Daughter shares heart-breaking tale of how hospital trip turned into a nightmare when her mum hanged herself in A&E
Now Demi Williams, from Lancashire, is desperately trying to get her life back on track without her much-missed mother
A WOMAN whose mum hanged herself in a hospital A&E is struggling to cope with life without her mother and feels she cannot begin to grieve until she knows the tragedy that befell her family will never happen to another.
Demi Williams, from Burnley, Lancashire, told how her mum Jackie battled with depression to the point of becoming suicidal, following the death of her husband’s dad Harry.
She started going missing from the family home and one night, after a passerby found Jackie wandering the streets in distress, she was admitted to hospital.
But rather than receiving one-to-one care from a member of the mental health team, she was left alone as the hospital was drastically understaffed.
In a windowless side room off the A&E ward, Jackie took her own life.
Demi, 22, recalled: “The night my dad called home from the hospital, I could hear my older sister in the background. She was screaming, and a feeling of utter dread washed over me.
“I heard Dad say, ‘Whatever you do – don’t let Demi come to Blackburn Hospital.' He pleaded with the neighbour who was watching over me.
“But I felt like I was on autopilot. Instinctively I knew what had happened. I knew my darling mum had taken her own life. What I didn’t know was how I’d ever recover.”
Growing up, Demi and her brother Reece, now 17, and stepsister Jade, now 25, enjoyed a normal, happy childhood.
Her dad Wayne, 47, a school caretaker, and mum Jackie, 42, a carer, were both devoted to their three children.
Demi told how they enjoyed family summer holidays to Scarborough and loved nothing more than going shopping or for walks with her mum.
When Wayne’s dad Harry, who lived down the road, was diagnosed with cancer, Jackie became his carer.
Demi said: “None of us were surprised – we’d always said she’d do anything for anyone.”
“After a difficult few months, Harry died from skin cancer and throat cancer in August 2013 and Mum really struggled with his death. She was so close to him, it was like he was her own dad.
“His funeral was upsetting for us all, but it wasn’t until a few months later that I noticed how badly Mum had been affected.
“She stopped wanting to come shopping with me and sometimes she’d sit staring at the TV, though I could tell she wasn’t really watching it.”
The following January Demi met her first boyfriend, Alex, 27.
She told how her mum and dad were thrilled as his parents were friends of the family.
Within months they were inseparable and Alex moved in.
But Jackie was still not herself, and in October 2014 her problems escalated quickly.
Demi recalled: “She told me she was struggling with her mood and sometimes felt depressed or even suicidal.
“We were all beside ourselves with worry, but glad she’d opened up about it.”
One night Jackie disappeared from the house for hours.
Her family frantically called the police, telling them she’d confessed to feeling suicidal, and they found her in a river close to the house.
She’d tried to drown herself.
Jackie was prescribed anti-depressants from her GP, but in the weeks that followed she was on such a high dosage that they spaced her out.
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Having never been a big drinker, Jackie started hitting the bottle as a means of dealing with her problems.
In the run-up to Christmas she tried to kill herself again, this time by taking an overdose.
Jade dialled 999 and Jackie was checked over and taken to hospital, but discharged the following morning.
Demi said: “Dad had begged them to keep her in, for her own safety, but they couldn’t see how bad Mum’s situation was.
“She continued to go missing and police would find her and take her to hospital, where doctors would pass her on to the mental health team.
“They’d just give her a leaflet and tell her to go home and to ring the crisis team in the morning.”
In the midst of all this, Alex proposed to Demi.
Despite the happy news, Jackie’s struggle with depression continued.
She was given counselling but Demi said it just seemed to make things more difficult for her as she came home “more upset than she had been before”.
Demi explained: “Dad told me and Jade that Mum was begging them to put her in hospital to section her under the Mental Health Act, and yet each time she was admitted to hospital, she was discharged within 24 hours.
“When she rang me in January 2015 to tell me she was off to her cousin’s house, I couldn’t help but worry.
“I begged, ‘Don’t come back too late and don’t do anything stupid,' but she replied, ‘Don’t worry, I won’t. Just remember I’ll always love you.'”
Shortly after midnight Demi returned home and found her dad pacing the living room.
Her mum hadn’t returned.
Demi said: “While we were trying to work out which cousin she might be with, the phone rang. Dad ran into the kitchen to pick it up and I heard him talking urgently.
“I begged him to tell me what was happening, but he said they wouldn’t say over the phone. I knew in that instant that Mum was in trouble.”
Her dad left for the hospital while Demi waited at home with her brother and their neighbour, Harriet.
Demi explained: “Finally Dad called Harriet’s mobile, but as she tried to hurry from the room so that I wouldn’t hear, I could make out every word.
“I heard Dad say, ‘Jackie’s hung herself.' I started sobbing hysterically. I couldn’t quite believe that Mum had taken her own life.
“They came home a couple of hours later. Dad had tears in his eyes as he said that Mum was supposed to be checked by staff every five minutes.
“Instead, she managed to shut the door behind her and was left alone for 20 minutes.
“Hospital staff found her hanging from the wires of the light fitting at 12:52am.
“Feeling sick, I gripped Dad’s hand as tightly as I could, knowing our lives had been changed permanently.
“I was able to go and say goodbye to Mum the following week in the chapel area of the funeral directors. For the first time in months, she actually looked peaceful.
“I pushed aside the horrifying images that had been flashing through my mind over the past week, as I touched her hair and kissed her goodbye.”
The inquest into Jackie’s death took place in October and a suicide verdict was recorded.
The Royal Blackburn hospital agreed to review its care of high-risk patients, but for Demi and her family, it wasn’t enough.
She explained: “Dad was furious that no-one had been held to account.
“He still says now, ‘Your mum would still be here if they hadn’t left her in that room.’
“It took some strength for Mum to come out and tell the family that she felt suicidal. It breaks my heart to think that hospital staff hadn’t heard her cries for help as loudly as we had.
“I can still feel Mum around me and I’m comforted to know that all the pain she was suffering has disappeared, but it’s so difficult to imagine life without her by my side.
“I’ve had to have my engagement ring re-sized three times since Mum’s death as I’ve struggled to eat properly and it keeps falling off my finger.
“I’m glad we have something to look forward to, but setting a wedding date doesn’t feel right while the whole family is in limbo.
“We need to know how this happened. If someone is ill and considering suicide, we need to take them seriously and give them the help they’re asking for, so we can avoid another tragic loss of life.”
In a joint statement, East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust and Lancashire Care NHS Foundation Trust said a full investigation had taken place, and that "changes have now been made to ensure that we keep patients as safe as possible in A&E before they are referred on to receive the care that is the most appropriate for them."
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