Family’s fury as dying gran, 71, is released from hospital with maggots in open wound
Hospice staff made shock discovery after Sylvia Kennedy was transferred from Royal Oldham Hospital where she had undergone an amputation
A FAMILY have spoken of their horror after a dying grandmother was released from an intensive care unit with maggots in an open wound.
Hospice staff made the shocking discovery after Sylvia Kennedy, 71, was transferred from the Royal Oldham Hospital.
Sylvia, from Manchester, had been admitted to the hospital to have an emergency amputation after developing a clot in one of her legs in June 2015.
She was taken to intensive care to recover from the surgery, but Sylvia’s partner, John Farrell, and family were warned she would not survive.
As the mum of five’s condition rapidly deteriorated over two weeks, it was decided that Sylvia should be transferred to a hospice.
After being admitted to Dr Kershaw’s Hospice in Oldham, Gtr Manchester, staff found the maggots beneath a dressing on Sylvia’s foot.
Sylvia’s daughter, Anita Woolstencroft, added: “We were absolutely devastated.
“My mum had gone over to the hospice to die in comfort and with dignity.
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“It was very upsetting for us to know that she had been lying in a hospital bed for days with maggots in her foot and that no one had noticed.
“As soon as the hospital told us they couldn’t do any more for her, it was like they gave up on her. They were just waiting for a bed to become available at the hospice.
“It’s traumatic enough to be told your mum is dying, but the maggots made it so much worse.”
Sylvia’s family immediately contacted staff at the Royal Oldham Hospital who then launched an investigation into the incident.
Hospital bosses have now told Anita and her sister Debra Roberts that a window had been left open on the ICU, allowing a fly to land on Sylvia’s wound and lay eggs.
“What we want is to make sure this doesn’t happen to someone else’s relative,” added Anita.
“Our mum had us to fight for her but what about elderly patients with no one to stand up for them? It can’t happen again.”
Anita said the family received an apology from the head of the intensive care unit saying that Sylvia’s care had fallen below the expected standard.
Sylvia passed away in the hospice on July 9, 2015, aged 72.
A spokesman for the Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust reiterated their apology when approached by the M.E.N and said they had learned lessons from the case.
Jill Byrne, deputy chief nurse at The Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, said: “I would like to apologise to the family of Sylvia Kennedy for the very difficult ordeal they must have experienced in the last days of her life and to express my sympathy for their loss in July last year.
“The Trust has been making every effort to contact the family today and I will be meeting with them to listen to what they have to say and to discuss how we as a Trust will be dealing with this matter going forward.”
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