Ignored and left to die family’s fury at the NHS

“We begged them to listen. If only they’d got a doctor Sean would have lived.”

Imagine a member of your family was seriously ill and you couldn’t get medical staff to listen to you.

Feeling ignored. Begging professionals to listen and take your concerns seriously but feeling stonewalled.

Isobel and Alex Bonnar claim this is the nightmare they faced when their much-loved nephew Sean Dougan was admitted to Glasgow’s Victoria Infirmary in May.

Sean, who had hydrocephalus, cerebral palsy and mild epilepsy and was in a wheelchair, was like a son to Isobel and Alex. His mum died when he was eight. His dad is in a care home because of a genetic condition that causes multiple strokes.

Until last January, Sean lived with Isobel’s mum. When she passed away, Isobel and Alex stepped in to care for Sean without a second thought.

When he was first admitted to hospital, Isobel and Alex weren’t unduly worried. But as his condition worsened they grew increasingly concerned and claim they repeatedly alerted staff that something was seriously wrong. Two days later Sean passed away. And his family are heartbroken by what they believe is his unnecessary death.

Isobel and Alex say they repeatedly “begged” one nurse in particular to get a doctor for Sean as his condition deteriorated. They claim she told them: “I’m in charge now. If I think he needs a doctor, I’ll get him a doctor.”

Finding out Sean had passed away was a huge shock Isobel still struggles to take in. Given that he had a shunt in his brain to drain fluids and had hydrocephalus, he was no stranger to hospitals. But “never in a million years” did she expect him to die. An early morning phone call from the hospital shattered that expectation.

“It was about six o’clock on the Saturday. I was asked to come in as Sean had taken a turn for the worse,” Isobel says.

Isobel, 60, was staying at her mum’s house, where she’d been looking after Sean while waiting for her own house to be renovated.

“I phoned Alex and we got a taxi straight down to the hospital,” she says. “The nurse took us into a wee room and asked us to wait until the doctor came and then said Sean was ‘away’.”

Isobel misheard and believed Sean had been taken to the Southern General Hospital to have his shunt checked.

She went to Sean’s room and found he was still there, not realising he had passed away.

“I was trying to wake him up. I was trying to open his eyes,” she says. “He had the most beautiful blue grey eyes. And they were half open.

“I thought I could wake him because people go into comas. And I thought maybe he’ll wake up because he knows it’s me.

“I was shaking him and saying ‘Sean, it’s me’, I thought I’d see a smile. Because when he saw you, he always smiled.”

Isobel, from Thornliebank, was heartbroken when she realised Sean had passed away. And it has left her and Alex going over his death again and again.

She believes if hospital staff had acted upon their concerns, Sean would still be here today. And she is fighting for answers.

“When I went into the room on that Saturday morning, he was lying on his left side, which was the only hand he could use. If that’s the way he was lying he couldn’t press the buzzer to get help,” Isobel claims.

Isobel recalls the Wednesday Sean fell ill.

“He was a bit sick, but it was nothing. On Thursday he still wasn’t right, he had mild sickness and diarrhoea, and I called our GP who came out right away. She was concerned and sent him to hospital.”

On arrival, Sean’s heart was tested. Isobel says he kept complaining of a headache. “We saw a doctor who said ‘we’ll get him a scan’. It never happened,” Isobel says.

Instead, Sean was taken to a ward. By this time Isobel says Sean’s condition had deteriorated.

“He was virtually comatose. I was so worried. He was put in a side room and I went to the nurses’ station to say how concerned I was. I don’t think they listened.”

Alex adds: “He had epilepsy and they stuck him in the room with no monitors.”

Isobel received a phonecall from the hospital on Friday to say Sean was getting home the next day. She was surprised.

“I thought he must be fine. Maybe the fluids bucked him up.”

But when they visited Sean that day they found him to be “totally listless”. Isobel says he was still mentioning a headache and that there was something wrong with his shunt. The nurse on duty fetched him paracetamol.

Isobel and Alex approached the same nurse who’d told them she would decide if Sean needed a doctor and say they begged her for help during a 15-minute discussion, yet they claim the nurse never once checked Sean.

“I told her ‘You just can’t send him home in that state’,” Isobel says.

Isobel commented to a nurse: “When they see a wheelchair, they don’t see him”. Isobel alleges the nurse’s reply was: “You don’t need to be in a wheelchair to get ignored in here.”

By this time, Isobel says she had a gut feeling Sean was seriously ill.

“I just knew,” she says. “And maybe he knew, too. He was holding my hand and kissing it, saying he loved me. When we were leaving he asked us to come back later. I told him it was night time. When I think that was his last night . . .

“We were begging them to do something. But never in a million years did I think he’d die.”

Isobel and Alex left the hospital and went for a coffee nearby. Alex wanted to go back and insist that a doctor should see him. It’s to Isobel’s great regret that she stopped him.

“I’m so stupid, but I said no to him,” she says. “I thought if he started an argument, they’d bring the police in. So I said I’d phone as soon as I got home.”

Isobel phoned just after 10 pm and says she again told the nurse she was concerned Sean’s shunt was causing his problems.

Isobel alleges the nurse replied: “We don’t deal with shunts in here. And if you’re not happy, come and take him to the Southern General [Hospital].”

The next morning Isobel got the early morning call that shattered her world.

“I stayed with Sean for two hours,” she says. “I couldn’t believe it and kept trying to wake him.”

Isobel and Alex complained about Sean’s treatment in Victoria Infirmary. The feel they were treated “disgracefully”.

“Our GP was 10 out of 10. As soon as Sean got to the Victoria Infirmary, it went right downhill. I wouldn’t even give them 1 out of 10. The nurse who wouldn’t listen and get a doctor should be up on a charge,” says Alex, 58.

Isobel and Alex have now received responses to the letter of complaint that Alex wrote about Sean’s treatment. NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde have acknowledged Isobel spoke to nursing staff about her concerns over Sean’s health and that she felt “anxious and concerned”.

Isobel and Alex are grieving. But they admit they’re angry, too.

“I owe it to Sean to get justice,” Isobel says. “His poor wee life was hard enough. This could save someone else’s life. I’m not letting this go.”

A Crown Office spokesperson said: “The Procurator Fiscal has received a report in connection with the death of a 21-year-old man at Glasgow Victoria Infirmary on May 18, 2013.

“The investigation into the death, under the direction of Scottish Fatalities Investigation Unit is ongoing and the family will continue to be kept updated in relation to any significant developments.”

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said in response to the Bonnar’s allegations: “We would like to take the opportunity again to offer our sincere condolences to the family for their sad loss and to reassure them that we have fully investigated the concerns they have raised regarding their loved one’s care.

“Whilst we cannot go into the details of this case, in our written responses to the family we have provided a detailed response to each of the points they have raised. We are sorry that they continue to have concerns and would urge them to take up our offer of a meeting with clinical staff to discuss these.”