Mary Lamerton, 86, died in A&E on New Year’s Day
Mary Lamerton was a joyous person who always saw the funny side of life.
She was the type of person who made sure her family remembered each other’s birthdays.
Daughter Sue described her mother as the “lynchpin” of the family.
She recounted how Mary spent the last four days of her life on a trolley in A&E after getting in touch via Your Voice, Your BBC News.
Mary had a fall on 29 December and was taken into the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton.
She was placed in a side-room – which Sue described as “nothing more than a glorified cupboard” – as she had flu and staff wanted to reduce the risk of infection.
This is where Mary stayed until the end of her life. She died on New Year’s Day.
Family handout
Mary spent the final days of her life on a trolley because a bed was not available
Stories like hers are playing out in hospitals across the country as the NHS battles intense winter pressures – which health service bosses have said are as bad in accident and emergency departments as during the Covid-19 pandemic.
With flu cases continuing to rise and the cold weather exasperating health conditions, NHS England medical director Prof Sir Stephen Powis has warned hospitals are under “exceptional pressure” and facing “mammoth demand”.
Earlier this week the BBC was observing doctors on a ward at Warwick Hospital when one of those critical incidents was declared. Patients had to be treated in chairs and some were left waiting for hours in ambulances because the number of people arriving was so high.
Sue remembers what she saw when she first entered A&E in Brighton.
“I almost took a step backwards,” the 67-year-old said.
“I had to take a deep breath because I was so shocked. There were just rows and rows of mostly elderly, grey, scared looking people.”
Mary was on a priority list for a bed for nearly two days but there was “no chance” of getting one.
In the last 12 hours of her life, she received palliative care in the form of drugs while still lying on a trolley.
Sue said: “People shouldn’t have palliative care like that. I’m just appalled really.”
BBC News
Sue Lamerton said her mother was the lynchpin of the family
Flu cases have continued to rise in recent weeks, with the average number of patients with the virus in hospitals in England topping 5,400 a day last week – about 1,000 higher than a week before.
About 20 NHS trusts in England have declared critical incidents this week.
As a retired NHS psychiatrist, Sue has sympathy for the people working in the hospital environment she witnessed.
“I could see that the staff couldn’t really do very much,” she told BBC News.
“I kind of felt ashamed. It was just an awful mess and chaos. I don’t know how the staff manage to work like that day-in-day out. It must be really, really hard.
“The staff seemed so demoralised, most really did their best. The staff seemed to have either shut down or were really upset.”
Sue does not think that a place on a ward would have saved her mum’s life – but, she added: “What would have happened is she would have had a more dignified and appropriate death”.
A spokeswoman for University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust said they “deeply regret that we were unable to care for her with the privacy and dignity she deserved at the end of her life”.
Chief Nurse Dr Maggie Davies added that emergency department teams “are working incredibly hard under huge pressure” and said efforts are under way “to reduce the numbers of people coming into our A&Es and to enable patients to leave hospital sooner”.
Family handout
Mary with husband Ron, who died in 2016