War veteran's hospital ordeal

7:10am Tuesday 15th July 2008

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A FRAIL elderly war veteran had become “skin and bone” when his family removed him from a Worcestershire hospital, say his furious daughters.

Eighty-seven-year-old Samuel Cannaway was not fed properly during his stay at Worcestershire Royal Hospital in Worcester, according to his daughters.

Management at the hospital have invited Mr Cannaway’s family to a meeting to discuss his treatment.

The Second World War veteran’s family also claim he was given just one bath in 17 days and that medical staff failed to notice he had suffered a stroke during a major operation or that he had developed pneumonia. The stroke made it difficult for him to feed himself and he was writhing around in intense agony, his family say.

They also say a weeping sore on his hand was left unbandaged and that he should have been given stronger pain relief than paracetamol during his stay on surgical ward Beech 3 ward.

His daughter Mary Cannaway said: “When he came out his bones were showing. He kept saying, ‘Get me out of here!’”

He also received care in Avon 3 ward, which his family say was far better than the care he got in Beech 3.

Mr Cannaway of St George’s Walk, Barbourne, Worcester, who fought in North Africa with the Irish Fusiliers during the Second World War, was admitted to the hospital on Sunday, March 16, to have a cancer removed from his colon.

The operation was successful but daughter Sheila Cannaway was appalled by the care he received afterwards.

When she heard he was going to be transferred to Cedar ward in Newtown Hospital, the family opted to remove him from the hospital altogether on Friday, April 25.

Miss Cannaway, who gave up her full time job in social care to look after him, said: “I was afraid he would be left to rot in his bed. After looking around the ward I could see nothing had changed over the years - there was no way he was going there. He could walk when he came into hospital but he couldn’t when he came back. My father was denied the right to walk again because of these terrible conditions. No one was helping him feed himself at all.

“I’m sad, angry and disgusted. It’s always the elderly that suffer because they aren’t given a voice. If we weren’t there, what would have happened?”

Mr Cannaway now has to walk with a frame which his children blame on his stay at Worcestershire Royal.

Miss Cannaway said it was because of the work of physiotherapists and GPs at Thorneloe Lodge Surgery in Barbourne Road, Worcester that he is able to move about using the frame.

The family has complained to the acute trust about the care Mr Cannaway received by letter and written to Worcester MP Mike Foster.

Janet-Marie Clark, communications officer for Worcestershire Acute Hospital NHS Trust, said: “We cannot discuss details in relation to individual patients. We would like to stress that we did have regular conversations with members of Mr Cannaway’s family during his stay in hospital. We are still in correspondence with them about their concerns. However, sometimes concerns cannot be resolved through letters and Helen Blanchard, Director of Nursing, will be inviting Mr Cannaway and Ms Cannaway to a meeting with her and other members of the nursing staff.”