Grandmother in wrong cancer diagnosis at Walsall's Manor Hospital

Doctors at Walsall Manor Hospital told the family of 70-year-old Audrey Humpage there was nothing more they could do to save her after diagnosing her with inoperable cancer.

But a postmortem revealed the mother of three, from Warewell Road, Walsall, had a pelvic abscess, which could have been treated – and not the bowel cancer diagnosed.

A coroner found the abscess was a contributory factor toward her death, although the main cause was sepsis.

The Health Service Ombudsman has reviewed the case and found that Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust was guilty of numerous failings.

Investigator Tim O'Mahoney could not conclude that Mrs Humpage's death could have been prevented, even if the abscess had been diagnosed, because her health was 'extremely poor' at the time.

He said: "We conclude that the trust made an incorrect diagnosis of bowel cancer and that further tests should have been carried out to confirm the nature of the abdominal mass.

"We agree with the trust view that further treatment for inoperable cancer for a patient in Mrs Humpage's condition at the time would have been inappropriate as it is clear that she was too frail to undergo the tests and treatment for cancer.

"However, we are persuaded by our advice that Mrs Humpage was not too frail to undergo the tests and treatment for pelvic abscess."

Her three children Chris, aged 42, Martin, 44, and Angela, 47, will attend a trust board meeting today to discuss the case.

Depsite the ombudsman's findings they are convinced something more could have been done to save her.

A statement issued on their behalf said: "We do not recognise all of the ombudsman's findings as it's clear to us that our mum's death was avoidable.

"We are confident we will eventually be proved correct. The hospital will have noted that our mum was a strong fighter. She was not ready to die. On the 16th December 2013 we were told that her death was imminent. She lived for a further 23 days after this.

"She instilled that fighting spirit into all of us, and her example gives us the inspiration we need to continue to seek the truth."

Mrs Humpage had a history of cerebrovascular disease, epilepsy, hypertension and diverticular disease and was first admitted to the Manor on September 23, 2013 after collapsing.

She was treated for sepsis and discharged just over a week later but was readmitted on October 16 with a suspected urinary tract infection.

Two days later she fell and fractured her hip.

Mrs Humpage remained unwell and on December 10 a CT scan revealed a pelvic mass, which was later diagnosed as likely to be bowel cancer. She died on January 9 last year. The trust has apologised to the family and vowed to put measures in place to prevent the same happening to another patient.

Amir Khan, trust medical director, said: "We would once again like to offer our condolences to the Humpage family for their loss and have apologised to them regarding the poor standard of care that their loved one received.

"The Trust takes every complaint it receives extremely seriously and tries to learn lessons from concerns and issues raised, working with patients, their families and carers to make improvements for the hundreds of thousands of people who use our services each year. Taking on board the points raised in their complaint; we have improved communication with families about the clinical decisions that are made and why a particular course of care has been provided for a patient, we have made real progress in reducing the number of falls in hospital and surgically, our multi-disciplinary approach is making a huge difference.

"The family took its complaint to the Ombudsman who recommended further improvements, which we will be implementing.

"We appreciate that making a complaint can be difficult for families but we thank them for doing so in order for us to act upon their feedback and bring about meaningful changes to our services."