Decision Report 201403173

Summary

Mrs C's late husband (Mr C) was receiving treatment for prostate cancer and had a history of severe allergic reactions. Mrs C complained that, when his condition deteriorated, specialists at the Western General Hospital failed to take into account concerns that the medication to treat the cancer was the cause of the problems. Mrs C said doctors did not listen to her concerns; she said Mr C rapidly deteriorated and then died following a heart attack caused by an allergic reaction to the medication. Mrs C said that she and her husband were not warned about possible side effects of the medication and staff failed to take reasonable action to resolve matters.

We took independent advice from one of our medical advisers. We found that the care and treatment provided to Mr C was reasonable overall and, in particular, that the treatment decisions and management were reasonable. We also found that Mr C died because of heart disease, and there was no evidence that he sustained allergic reactions to the medication prescribed. However, we found that there was a lack of evidence showing that possible side effects of the medication was explained to Mr C at the outset of the process, and so we made a recommendation.

Recommendations

We recommended that the board:

• bring the failing in record-keeping to the attention of the healthcare professionals involved.