The husband of a woman who died from a cardiac arrest after a bungling doctor misdiagnosed her with HEARTBURN has received a payout from the NHS.
Brian Kinsey, 77, rang NHS Direct after wife Patricia, 68, returned from work complaining of chest pains on December 28, 2011.
Shockingly, an out-of-hours GP wrongly diagnosed her as having gastroenteritis or acid reflux and told Brian to go out and buy antacids and paracetamol.
But when he returned he found his wife – known as Ann – unconscious on the bed at their home in Wolverhampton.
He dialled 999 and paramedics spent an hour trying to resuscitate her before taking her to the city’s New Cross Hospital where she later died.
Dad-of-one Brian has now won an undisclosed settlement from NHS Direct Trust after they admitted a breach of duty in failing to provide correct advice and treatment.
But the trust denied that this would have prevented the death of the supermarket worker.
Yesterday (Thurs), ex-customer services worker Brian, a grandad-of-two, said: “Nothing can bring Ann back but it was very important to me that NHS Direct acknowledged its mistakes so that no one else would suffer as she did.
“Ann loved life. She worked on the checkout at Waitrose well past her retirement age because she just loved to be around people.
“We did dream of one day moving closer to our daughter and grandchildren in Surrey, something I have now had to do alone.
“Even then nothing could have stopped Ann working. She just loved to be busy.
“If an ambulance had been dispatched that night it may not have stopped her going into cardiac arrest, but at least she would have been in the best possible hands and at least stood a chance of living.
“I miss her every day.”
Sara Burns, medical negligence lawyer at Irwin Mitchell, who represented the family, said: “The public relies on the expertise of those operating the NHS 111 service to ensure they get the correct advice or treatment.
“In this case, Ann did not receive either the right diagnosis or the correct response until it was too late.
“It is a source of great distress to her husband that he will never know if she could have been saved had she already been at hospital when she went into cardiac arrest.
“He now hopes that lessons have been learned from Ann’s death so that no other family has to suffer a loss in the same way.”
The NHS Direct service was disbanded in March 2014 and replaced by the NHS 111 non-emergency number.
