Northampton General Hospital: Man, 85, 'died due to overcrowding'

[Northerner]

An 85-year-old man died while waiting in an accident and emergency unit because of "dangerous overcrowding", a hospital boss has said.

An email leaked from Northampton General Hospital NHS Trust to the Health Service Journal said the patient died after going to A&E with stomach pain on Wednesday afternoon.

He died after suffering a cardiac arrest early on Thursday morning.

The hospital said the long wait for treatment was "unacceptable".

The man was initially seen and assessed within an hour, and was waiting on a chair to be seen by senior staff after a blood test suggested he may have had heart problems.

But he deteriorated and suffered a cardiac arrest.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-northamptonshire-43349116

 

[Mark Parrott]

That is terrible. So sad.

 

[mikeyB]

So, he presents with abdominal pain. Not chest pain. He is sitting in a chair after being assessed. It’s unlucky, but if anyone with psychic powers were available, they would have been able to say that man is about to have a cardiac arrest. It’s not predictable no matter what tests were done.

Still, you can’t say any of that because on the face of it, it’s a good story.

As a footnote, if I were to have a cardiac arrest, I’d rather it happened in A&E than on a ward, there’s better kit, and doctors experienced in emergency care.

 

[Ralph-YK]

When you have a heart attach there is an enzyme in your blood that goes up.

seen by senior staff after a blood test suggested he may have had heart problems.

Even though it says "may", it still indicates that he needed an eye keeping on him, and to be seen by a consultant.

 

[Ralph-YK]

. Not chest pain. He is sitting in a chair after being assessed. It’s unlucky, but if anyone with psychic powers were available,

Speaking as someone who missed one heart attack because I didn't feel it, had reduced pain on the other (no surprise from the staff on that) and just not felt it other times my heat had had problems (recorded on ECG), I know you can't rely on pain in the chest to warn of heart problems.
Medical people use other indicates. In this case they'd done bloods which showed something. While chest pains could make it more obvious, maybe they didn't need to be completely psychic.

 

[Northerner]

When you have a heart attach there is an enzyme in your blood that goes up.

That would be troponin 🙂 I had a slightly elevated troponin when I was diagnosed so I had all these doctors all really concerned that I'd 'had a heart attack'. I was put in the Cardiac Care Unit and my diabetes was relegated to second place, despite the fact that my levels were going from 2.0 to 30+. Had an angiogram, they wouldn't even let me walk to the loo. I had felt nothing. Put on aspirin, clopidogrel and beta-blockers and when I came out was put on a cardiac rehabilitation course with weekly ECGs. Yet a senior nurse had told me about the troponin, and how mine was 1.2 (don't know the units used). As a contrast he said 0.6 was 'normal' and the bloke in the next bed had a value of 100! 😱 I felt at the time it was so over the top when what was really important was the fact I was trying to manage my blood sugar levels with injected insulin for the first time in my life and with virtually no knowledge of what I was doing! 🙄

 

[Ralph-YK]

Ugh. Bad time for you Northerner.

 

[Amigo]

The point is, he presented there Wed afternoon and sounds to have been there in A&E when he suffered the cardiac arrest on Thursday morning. He was 85, the blood test had identified the cardiac risk and in a properly funded A&E Dept. nobody should wait that long even if they go in with a sore toe! This isn’t about misdiagnosis, it’s about intolerable and unsafe pressures on both patients and staff which meant they couldn’t respond properly and swiftly enough even when his underlying risk was known.