| Pensioner Gladys Storrier (75) was one of five patients who died in Ninewells Hospital after contracting the deadly infection.
She passed away on Friday, a week after she was diagnosed with the infection.
She had been admitted to ward 31 on October 19 for treatment to her bowel.
Her daughter Gwen Storrier, of Sandeman Street, said she believed her mother contracted the infection in the hospital.
She said the family was not told there was C.diff in the ward, despite it already being known by the health authority that the infection was present.
“My mum went in with a hole in her bowel and they were treating that and trying various alternatives including a colostomy bag,” Ms Storrier said.
“We knew it was going to be a long process, but then she contracted the bug. She died on November 6 and there had been two deaths the weekend before that. They had been in separate, single rooms in the ward to keep them away from the other patients.
“The death certificate said she died of pneumonia first, the hole in her bowel second then the bug third.”
Gwen said she had no issue with the clinical care her mother received in the ward, saying, “The doctors gave her good care and attention.”
However, she said, she felt her mother had been let down by NHS Tayside by being admitted to the ward in the first place.
“They took the tubes out on October 30 and the next day, on Hallowe’en, they told us, ‘Your mother’s going to die’.
“They stopped giving her antibiotics then, but she didn’t take her last breath until a week after that.
“Someone made that decision that they wouldn’t need to use the tubes or give her antibiotics.
“A nurse told me she would have lived a lot longer if they kept her tubes in and kept up the treatment.
“I feel she would have lived for months, she was a fighter and she fought every illness she had, including liver and kidney failure.
“If we’d have known that bug was in that ward seven weeks before she went in we could have made a decision on that.
“They didn’t even tell us it was in the ward, they only told us when she contracted it and then she died.”
A spokesperson from NHS Tayside said, “Ms Storrier raises a number of issues about the care of her mother that are not related to infection control.
“Given the nature of her concerns we will contact Ms Storrier to discuss and reassure her on the clinical care her mother received.” |
