KEY POINTS:
The family of a Canterbury man who died within hours of being sent home from Christchurch Hospital's emergency department don't accept an independent report absolving the hospital of any negligence.
Dean Carroll, of Coalgate, 60km northwest of Christchurch, was in severe pain and walking "like Frankenstein" with stiff legs and making groaning noises when he arrived at the hospital in April, witnesses said.
He died from an infection that spread to his spine less than 12 hours after being given painkillers and sent home.
Findings of an independent review by two North Island health professionals and a Christchurch management expert were released publicly today, absolving the Christchurch District Health Board of any blame.
However, the review made 10 recommendations for improvements, including physical changes to the emergency department, further training in "front-of-house skills" for staff, shortening waiting times for patients to be seen and improving the patient discharge process.
"We have been reassured to read that there is no evidence of any negligence, on the part of nursing or medical staff, contributing to the sad and untimely death of this young man," Christchurch Hospital general manager Mark Leggett said.
Mr Carroll died of overwhelming sepsis as a result of a spinal epidural abscess, he said.
"This is a very rare condition that is usually identified through signs such as a fever that were not present when he was under the care of Christchurch Hospital's emergency department," Mr Leggett said.
On the evidence presented, nursing and medical staff did the best they could in offering care to an acceptable standard.
Mr Leggett said the hospital was "very keen" to ensure a similar incident did not happen again. Recommendations in the review were being acted on, he said.
But Mr Carroll's mother, Sheree, interrupted the news conference today, questioning why her son had died if the hospital had provided care to an "acceptable standard".
Mrs Carroll said nothing good had come out of her son's death.
"Don't ever say 'if there's one good thing that's come out of this'," she told Mr Leggett and the board's emergency medicine specialist, Mike Ardagh.
"There's nothing good about Dean's death," Mrs Carroll said, clearly upset.
"His life was denied. And you've wrecked out lives," she said. "It's just not right."
Asked how she felt about the review, Mrs Carroll said: "Nothing could make me feel better. I really don't know. I just feel angry sometimes. It just goes over my head... I just relive it over and over again," Mrs Carroll said.
"Nothing's going to make me feel better. I don't want anything from them (the CDHB).
"I don't want money or compensation. They haven't got enough money to pay for my son's life," she said.
"I don't know why we do this (front up to the media). We only just put ourselves through this over and over again.
"But I do want to know why nobody helped him. Right from the start, why did nobody help him," she asked.
Mr Carroll's partner, Victoria Milne, who attempted to resuscitate Mr Carroll when he collapsed at their home, questioned why no blood tests or x-rays hadn't been taken that might have provided an accurate diagnosis of his condition.
Ms Milne said she had been advised she could make a complaint to the Health and Disability Commissioner, but opted to wait to see what came out of the CDHB review.
The case has been referred to the commissioner and the Christchurch coroner.
"I don't want to make it seem that I'm on a head hunt or anything, because I'm not. It was just such a shock.
"Instead of Dean being in hospital, he'd come home and died on me. I had to try and save him and that's not fair."
Asked how she felt about the review, Ms Milne said it was "nice to see something's still being done. It's not over.
"As long as it doesn't happen to anyone else. That would be horrible."
- NZPA
