Widow battles on to make her voice heard

His family have now criticised the inquest process, after telling the hearing that shortfalls in hygiene, staff training and basic patient care contributed to his death. They are upset that the coroner gave jurors no option over the verdict.

Hospital chiefs say Mr Paton received the best care possible at the time and strongly reject any suggestion of patient neglect.

JAMES COX looks at the case

JAMES Paton's death at Wycombe Hospital has left a deep and painful scar on the lives of his widow, Pauline, and their sons.

Since the 69-year-old retired Fleet Street journalist died in March 2000, the Flackwell Heath family have worked tirelessly to find out what led to the tragic chain of events on Ward 2A before his death in intensive care.

They remember a fit and healthy husband and father who loved antiques and art and who often walked up to seven miles a day.

But four years into his retirement he was rushed to hospital with a burst stomach ulcer. He died just over a month later from a massive stroke after his internal organs were ravaged by the killer MRSA infection.

Sean Paton, one of Mr Paton's four grown-up sons, has spearheaded the family's battle. At the inquest his mother claimed Mr Paton fell victim to MRSA because of a series of blunders and shortfalls in medical care and hygiene under the care of the South Bucks NHS Trust.

The trust, backed up by an infections expert, maintained throughout the hearing that Mr Paton received the best care possible at the time.

After the verdict of natural causes, however, the family have vowed to fight on. They are particulary upset that Bucks Coroner Richard Hulett gave jurors no say in the actual verdict. He told the hearing that natural causes was the only appropriate one as MRSA had become a "natural feature of life" in hospitals across the country.

However, Mr Hulett did allow the jury, which was summoned at the request of the Paton family, a say in the wording of the cause of death which stated Mr Paton died from a stroke due to blood poisoning, hospital-acquired MRSA and infection from abscesses all following an operated burst stomach ulcer.

Today, Sean, 40, and his mother will meet with Beaconsfield MP Dominic Grieve, whose constituency covers Flackwell Heath, to discuss what action to take next.

The family, who last year appeared on the London Tonight news programme over the issue, believe patients contracting MRSA is a national problem which is not being faced up to by hospitals, the Government and the medical profession in general. They hope Mr Grieve will press for a debate on the issue in the House of Commons.

Sean told the Free Press the family has already spent almost £25,000 in legal fees preparing for the inquest into his father's death and explained that Mr Grieve, who is also a barrister, will also advise them on whether to seek a judicial review at the High Court in London to contest the inquest's rulings.

Sean, a college lecturer in English and one-time academic at Oxford University, said the family could well take such action but believes it could cost as much as £100,000.

He added: "What are we supposed to do is my mother supposed to re-mortgage the house? We've already lost faith in the legal system in this case, so are we supposed to gamble on the same system again?

"We believe not only that people are dying at Wycombe Hospital but that people are dying up and down the country from MRSA. We don't want this to happen to another family."

Mr Paton died on March 26, 2000, after catching MRSA at Wycombe Hospital. Doctors and medical experts believe the 69-year-old was most likely infected through a drip tube inserted in his neck following complications after his operation.

At the inquest Dr Peter Ellis, the barrister representing the family, asked why the tube had not been removed immediately after infection control experts at the hospital advised staff to do so. He also probed doctors on why a heart infection, believed to have caused the massive stroke which finally killed Mr Paton, was not discovered until the postmortem.

In addition, jurors heard Mrs Paton give damning evidence claiming that basic hygiene procedures to prevent the spread of infections in Wycombe Hospital were routinely ignored. She further claimed she was ignored when she tried to make complaints to doctors and nurses.

However, Professor Gary French, a leading expert who is heavily involved with the Hospital Infection Society, addressed the inquest on a number of the concerns raised by the family.

He said he did not think the hygiene issues raised would have made a difference to Mr Paton's outcome and said proper infection control procedures at Wycombe Hospital had been carried out. The trust maintained medical staff had no strong reasons to suggest Mr Paton had developed a heart infection before his death.

CHIEF Executive of South Bucks NHS Trust Roy Darby outlines the complex issue of MRSA and how the hospital has taken steps to tackle it.

"AS far as Mrs Paton and her family are concerned let me reiterate our very deepest sympathies and condolences.

I appreciate their concerns and their perceptions but we do not accept any suggestion of negligence and the inquest did not support a view that there was negligence.

Mrs Paton and her family concentrated on particular aspects of Mr Paton's care.

The inquest looked at all the circumstances and took all of these things into account and came to a view of natural causes, which we believe is a true reflection of all the circumstances.

MRSA is a national problem. MRSA is not just a hospital infection and many, many people carry MRSA naturally. It becomes a problem in hospitals when there are procedures going on, surgery taking place, when it becomes a problem because of its resistance to antibiotics.

It is a problem which has been known about for a number of years and more and more procedures are being put in place, care being taken, and training programmes put in place.

It was only last week, coincidentally on Friday, that there was a national press release with, in effect, league tables published which show where individual trusts, or individual hospitals, are in comparison with each other. What that demonstrated was that with the South Bucks NHS Trust we were about average in a national context.

The Paton case was two years ago ... since then we've made significant progress in putting in, or strengthening, the systems that are there to deal with this problem.

Our view is that our policies and procedures at the time were robust and they stood in comparison with others.

I don't want public confidence undermined because of one case where there may have been some short-comings. That does not in itself turn Wycombe into a dirty or dangerous hospital. We're trying to present a balanced view of Wycombe Hospital and, as far as we can, retain public confidence in the hospital."

February 15, 2002 11:00