My father whom only had one lung was taken into hospital for being slightly confused, there did not seem to be anything wrong with his breathing , on the Friday evening He asked a nurse for oxygen he had done this a few times throughout his stay but had never received any as he did not need it , when we left on Friday evening he was fine when we returned the following afternoon he was unresponsive with a oxygen mask on , my niece whom is a nurse noticed my father was on full flow oxygen she said this was not right as he only had one lung and went to get a nurse someone came and appoligesed and turned his oxygen down to half flow when the doctor eventually arrived he did a blood gas and then asked us to leave as they were going to de- bag my father to try to get the o2 of his lung sadly this did not work, my father came round three time throughout the night each time complaining of chest pain he was given pain relief each time sadly my father passed away the next morning as a family to say we were in shock is a understatement . Postmortem revealed my father passed away with respartury failure as a family we suspect that this happened because he was given full flow oxygen .
As anyone else got any more information on this thanks for taking time to read .
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Sharonhugs
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Thanks Jeff will take a look , told the corner what happend and he's taking it to an inquest so hopefully we will get some answers , but from what I was informed this could be months of so just trying to get some info now that may give us a little clarity .
Thanks, the hospital staff were hopeless all the time my father was in there care, no communication between nurses doctors or us, the nurses were treating my father for enceperlitase a infection on the brain even though the doctor had informed us that the test for this had come back clear but the nurses carried on with the treatment , it seemed that no one knew what the other was doing , my fathers health seemed fine apart from the confusion and if it wasn't for our Elissa who is a nurse we would have not known that being on full flow oxygen would cause a problem.
Not sure just need answers as to what happened it was a Saturday so staffing levels were low and we know it was another six hrs before a doctor came to see my father again after the full flow inccedent and that's when the doctor asked us to leave so as he could de-bag .
This is a terrible shock for you and your family Sharon and im so sorry you have to go through this. My advice would be go with your gut instinct if you feel things aren't right DO NOT be afraid to ask questions, if there is nothing to hide no one will have a problem answering them. If you don't it will always niggle at you.
Thanks for your thoughts and yes I am taking it further this won't bring my father back sadly but if lessons are learned and no one else goes through what my father did and a family doesn't have to grieve as we have then this would be one good thing out of a lot of bad.
Hi I too am very sorry to hear of the loss of your father. I don't know much about oxygen but have heard from others on here that too much can cause CO2 retention which could be a problem. I could be wrong but am sure others will be in tomorrow to help with your question. x
So sorry for your loss Sharon. Circumstances surroundings death must material much more difficult, and hope you get to the bottom of it eventually. Condolences to you and your family xx
Thanks everyone for your thoughts, from what I know about my fathers health he had a lung removed over 15 yrs ago due to cancer it was on his lower lobe but sadly they had to remove the full lung due to the condition of his lung the surgeon said it wasn't holding when they tried to stitch it, my father adjusted over the coming months as did his body as what he could do and he lived a quite normal life , fast forward to this year he was ok but had started to slow down more and was tired ,he was sent for a scan on his chest and the doctor told him that his lung wasn't great but this wasn't causing him to be tired, so he was sent for other tests and scans all of which came back ok.
He went away with friends for a few days to his boat as he loved going fishing , when he came home that's when we noticed his confusion hence that's how he ended up in hospital .
From what I have read up on since my fathers death everything seems to be pointing towards giving to much oxygen can cause death , my fathers condition when we arrived was that he was unresponsive to us was on full flow oxygen then the de- bag to try to remove the bad co2 then my father coming to complaining of terrible pain in his chest and finally death .
I'm not sleeping to well keep having dreams about what went wrong , can't seem to get out of my mind if we had brought my father home on the tue that week as I wanted to but the rest of the family wanted him to stay in until we had found out what was causing his confusion, he would still be here with us . X
So sorry about your father's death. It is very hard to bear particularly as it seems to have been preventable.
I have given some thought to your predicament.
First I think you need to think about and be very clear about what outcome you want. What do you and your family want from this horrible situation?
An apology from the hospital and an investigation about what happened and an explanation, perhaps?
Often when things like this happen we tend to think that it is a one-off event. But from what I have read over the past few years they rarely are. I posted some time back about James Titcombe's book: 'Joshua's Story'. In it he describes the death of his baby son and the difficulties he had in getting information. It was his insistence on an inquest that began the unravelling of the plot. So I do not understand why JeffAjaxSmith is negative about the coroner's involvement. James Titcombe discovered that the death of his son was just part of a pattern: eleven babies had died in the unit and three mothers. It may be that there are other cases similar to your father's and your pushing for an understanding may well help those in the future.
Some ideas that you may wish to pursue:
Contact the PALS group in the hospital.
Contact the Chief Executive Officer at the hospital, directly.
Ask for all the records, notes, correspondence and test results for your father's case.
A complaint may be handled by the Clinical Commissioning Group in your area, they will have a complaints officer and a procedure. In some areas support for those going through a complaints process is handled by the local Citizens Advice Bureau.
Contact the Patients Association, and excellent charity, been going for half a century, with a help line for cases exactly like your father's.
It is probably still all too raw and real. So I hope you don't feel that I am jumping the gun. But when faced with frustration and the understandable anger you must all be feeling, sometimes a bit of action can help.
Katinka's reply is really good, clear and to the point. I would be inclined to contact the Patients Association. I am sure they will be the right people to help you get answers.
My deepest condolences to you on the very sad and unexpected loss of your father. I hope very much you will get the answers you seek.
Thankyou will look into what you said , what I would really like (but I know it won't happen) is to be able to speak to the the person or persons responsible for putting my father on the full flow oxygen as we know this was a bad error or lack of knolidge on their part and yes an apology from them would be nice but mainly to let them see what there mistake has done to my family and myself , i know it won't bring my father back but if it helps to stop this happening again to someone else then maybe I can then rest easy and I know my father didn't die for nothing . Thanks again for caring and taking time to reply. X
You may be able to get what you want. There have been huge changes and developments in accountability and transparency since the scandal at Mid Staffs Hospital. And, don't forget, it was one woman, the daughter of a patient, who got that ball rolling.
It should be possible to get a meeting at least with the nurse's line manager. Matron? This may be achieved by going through PALS, Patient Avice and Laiason Service. They can be good.
I can't add to what everyone's said and all the advice and suggestions for you to take this forward. I do hope you find answers and some peace, and I'm so sorry for your loss. Your grief must feel unbearable and very raw.
Once again thanks to every one your thoughts and wishes mean a lot to us, be reassured I will not stop until I find out what happened to my father if only to prevent this happening to someone else. Xxxx
I am so very sorry for you, losing your father is bad enough but in such awful circumstances makes it so much worse. There have been some very useful suggestions & I cannot add to them but know from personal experience that some nurses & particularly health care workers can see full flow oxygen as a cure all. I hope you get some resolution, it won't bring back your beloved Dad but may set your mind at rest a little. Don't blame yourself or other members of your family, it was the "experts" & their failings that let you all down so badly. Penny xxx
I'm so sorry for the loss of your Dad , may he rest in peace and I hope and pray you get some answers.When we are at the mercy of the medical professionals we are so vulnerable. I'm so glad he enjoyed some time on his boat , I was thinking perhaps you could pick up some clues as to his confusion there? It is terrible for you to be left with so much unexplained and I feel so sad for you. Wishing you peace and love, huff xxx
I'm so sorry to hear about your dad's passing I truly am I only have one lung and I'm on oxygen 18 hours a day. (I hade Non Small Cell Lung Cancer in my right lung 16 years ago and had to have it removed - I'm so lucky to still be alive 16 years on) I, like your dad, am what they call a 'CO2 Retainer' I have to be very careful not to have too much O2 as this can prove fatal for me (This is especially important if I go into hospital because at home, I can manage my own O2 but in hospital I may be given too much because the staff may not understand) My Respiratory Nurse is arranging for me to have an emergency card endorsing my me being a 'CO2 Retainer' to show to medical staff explaining the dangers of giving me too much O2 I'm sorry this information is too late for your dad but I hope it may help other people who read this. I am truly sorry for your loss and wish you well and very best wishes
I'm sorry you went through what my father went through having lung cancer like you my father was lucky and the cancer had not spread so he had his lung out and was given the all clear, unlike you though my dad never needed oxygen his breathing was very bad at times but not that bad that he needed extra co2 so he was lucky in that respect, from what I have read your body adapts to less oxygen so if you are given full oxygen this can cause serious problems we know this did happen to my father and from what I've read and heard this was what may have caused his death.
Thanks for your thoughts and here's wishing you stay well for many years to come.
Hi everyone just a quick update on we're things are re my fathers death , a date for the inquest as been set for 30th Jan and we have just received my fathers health records from the hospital, it makes interesting reading they did a blood gas on him two days before and it shows he was retaining co2 , this is what I had suspected all along but we now have it confirmed I do believe now this was what was causing his confusion ( the reason why he had been admitted into hospital ) what I will be asking them is why they did not try to remove the co2 from him ? I believe that by someone placing my father on o2 they have caused the death of my father .
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