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Trust pays £225,000 for husband's 'squalid' death
Sri Carmichael, Evening Standard18.10.07
A boy of nine has been given £25,000 compensation after his father died as a result of hospital negligence.
Today, the child's mother - who was awarded a further £200,000 - described the squalid conditions in which she claims her husband was treated and the catastrophic medical errors that she believes killed him.
Debra Luck, 44, said medics left her husband Ian to lie in agony for hours before he died from a heart attack after a duodenal ulcer ruptured.
Medical experts say emergency surgery would have saved the 37-yearold but instead Princess Alexandra Hospital in Harlow treated him with drugs.
Mr Luck, who was delirious with pain, had been left feeling suicidal by the conditions. A lack of nursing care meant he was forced to vomit on the floor and wet the bed as he lay dying.
He was so appalled by his conditions that he refused to let his son Ben, then four, visit him. The boy was so traumatised by his father's sudden death he had to see a psychologist.
Mrs Luck, from Waltham Abbey, launched a High Court action against the trust after her husband's death.
The case was settled when the trust offered the payout without accepting liability. Mrs Luck said she decided to take the money because it would give her son a more secure future. However, she remains horrified by the trust's behaviour.
"They never even said sorry and I feel they've got away with murder," she said. "Those last days of his life were a living nightmare I never believed I'd experience in a British hospital.
"The lunchtime before he died he called me crying, saying he wanted to jump from the nearest window."
She rushed to see her husband but he urged her to go home to be with Ben. Two hours later she got the call saying he had suffered a heart attack.
A trust spokesman said: "The trust is pleased the court has approved a settlement and offers Mrs Luck and her family best wishes for the future."
