Barts apologises to family after death of Stratford woman

Barts Health NHS Trust has apologised to a family for not meeting its standards of care after the death of a woman.

Evadney Dawkins, who lived in Angel Lane, Stratford, died in 2018 at Newham University Hospital which is run by the trust.

Graeme Irvine, area coroner for east London, urged Barts to act in a prevention of future deaths report published on January 8.

Mrs Dawkins was taken to hospital after falling at home on July 22 that year. A plan was put in place, which included monitoring the 77-year-old's kidneys, following a medical assessment.

But the monitoring was not carried out until July 27 by which time medics discovered Mrs Dawkins had suffered an acute kidney injury.

The injury healed, but Mrs Dawkins died after suffering a cardiac arrest on August 23, 2018. The cause of death was recorded as multi-organ failure, heart disease, renal failure, Type 2 diabetes and pneumonia.

Mr Irvine raised one concern that regular blood tests, a renal ultrasound and the monitoring of fluids were not carried out for four days after which Mrs Dawkins was found to have deteriorated and suffered the injury.

He also criticised the trust's systems of governance for not identifying for two years that Mrs Dawkins' case was a serious incident which required investigation.

A spokesperson for Barts Health NHS Trust said: "We fully accept the concerns raised in the coroner's report and are submitting an action plan to the coroner with our aims to improve care, including renal monitoring, to prevent any future circumstances.

"We are deeply sorry to Mrs Dawkins' family for not meeting the high standards of care we set ourselves."

The Dawkins family said in a statement: "For over two years, we’re finally getting closer to what happened to our mother at Newham University Hospital.

"The evidence given by the independent medical examiner no longer paints a picture that our mother was a palliative patient.

"Throughout the inquest, the coroner has raised concerns on the systemic fallings made by the hospital.

"Although the ruling from the coroner was in our favour, there are still questions unanswered and we won’t stop until we get them."

These include why the pathologist who carried out the post mortem didn’t complete a toxicology report requested by the family and what caused the cardiac arrest.

The family also wants answers on what happened in the last 59 minutes of Mrs Dawkins' life.