A GRIEVING family who have waited three years for an inquest into the death of a loved one who was not resuscitated at Broomfield hospital have labelled the system "a sham".
Christine Shinwell, 63, died of heart failure in Broomfield Hospital 11 days after being admitted with a fractured knee in November 2009.
Despite having a "long and complex medical history", her husband Colin Green, 50, and daughter, Heidi Coles, believe that the hospital have misled them "at every opportunity" in trying to find out why Mrs Shinwell died.
And after three years of waiting for answers, dozens of Mrs Shinwell's family and friends gathered to hear evidence given at the inquest on Monday.
Mrs Shinwell's heart was in poor condition and she also suffered from renal failure and diabetes, but all of her conditions were managed by medication, the inquest heard.
She was due to be discharged from Broomfield hospital just two days after going into hospital, before suffering chest pains.
The court at County Hall, Chelmsford, heard that her heart was twice the size of a normal one and that resuscitating her may not have helped her.
But the family are furious that they were not informed of this and of Mrs Shinwell's deteriorating condition along the way.
"I said that my wife is a fighter and I would like her to be fully resuscitated and everything possible to be done," Colin told the Chronicle after the inquest.
However, at the inquest on Monday, where six doctors gave evidence, Colin sobbed as he heard that, when his wife fell critically ill in the early hours of the morning of December 4 2009, Dr Anser Qureshi gave the order to not resuscitate her over the telephone, despite not having seen the patient and her notes saying the family wanted her to be resuscitated.
Dr Qureshi said that he gave the order because resuscitating her "was going to be futile".
"I must say that it was an extremely complex case and that it was an extremely difficult decision for me to make because I was not on site," he told the court.
The court also heard that a junior doctor was bleeped by nurses concerned for her welfare eight hours before Mrs Shinwell's death but that they never turned up, something that Coroner Caroline Beasley-Murray said nurses should have chased up.
Mrs Shinwell died at 3.10am on December 4.
But Colin and Heidi claim they arrived at the hospital at 2.50am having received a call from a member of staff, and were told that Mrs Shinwell was still alive and that she was being taken for chest x-rays at 3.30am.
"We were kept away from her for her last moments," said Heidi after the inquest.
"We were in a room two seconds away. We don't know if she was conscious, if she asked for us, if she was in pain. We don't know anything."
The family also claim that Mrs Shinwell was not read The Last Rites, despite being a Roman Catholic.
The cause of death was originally given as pneumonia but an independent pathologist said that Mrs Shinwell died as a result of heart failure, the inquest heard.
Mrs Beasley-Murray said: "Mrs Shinwell was in the end stage of cardiac failure and her death could have come at any time.
"There should have been communication of the terminal nature of Mrs Shinwell's cardiac failure by medical staff earlier in the admission."
A verdict of natural causes was returned.
Afterwards, Colin told the Chronicle: "It's a complete sham. It is just what we were expecting.
"But if there's another husband, or another wife in my position, I would tell them to never stop asking questions."
