"a full investigation"

It’s been an angry and boring couple of days, finding time to do a letter of reply to the Hospital, which is never going to change anyone’s mind or get any kind of result. I’m having difficulty keeping anger out of it, to keep it rational, sensible and objective because I know that the professionals I’m dealing with are looking for an opportunity to dismiss me (crank, nutter), so got to keep my cool.

I know I’m not alone I’ve got contact with others going through the same process, same hospital.

If I did nothing and then ended up reading an article like this one, I don’t think I could live with myself;

 

Mail online 22/11/2010.

 

A former NHS care worker died after doctors repeatedly failed to diagnose the cancer that killed her, despite dozens of visits to her GP and local hospital.

 

Maria Capuano, 65, had been repeatedly diagnosed with minor digestive ailments such as indigestion, despite complaining of severe stomach pains for three years.

Mrs Capuano's family claim she was 'fobbed off' by medics on numerous occasions before tests this summer revealed she was suffering from stomach cancer which by then had spread to her liver.

Maria Capuano was seen at St Peter's Hospital in Chertsey 'at least 30 times' her family said but the stomach cancer that killed her was not detected early enough

Mrs Capuano, a mother of four and grandmother of five, died eight weeks later. Her family, including widower Giovanni, 70, are devastated.

Today her son Claudio, 40, hit out at doctors who he claims failed to carry out simple tests that would have picked up the tumour before it was too late.

'My mother would still be alive today if they had taken her seriously,' he said.

'They have let our family down.'

He told the Evening Standard that Mrs Capuano, a former hospital carer who lived in Woking, visited the accident and emergency ward at St Peter’s Hospital in Chertsey 'at least 30 times', and her GP on numerous occasions.

'She kept getting turned away and fobbed off with various medical conditions like gastritis and indigestion,' he explained.

 'She knew there was something wrong and kept going back but they never carried out the appropriate tests in the early stages,' he said.

'We felt cheated that she wasn’t diagnosed earlier. They could have saved her.'

Hospital bosses promised a thorough inquiry.

 Dr Mike Baxter, medical director at the Ashford and St Peter’s Hospitals NHS Trust, said: “We have immediately begun a full investigation into Mrs Capuano’s treatment and care here and will of course share the full results with her family.”