St George's Hospital: Cancer patient hits out after being left in urine

A cancer patient has hit out at a hospital after he was given potentially harmful medication and left lying in his own urine for hours.

Terry Downs, 55, from Mitcham in south-west London, says he had a "horrible experience" while an inpatient at St George's Hospital in Tooting.

He and his wife say they are speaking out in the hope the same thing does not happen to anyone else.

St George's NHS Foundation Trust says it is "very sorry" about what happened.

Mr Downs, who has been given three months to live, was receiving treatment for a number of health conditions including five cancerous brain tumours, lung and skin cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and vascular disease.

The charity store manager has been admitted to the hospital's Trevor Howell cancer treatment unit twice in the past six months.

On the first visit in September, when he was treated for a perforated bowel, his wife Tracy Downs said her husband was "very weak and quite ill - he could not move around that much as he was in a lot of pain".

"On one occasion, Terry had wet the bed one night," she said. "He told one of the nurses on duty, but... she said it was not that wet and laid him back down in the bed until I arrived to see him, which was six hours later."

"On another occasion, a nurse wanted to do Terry's observations and he had to move so she could get to him. He said, 'yes but I am a bit weak' and she replied 'I am waiting'," Mrs Downs added.

Mr Downs described the ward as being like a prison, adding: "I feel it's a case of 'he's not got long, so he doesn't matter'.

"Some nurses are so nice but it's the odd few."

He continued: "To make you feel worse while you're here is awful. There's no care here, it's like a death ward."

He was readmitted to the ward on 17 January with an inflamed bowel, and Mrs Downs said that the following evening a nurse tried to do a blood pressure test using a cuff on the same arm her husband was receiving fluids into intravenously. "Terry had to tell her to stop as the pain was unbearable," Mrs Downs said.

Four days later, Mrs Downs said to her "shock and horror" her husband was given a blood thinner by a nurse that had been explicitly removed from his list of medicines by his oncologist, because his brain tumours were bleeding and causing swelling.

Mr Downs said the attitude and behaviour of the staff "scares" him, adding: "I don't trust them at all. You think, what are they going to do next?"

"It's been a horrible experience and the care I received up until now has been terrible. I deserve better."

He says he feels that in the future "if I do suffer in pain there is no way I can risk attending St George's".

The couple have complained to the local Patient Advice and Liaison Service and to the ward manager, who they say is writing up an incident report.

Mr Downs told the BBC that several members of staff were removed from his care team following what happened and he had since been discharged with a palliative care plan.

"They said [one] nurse was 'old school', whatever that means, but the first time this happened it was all brushed under the carpet," Mr Downs said.

He added he has now set up a Go Fund Me to help pay for his funeral costs, "which is something i would never dream of at the age of 55".

A spokesperson for St George's University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said: "We're very sorry to hear about Mr Downs' expressed concerns, which do not reflect the high standard of care we strive to give or the feedback we receive from other patients on this ward.

"No formal complaint was received at the time and no members of staff were removed from Mr Downs' care team.

"Patient comfort is regularly monitored by our compassionate staff who do their very best to care for people with cancer and their families, however we take these concerns very seriously and have offered to meet him to hear his concerns and learn where we can improve."

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