I need water, I'm dying... - Tragic patient's agonised cry for help as doctors ignored her

By Rebecca Camber

Kathleen Doherty bled to death after doctors were too busy to assess her

A woman bled to death following a routine NHS operation after doctors said they were too busy to assess her.

Kathleen Doherty, 29, screamed for help after a procedure to remove gallstones, crying: 'I need water, I'm dying.'

But doctors ignored her pleas and she died in agony hours later after medics failed to examine her in a catalogue of blunders, an inquest heard yesterday.

Coroner Dr James Adeley criticised hospital doctors yesterday for 'serious and repeated failures'.

He said the death of the social worker could have been prevented if doctors at Royal Preston Hospital had checked her condition.

Her mother Frances, 64, a former psychiatric nurse, begged nurses and doctors for help as Miss Doherty complained of increasing pains in her stomach, sickness, feeling clammy and headaches after the operation.

But they were told by one doctor standing at their daughter's bedside that he was too busy to check on her because he was responsible for 100 patients that evening.

Shortly afterwards, Miss Doherty started thrashing around on the bed, screaming: 'I can't cope. I can't cope.'

But the newly qualified physician on the ward, Simon Hughes, decided she did not need a review.

Miss Doherty died five hours later after massive internal bleeding.

Her parents now plan to sue for negligence after Preston Coroner's Court heard how a series of failures in her care caused her death.

Delivering a narrative verdict, Dr Adeley said: 'Her preventable death was caused by a slow postoperative bleed which was not diagnosed by the clinical staff caring for her due to continually poor post-operative monitoring and record keeping, serious and repeated failures in communication and delegation between clinical staff, poor judgment in the diagnosis of possible post operative haemorrhage and the gross failure to undertake any effective examination of Miss Doherty despite repeated requests to do so.

'In this case it is quite clear there has been no senior supervision of the nursing or the medical staff which has resulted in a set of very substandard records. This is a sad death which could have been prevented.'

Speaking after the inquest, her brother Michael, 41, said: 'Nothing will ever compensate mum and dad's loss of a daughter or mine of a sister and we are taking legal action to ensure that no other family has to endure the pain we have gone through.

'If they had followed the correct procedure and given the level of care anyone would have expected, Kathleen would still be alive today.' Miss Doherty had just got a job as a social worker and moved in to her first house near her parents' home in Preston when she fell ill.

'Catalogue of errors': Royal Preston Hospital

Complaining of abdominal pains, she was admitted to hospital with suspected gallstones.

After tests she was allowed home but was readmitted days later as her pain worsened.

She was admitted on March 16, 2006, to remove the stones, but afterwards her family noticed that she looked pale and was clammy.

The inquest heard how staff failed to keep a note of Miss Doherty's blood pressure and observations were not carried out.

Dr Hughes asked the patient what was wrong, but he dismissed her as a 'low priority'.

When Mrs Doherty asked Dr Hughes to take a look at her daughter's vital signs chart at the bottom of the bed he refused saying he 'was too busy'.

Dr Hughes saw Miss Doherty again, but he did not examine her because he was 'partly too busy and partly that she didn't require a review', the inquest heard.

At 9.30pm nursing staff found Miss Doherty had no pulse and she could not be resuscitated. A postmortem examination discovered that she had slowly bled to death over five hours.

Dr Adeley said throughout postoperative care there were 'failings in communication' and 'poor recordkeeping' with 'no one accepting responsibility for her care'.

Yesterday the family's solicitor, Laura Morgan of Manchester law firm Pannone, said: 'Kathleen's parents, family and friends have been devastated by her death.

'What should have been a routine operation turned into a catalogue of errors resulting in the death of someone who was obviously loved and respected both personally and professionally.

'The conclusions of the inquest are damning and we will be pursuing our actions against the hospital on the family's behalf.'

Alastair Campbell, medical director of Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said: 'The Trust would like to express its sincere condolences to the family of Kathleen Doherty and its regret at the circumstances leading to her sad death.'

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