Neglect contributed to mother’s death at Worthing Hospital

An inquest into the death of 64-year-old Krista Wild, of Fairlands, East Preston was concluded at County Hall North in Horsham on September 18.

Last week the Herald reported how hospital bosses admitted a string of errors after Mrs Wild was admitted to A&E at Worthing Hospital on December 14, 2014, with liver cirrhosis and an infection in her leg.

But she did not receive her prescribed antibiotics on the second day of her stay in hospital, and was not reviewed by a doctor at all on December 16.

Mrs Wild suffered a cardiac arrest the next day and died in hospital.

Speaking on September 10, Dr Rob Haigh, chief of medicine at Western Sussex Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said: “The overall documentation of Krista’s care fell short. I do believe that the systemic and repeated failures were completely unacceptable.”

Ms Bussey-Jones, who adjourned the inquest until Septmeber 18, added: “You can’t predict what the precise outcome would have been but having heard from both doctors, on the balance of probability, they would have expected Krista to have recovered.

“Her death was contributed to by neglect.”

However, Ms Bussey-Jones said she would not make a Prevention of Future Deaths report, as the hospitals had taken a ‘very proactive’ role, putting action plans in place to prevent the same problem happening to other patients.

She thanked Worthing Hospital and the trust for it’s ‘enormous’ amount of cooperation and Krista’s family for their ‘bravery and dignity’ during the inquest.

Dr George Findlay, Medical Director at Western Sussex Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said: “We extend our condolences and apologise again to Mrs Wild’s family at this difficult time.

“As the coroner acknowledged, we undertook an open, honest and thorough investigation into the circumstances leading up to Mrs Wild’s death and have made significant changes to improve the quality of care we provide, particularly at very busy times.”

The changes include increasing the number of beds available and investing in electronic prescribing and patient monitoring equipment.

Mother’s care at Worthing Hospital ‘completely unacceptable’

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