‘I am invoking Martha’s rule’: how a woman saved her father from near death in hospital
For six awful days last summer, as her father, David, got progressively sicker in the cardiac ward of the John Radcliffe hospital in Oxford, Karen Osenton would read the poster above his bed telling patients about their right under Martha’s rule to ask for a second opinion.Her father, a retired engineer in his early 70s who was normally extremely fit, was by then thin, jaundiced and could barely lift his head from the pillow.But his bed was right beside the nurses’ station, surely they would notice if he needed more urgent treatment?David had first gone to his GP more than a month earlier complaining of extreme breathlessness, and over the following weeks he had become increasingly thin and weak with suspected heart failure.But it had taken repeated visits to the accident and emergency ward, being sent home each time, before he was finally given a bed in a specialist cardiac unit last July.“Every day we saw him he got worse,” says Karen, a teacher from Aynho, in West Northamptonshire.
“My mum kept saying: ‘Please, my husband is not right, this is not David,He is so unbelievably poorly,’ He couldn’t walk, he didn’t sleep, he couldn’t eat,Even the other gentlemen in the bay were saying to the nurses: ‘Can you not see this man is extremely unwell?’”Almost a week after David was admitted, Karen was met by her tearful mother, Kathleen, as she arrived at the hospital,“She said: ‘You’ve got to help your dad.
’“He was on the edge of the bed, rocking, and he could barely speak.He was so yellow, so gaunt.I just walked to the desk and I said: ‘You will get a consultant here now.I am invoking Martha’s rule.I want somebody to see my dad right now.
’”Within minutes, says his daughter, the room was full of doctors.“He was very close to death.His lungs were filled with fluid.He had multi-organ failure.Within the hour he was in intensive care, fighting for his life.
” A senior consultant told Karen her father was “the sickest person in the hospital”.Oxford University Hospitals NHS foundation trust (OUH), which oversees the hospital, has apologised to the family and admitted it made mistakes in treating David’s cardiac failure.While some of the delays in assessing him were “unfortunately due to service pressures and staffing limitations”, the hospital said after a review of his case, clinicians also failed to spot that he was getting worse, and by the time they did, he was too unwell to have the recommended surgical valve repair.In addition, a “lapse in communication” meant there was confusion between two different teams over which was responsible for his care.Once in intensive care, David’s treatment was “exceptional”, Karen says.
“But it didn’t need to get to that point, ever.Every day I had read those posters, every day I thought about Martha’s mum and thought: what a strong woman to do something like this.Not realising that I’d actually have to use it myself.”Though her father slowly recovered, the once active motorcyclist and hands-on grandfather is far from the man he was.“If we’ve gone for a family day out, he gets very shaky and light-headed and needs to sit down for a while.
” They are “all still very angry” about the way Kathleen’s concerns were dismissed, Karen says.“People of my parents’ age group are very much: ‘Doctors know best, don’t question them.’ Whereas you really have to advocate for yourself and say: ‘No, there’s something not right.’ To stand up for your loved ones, because you only really get one chance to do that.”In a statement, Prof Andrew Brent, the chief medical officer at OUH, said: “On behalf of the trust, I am sorry that some aspects of the care David Osenton received did not meet the high standards that we set ourselves.
“As an organisation, we are committed to actively listening to the concerns voiced by patients, relatives and carers and continuously improving the care we provide to all our patients.“Martha’s rule and second opinions provide patients, families, carers and our staff the opportunity to raise and discuss concerns, providing additional safeguards for our patients’ care.We are glad the family were able to do this in this instance, resulting in a good outcome for David.”
MPs accuse South East Water leaders of incompetence over repeated outages
MPs have accused the leadership of South East Water of incompetence over repeated water outages for tens of thousands of customers in a damning report, and expressed no confidence in their ability to reform the company.After publication of the report, SEW announced the resignation of its independent non-executive chair, Chris Train, saying new leadership was needed to “oversee a critical period of positive, transformative change”.MPs from across the political spectrum said David Hinton, SEW’s chief executive, and the board of directors operated a culture of unaccountability at the company, which provides drinking water for 2.3 million customers in Berkshire, Hampshire, Kent, Surrey and Sussex.SEW describes its leadership in official communications as having a “family feel”, but the environment, food and rural affairs committee of MPs said they were better described as “an unaccountable clique”
Claire’s expected to return to UK high streets with about 50 stores from June
The jewellery and accessories chain Claire’s is expected to return to UK high streets with about 50 stores to be reopened from June onwards by the operator of its shops in France, Austria, Portugal and Spain.Julien Jarjoura, the French entrepreneur behind jewellery company Une Ligne, which sells online and via museum stores including the Louvre and the Palace of Versailles, said he had the blessing of the US owner of the Claire’s brand, Ames Watson, to open stores in the UK and was signing new leases with UK landlords.The plans emerged just days after the chain closed its final UK stores with the loss of more than 1,000 jobs and ending three decades on British high streets.“I feel so sad when I see such a nice business going down,” Jarjoura told the Guardian. “The brand was basically dead and we’re bringing it back to life
Iran war may cause food shortages in Africa, world’s largest fertiliser firm says
The Iran war could have “dramatic consequences”, causing food shortages and price rises in some of Africa’s poorest and most vulnerable communities, the head of the world’s largest fertiliser company has said.Svein Tore Holsether, the chief executive of Yara International, said world leaders needed to guard against soaring prices and shortages of fertiliser causing a de facto global auction that would leave the poorest countries, particularly in Africa, scrambling for supplies they could ill afford.“The most important thing we can do now is raise the alarm on what we are seeing right now – that there is a risk of a global auction on fertiliser that means it becomes unaffordable for those most vulnerable,” he said.“Africa is actually quite well positioned to be a major food producer, not only for self-sufficiency, but even for exports to the rest of the world, but the reality is that they are massive food importers.“But we need to be aware in this part of the world of the potential consequences that if we get to a global auction on food, there will not be a famine in Europe – but we need to be aware of who we are taking the food away from
If you’re not Thames, the water looks lovely for investors | Nils Pratley
Thames Water, with occasional cameos by ugly little siblings Southern Water and South East Water, grabs most of the attention in the sector for obvious reasons. So it’s easy to overlook what’s happening further north. Short answer: the new era of higher bills and higher spending on water infrastructure will feel splendid if you’re United Utilities, licence-holder in north-west England, or Severn Trent, operating in the Midlands.The former’s share price surged 11% on Thursday, the sort of thing that shouldn’t happen at a utility where success is meant to be defined in terms of dull predictability. And it’s definitely unusual to see a one-day valuation jump of that size when the company is issuing £800m-worth of new shares
Bank of England warns ‘higher inflation unavoidable’ after holding interest rates
The Bank of England has left interest rates unchanged at 3.75% but said the UK may need to brace for increases later this year, as “higher inflation is unavoidable” as a result of the war in the Middle East.The Bank’s rate-setting monetary policy committee (MPC) voted to leave borrowing costs on hold, but said that if energy costs stayed persistently high it might have to take a more “forceful” response to keep inflation under control.The nine-member MPC was split 8-1 in its decision to keep borrowing costs on hold for the third consecutive meeting.Andrew Bailey, the governor of the Bank of England, said: “Where we go from here will depend on the size and duration of the shock to energy prices” as the conflict in the Middle East evolves
The chips are down: pizza, fried chicken and doughnut shares plunge on ASX as living costs bite budgets
Once a symbol of cheap eating, fast food is transforming into a luxury many can no longer afford due to resurgent living costs.This shift is reflected on the ASX, where major pizza, fried chicken and doughnut outlets are seeing significant price drops, raising the question: are consumers so downbeat that they are even giving up on fast food?Shares in Domino’s Pizza, KFC operator Collins Foods and multi-brand food franchise owner Retail Food Group have all suffered double-digit falls over the past two months, coinciding with surging oil prices tied to the US-Israel war on Iran.The Guzman y Gomez share price is also down, even as the broader ASX has proven robust.Lochlan Halloway, an equity market strategist at Morningstar, says the stocks are under pressure because concerns over consumer spending are coinciding with fast-rising operational costs.“Fast food is a discretionary purchase, something that’s probably fairly easy to cut if your budget’s pinched, and so they might be a casualty of consumers just trading out of the category entirely,” Halloway said
NatWest faces £140m hit from Iran war as UK growth slows and inflation rises
UK house prices jump despite impact of Middle East conflict
Meta threatens to shut down social networks in New Mexico over child safety court case
Judge cuts off Musk’s AI doomsday talk as his testimony ends in OpenAI case
Chess: England fail to win senior team world medals for first time in five years
Robo athletes miss the point of sport – there is no drama without emotion | Emma John