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Gross negligence suspected at private hospital

After her mother suddenly died in ICU, a Fin24 user asks why we pay so much for private hospital care in the expectation of being well looked after. She writes:

I am finding the articles and debate on the high cost of private health care more and more interesting after my recent experience.

READ: Debate on high private hospital costs hots up

My - now late - mother went into a private hospital on July 17 to have a simple procedure, which went well.

She was recovering in the general ward just fine and a close friend of hers and I were with her for three hours after her operation. During this time she was awake, talking and joking with us and doing well.

We left her that night, expecting to see her much better the next day. Just before 13:00 the next day I received a phone call from the doctor saying my mother was in ICU and was found unresponsive that morning by the morning nurses.

I raced through to the hospital to find my mother in ICU on a ventilator and multiple medications.

No one could explain what happened to her overnight. All they could say was that she had some blood in her stomach when she was found and was already unresponsive. They tried to resuscitate her a couple times.

She lay in ICU for three days, never responding and brain-dead. Her organs were shutting down when I eventually told them to stop the medication and said goodbye.

I suspect gross negligence by the night shift nursing staff of the hospital, as their accounts for the evening make no sense. In my mind, it proves that no one bothered to monitor her overnight.

READ: Behind the scenes in ICU

They claimed their blood pressure machine wasn't working all night and they were fine with that, which I find unacceptable. My mother was only found at 07:45 the next morning by the day staff, 45 minutes after the shift changeover.

My mother was a healthy 44 year old woman, who is now gone due to gross negligence. I am left with no answers at this point of the cause of death, nor can anyone tell me exactly what happened during that evening after I left her, awake and talking.

My heart breaks that you pay so much for a service, expecting to be well looked after by nurses who just don't care anymore and have no remorse for the fact that I now face life without my mother and with no warning that she would be gone so soon.

This incident and many others have left me and so many people petrified of having to check into hospital, because you never know whether you're actually going to make it out alive to your loved ones.

ALSO READ: Two sides to private hospital care

- Fin24

Disclaimer: All articles and letters published on MyFin24 have been independently written by members of the Fin24 community. The views of users published on Fin24 are therefore their own and do not necessarily represent those of Fin24.

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