Family of Haslingden fall victim 'failed by system' (From Lancashire Telegraph)

Family of Haslingden fall victim 'failed by system'

5:00pm Thursday 21st February 2013 in News By Chris Adams

THE family of a woman who died after battling Parkinson’s Disease told an inquest she had been “failed badly” by specialists.

Jessie Earnshaw, 87, died on July 4 last year having suffered a brain haemorrhage after falling at home in York Avenue, Haslingden.

Her son Alan and husband of 63 years, Alec, told an inquest at Burnley Coroner’s Court that doctors gave Mrs Earnshaw the wrong dosage of drugs and did not explain their side-effects.

Alec Earnshaw said when his wife was initially prescribed Madopar in December 2011, she was told a nurse would visit them to administer it.

When this failed to happen, he said he visited her GP and had to “fight” to find out when and how the Madopar should be taken.

Bacup-born Mrs Earnshaw, an ex-cook at Helmshore Primary School, was sleeping for 21 hours a day and lost over two stones while she was on the drug.

Alec said: “If she’d have known the consequences, she’d have taken the shakes before the drugs. From going out every day, she never left the house again other than to go to hospital. I’ve been let down by the health authorities.”

Alan said: “I’m disappointed that the system failed mum so badly.

“The lack of care provision rankles with my father and I.

“There appears to have been an assumption that my mother wasn’t important because of her age. I think they thought she was a burden and a nuisance. She was palmed off.”

Consultant neurologist Dr Philip Tidswell, who practices at Royal Blackburn Hospital, was due to attend to address the family’s concerns but was unable to do so because of illness.

In recording a narrative verdict, East Lancashire coronor Richard Taylor said: “Mrs Earnshaw died having suffered injuries in an accidental fall caused, in part at least, by an untreated disease.”

Nobody from East Lancashire NHS Hospitals Trust was available to comment.