A GRANDMOTHER who lost two children in tragic circumstances is fighting her third heartbreaking battle.

Levina Brown, 68, says she needs specialist care for her dementia-suffering husband Mark who is stuck in hospital until a solution can be found.

The former mental health nurse lost son Mark, aged 29, to septicaemia in 2002, winning compensation for his treatment at Hope Hospital in Salford four years later, and her daughter Tracey at 39 to swine flu six years ago.

Now, she is fighting to get her 76-year-old husband out of Royal Blackburn Hospital and into care near or in his home in Waterfoot.

Mrs Brown says her spouse, also called Mark, is deteriorating after eight weeks on a specialist ward and fears he may end up placed too far away for her and her family to visit him.

After nursing her husband at their Joe Connolly Way home for 18 months, she finally called in Lancashire County Council social services when lack of sleep meant she could not continue without support.

He was transferred to the Royal Blackburn’s ward C5 in July and so far no care package for the former mechanic can be found in Rossendale.

She said: “After all the heartache and tragedy I and my family have had, this is the last thing I need at my age.

“I just want social services to find him a care home in the Valley or a package of support so I can look after him at home.

“It’s not just about Mark, it’s about all the other families in the same situation.

“People suffering from dementia need to be near their families.”

She has won the backing of Rossendale and Darwen MP Jake Berry and his Blackburn counterpart Kate Hollern who faced similar problems two years ago with her uncle.

Mrs Brown and her daughter Julie Rawes will meet with social services chiefs and medical experts on Monday at the hospital to discuss her husbands’s future care.

She said: “I nursed Mark with vascular dementia for as long as I could, but he was awake all night trying to leave the house to ‘go home’ so I could no longer cope.

“I just want him near me and the family.

“They suggested three nursing homes with specialist care accreditation in Rossendale - Haslingden Hall and Lodge, the Laurels in Bacup and Abbeycroft in Loveclough - but all three said they could not cope with Mark’s needs.

“I am concerned about social services’ failure to find him a home in the Valley.

“They are talking about Preston, Manchester or Blackburn but they are all too far for me to drive and see him.

“He is deteriorating, bored and irritated in the hospital and becoming incontinent.

“I need a package so I can care for him here or a home near enough for me, Julie and his four grandchildren to get to see him.”

Mr Berry said: “This is a very distressing case which I have already raised with social services.

“It’s plainly obvious the hospital is not the right place for Mrs Brown’s husband.

“He desperately needs 24-hour care in a nursing home.

“The county social services should be pulling out all the stops to help this family, not trying to make their life even more difficult than it already is.”

Mrs Hollern said: “I had the same problem with my uncle Malcolm two years ago. I fully support Jake over this case.

“Council, health trusts and the government need to find a way for people like Mr Brown to be cared for near their families.

“This is problem not just in Rossendale and Blackburn but all over the country.”

County council adult services director Tony Pounder said: “We are working hard to find a home for Mr Brown, and our staff have been in regular contact with his family.

“Unfortunately it’s not always possible to find the right home for someone straight away, especially when a person has very specific care requirements.”

Christine Pearson, chief nurse at East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust said: “While Mr Brown remains in our care, we are satisfied that he is staying on the most appropriate ward to meet the very specific needs of a patient with his diagnosis.

“Our staff discuss Mr Brown’s care with his family during their hospital visits and we ask them to raise any concern they may have with ward staff.” The owners of the three homes said that accepting residents whose needs they could not adequately meet would be ‘inappropriate’.