Islington News: Barbara Harvey | Heart Attack | Whittington Hospital | Nurse | Break | Hornsey Lane

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Islington Tribune - by TOM FOOT
Published: 07 November 2008

Heart attack while nurse took break

Husband claims hospital failed to provide necessary care before death of his therapist wife

AN alternative therapist died following a freak heart attack at the Whittington Hospital after she was left unattended during a nurse’s tea break.
Barbara Harvey, 63, who lived in Hornsey Lane, Archway, died on January 28 after being transferred to the hospital’s Victoria ward against the wishes of her husband.
Guy Harvey told an inquest at St Pancras on Tuesday he believed his wife was not well enough to leave the intensive care unit, where she was receiving round-the-clock, one-on-one care.
He said: “We didn’t think it was right she was moved. She was too weak and needed constant care.”
Ms Harvey, who had worked at the Whittington Hospital as an alternative therapist, had been re-admitted to intensive care on Christmas Day last year following a botched operation to her colon earlier that month.
On January 25, she was moved to the Victoria ward where she suffered a series of “night terrors” and haunting visions of her own death, described in graphic detail by her husband in the court.
His fears over the loss of one-to-one care were compounded when she suffered a cardiac arrest during a nurse’s tea break that had left her unattended for around 15 minutes.
Mr Harvey said: “She couldn’t call for help. She was too weak to push the panic button.”
Coroner Dr Andrew Reid said there was not enough evidence to precisely identify the cause of the heart attack, but that the blood flow to her brain had stopped for at least four to five minutes before emergency care reached her and she was resuscitated.
He said she died a day later from a severe brain injury brought on following the loss of oxygen and blood flow to her brain.
Dr Reid said: “The cardiac arrest occurred during the step down in care from intensive care to the Victoria ward. I am satisfied she died of hypoxic brain injury that was in consequence to the cardiac arrest.”
Dr Reid said he would provide a more detailed report to the family at a later date. He gave an initial verdict of an “accidental adverse healthcare event”.

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