A family was left inconsolable when a dad-of-one passed away due to a chest infection and flu. According to an inquest, Paul Hardy, from Biddulph, passed away due to natural causes after struggling for a week with symptoms across his body.
Paul Hardy, 35, struggled with pains, vomiting, a chesty cough, diarrhoea and an inconsistent temperature before dying at home.
The investigation into his demise revealed how he attended his local GP surgery, Biddulph Doctors, twice during the period of his sickness.
But initially he was told he had the flu, and from then he was referred for an X-ray, and he was advised not to go to the hospital that day as they would just cure his temperature and not send him for the scan.
After the 2nd appointment, he came back home and then later in that evening, after his wife Rachel had taken their 8 years old daughter Gabriella to bed, he was found unresponsive.
Paramedics declared him dead as soon as they arrived at the scene, with a later postmortem report concluding he suffered from sepsis and pneumonia with abscess formation.
After Paul’s demise, Rachel, 35, instructed specialist medical negligence lawyers at Irwin Mitchell to scrutinise his case and following the investigation she presented her hopes that lessons might be learned which will decrease the risk of such incidents.
Margaret Ryan, the medical negligence lawyer at Irwin Mitchell, told that the investigation into Paul’s death had highlighted many issues where they felt lessons could be learned.
It was vital that communication with patients was completely clear, and that the patient was made completely aware of the need for further treatment, to avoid a situation like that reoccurring.
It was also vital that the medical specialists should have asked more probing questions of patients, to ensure they got a full picture of the patient’s symptoms and history.
They also told that they would continue to support Rachel and work with her to make certain the problems observed in this case would be avoided in the future.
Rachel Hardy, who was married to Paul for about six years and had a daughter Gabriella, recalled that when she had taken Paul to the GP surgery on the 2nd occasion, she could tell that his symptoms were very serious. Nevertheless, she put those symptoms down to him having flu as informed by the nurse at the GPs surgery.
