 18 months after the operation, she said she did not know that Bethan had died. We just could not believe this. We could not comprehend how she did not know. We were confident that Dr Joffe did know, but we could not understand why they had not come back and therefore this awful feeling that Bethan had been forgotten, as if she had not existed. We could not understand - it did not make sense with our experience before, when they did seem to be so caring and they did seem to be so concerned.' [416]
357 In his written evidence to the Inquiry, Paul Bradley stated:
`We did not receive the option of any bereavement counselling. No help was offered to us to know how best to cope, discharge and manage grief positively. It would have meant a great deal to us if someone still expressed an interest in Bethan and showed us ways and means of positively remembering Bethan in future years.' [417]
358 Jean Sullivan, mother of Lee, stated:
`Since leaving the ward and Lee to meeting Mr Wisheart, I have had no contact with the hospital whatsoever. Notwithstanding the fact that they knew that I had psychiatric difficulties they never sent anybody to see me and the only contact I did have was a condolence card from the hospital'. [418]
`The lack of aftercare which was shown to me also caused me considerable distress. Had I received some counselling it may have helped me to come to terms with Lee's loss ... I was not given any assistance whatsoever to cope with what had happened and I feel that when I look back on the manner of Lee's death and the dreadful scene which I witnessed I am filled with bitterness.' [419]
360 Lorraine Pentecost told the Inquiry about communication surrounding and immediately after Luke's death:
`I had a telephone call to say something like, Luke was slipping away. I went over to Bristol and when I walked into ITU his cot was empty and they were washing down a mattress. I asked them where he was and the nurse said, "Oh, he has gone, he went a few moments ago" and I said "I know because I felt it." She took me into a side room and she said "If you unwrap him and look at him, you will notice an extra plaster on his heel." I said with everything else I was not going to notice a pinprick. Then she left me and she came back in about 10 minutes later and she showed my dad where we were. About an hour later my husband came over with my mother and we were asked if we wanted a cup of tea. About half an hour after that we left, but we were not rushed, we never saw anybody to rush us.' [420]
361 Lorraine Pentecost stated:
`Nobody had said anything to me. When I was outside the hospital I realised that I did not know what I had to do. I therefore went back to the Intensive Care Unit and asked a doctor who told us that the hospital needed to do a post-mortem to establish why Luke had died. I remember being told to go home and have another baby. I said that a baby was not something you went out to get from a supermarket ... I was sent an appointment card for Luke to have a check up. The date of his examination fell a few days after his funeral.' [421]
362 Sharon Peacock, after the death of her son, Andrew, in 1995, stated that she had meetings with Dr Martin. At one such meeting Helen Vegoda was present. Dr Martin later wrote a letter [422] to Sharon Peacock summarising the meeting. Sharon Peacock told the Inquiry:
`... every time I would see Dr Martin I would come away with more questions because he would answer in such a way that you would come away thinking you had not really got an answer, so I thought by putting them on paper I might have got some.' [423]
363 Other parents told the Inquiry that after the death of their child, not only were they not offered support, but staff appeared anxious for them to leave the hospital.
364 Rosemary Ridette-Jones, mother of Luisa, stated:
`One thing which I felt very strongly about was that we were not supposed to speak to other parents on the general ward. One just didn't speak about the death of one's child.' [424]
365 Karen Meadows, mother of Sarah, stated:
`We went back to the hostel and picked up our stuff. We drove the hundred miles back to Torquay in despair. We felt that once our child had died the hospital ceased to feel that we had any medical needs'. [425]
`Both my wife and I felt under pressure to leave the hospital. We were not given adequate time to mourn, or to be left alone. I felt as if we were on a conveyor belt. One of the nursing staff asked us to clear our room, as it was needed by another family.' [426]
`We were told that we would have to leave the hospital as our presence there would upset other patients and their families.' [427]
368 Responding to these statements, the UBHT set out its policy in its written evidence to the Inquiry:
`... the Trust's policy was for the parents to get home as soon as possible, and for the General Practitioner to be informed of the situation immediately so that appropriate support could be given locally.' [428]
369 Sharon Peacock, however, stated that:
`Since I have lost Andrew, I have received much support from Helen Vegoda ... and Helena Cermakova, the hospital chaplain. Helen helped me to prepare for my meetings with Dr Martin and talked with me about all the questions that I wished to ask. She also helped me with my fertility treatment appointments that I underwent, and would visit me to give support both before and after my operations. Helena and I have meetings often, and I speak to her on the phone regularly. I do not think I could have coped without their help and support. Helena conducted Andrew's funeral service, and has always been very supportive.' [429]
`No member of staff came to see us after Steven died. The only person who had been supportive, the hospital chaplain, was away for the weekend so we did not see her either. She had helped us to organise Steven's baptism and had been supportive for us whilst we were at Bristol. We were touched when she wrote to us to offer her condolences after Steven's death.' [430]
<< previous | next >> | back to top
Footnotes
[410] WIT 0291 0015 Antonio Chiarito
[411] WIT 0291 0022 UBHT
[412] WIT 0458 0013 Rosemary Walker
[413] WIT 0392 0018 Philippa Shipley
[414] T95 p.202-3 Philippa Shipley
[417] WIT 0229 0020 Paul Bradley told the Inquiry that, with Mrs Vegoda, he and his wife produced a booklet entitled `Remembering Your Child' sponsored by the Bethan Amanda Bradley Fund set up in his daughter's name, to assist other parents in knowing how to remember and grieve for their child. See T53 p.38-9 Paul Bradley
[418] WIT 0016 0012 Jean Sullivan
[419] WIT 0016 0014 Jean Sullivan
[420] T95 p.194-5 Lorraine Pentecost
[421] WIT 0267 0014 - 0015 Lorraine Pentecost
[422] MR 0572 0004, 0006; letter from Dr Martin to Sharon Peacock
[424] WIT 0421 0012 Rosemary Ridette-Jones
[425] WIT 0415 0009 Karen Meadows
[426] WIT 0004 0009 Malcolm Curnow
[427] WIT 0392 0020 Philippa Shipley
[428] WIT 0421 0019 UBHT
[429] WIT 0011 0031 Sharon Peacock
[430] WIT 0461 0005 - 0006 Carol Kift