KEY POINTS:
A family who lost a son after a hospital misdiagnosis are distancing themselves from a stranger's efforts to name and shame the doctors and nurses involved.
Christchurch builder Greg Cumming has offered a reward for identifying those responsible for the care of Dean Carroll, 25, who died a day after seeking help at Christchurch Hospital last April and being sent home with a diagnosis of simple back pain.
An independent report cleared the hospital staff of negligence, but said overcrowding at the hospital meant Mr Carroll did not get the care he deserved and therefore his killer spinal infection was not detected.
Although he did not know Mr Carroll, Mr Cumming has advertised an unquantified reward for "identification of those responsible for the treatment of Dean Carroll".
Mr Cumming told the Herald he had seen Mr Carroll's grieving family on television and "you had to feel for them".
"I'm just a humble taxpayer and when I go into the emergency department I expect to be treated with competence, and Dean wasn't."
He doubted if anyone would have the "courage" to give him the names of the hospital staff involved, but he wanted the names to be aired. The reward would only be a small "gesture" of thanks.
While Mr Carroll's family have publicly expressed their anger at what happened to him, his mother Sheree said the reward offer was nothing to do with her family and she did not support a "witch-hunt".
"I don't see any point in naming those nursing staff or doctors involved. But it's [Mr Cumming's] business - I can't tell him not to do it. I don't like what he's doing, but I appreciate it in a way."
A Canterbury District Health Board spokeswoman said yesterday the board did not want to get into a debate in the media about the reward offer.
"A transparent independent review of Dean Carroll's death ... found that there was no evidence of any negligence on the part of the nursing and medical staff that contributed to the sad and untimely death," the board said.
"Dean died of a rare condition that is notoriously hard to diagnose and that progressed in an uncharacteristic way. Emergency Department staff have been deeply distressed by what happened."
The New Zealand Nurses Organisation said the Health and Disability Commissioner and the coroner might review the Dean Carroll case, and it would be "extremely irresponsible" for the names of those involved to be made public before those reviews took place.
