Nurse whose mum died after two-day wait on an A&E trolley said struggling staff did all they could for her

Karl Tonks has worked in the NHS since the late 1980s and said he has never seen it under so much strain

Great-great gran Ruth Tonks, 86, died at St John’s Hospital, Livingston, West Lothian, on January 2 (Karl Tonks / SWNS)

A nurse practitioner whose mum died after a two-day wait on an A&E trolley said struggling staff did all they could for her.

Great-great gran Ruth Tonks, 86, died at St John’s Hospital, Livingston, West Lothian, on January 2 after developing a chest infection over Christmas.

Her son Karl, 51, an advanced nurse practitioner at a GP clinic in Fife, said he was shocked by the situation but said NHS pressures are worse than ever before.

Mum-of-four Ruth, from Whitburn, West Lothian, was taken by ambulance to hospital on December 28.

She was kept on a trolley in A&E for two days before taken to the medical assessment ward.

When medics realised she was dying they tried to take her into a side room to give the family privacy - but were forced to give them to two newly admitted patients.

Karl asked if he could take his mum home but doctors fearer she was not stable enough to be moved and didn’t want her to die in an ambulance.

Ruth was eventually moved to a bay on a quieter ward where her family could say their goodbyes.

Karl, also from Whitburn, said: “On Christmas day mum said she wasn’t feeling right in the evening and that she was just going to go to bed.

“The next couple of days she still wasn’t well and then on the 28th I said to her we are going to have to get the GP in to see you.

“The GP came and said he thought it was a chest infection and gave her some antibiotics.

“She was really reluctant to go into hospital because of the current situation but the GP said if she was to deteriorate, she would need to go in.

“That night I noticed her breathing had really changed and I told her I was going to have to call and ambulance and she reluctantly agreed.

“They said it could take up to an hour but the ambulance was there in 40 minutes.

“In A&E they said she was really quite unwell and started her on some treatment straight away.

“She was on a trolley in a cubical in A&E for two days before a bed became available in the medical assessment unit.

“I could see she wasn’t getting better and knew something was really wrong.

“The doctor called telling us to come in and bring the family with us, she wasn’t responding to treatment and was deteriorating.

“That’s when we decided to stop the treatment and just try and make her as comfortable as possible.

“I did ask if we could take her home but the doctors didn’t think she was stable enough to be moved and didn’t know if she would make the journey.

“They didn’t want her to die in the back of an ambulance.

“We did get offered a side room twice, but both times urgent patients came in who needed to be isolated and that take priority.

“They moved mum onto a quieter ward where we would have some privacy with her.

“She was on a bay with other patients, but it was quiet and we were able to be there with her.”

(Karl Tonks / SWNS)

Karl has worked in the NHS since the late 1980s and said he has never seen it under so much strain.

He said he was shocked by the situation with his mum but praised hard working hospital and ambulance staff who did the best they could for her.

Karl said: “I was shocked at the situation but not angry, who is there to be angry with.

“The staff did everything they could under the circumstance for mum.

“You could see the nurses getting the brunt of it from people, and you can understand it, it’s people’s relatives, but they are not the ones to blame.

“You can see the nurses are emotionally drained and having to crisis manage all the time.

“The NHS was broken before covid and covid was really the last straw.

“We didn’t even have a chance to recover from it before all the winter bugs.

“Everyone is just hammered.

“I have not seen it this bad ever and I have been working in the NHS since 1980s.

“It has never been this bad or as prolonged as this, we have seen tough times but not like this.

“It’s so scary, I really don’t know how the NHS is going to survive.

“The health service has become third world.

“We are going to lose a lot of experienced staff, I know people who are retiring early because they have just had enough.”