A DEMENTIA-stricken grandmother was sent home from hospital in a taxi – naked but for a flimsy bed gown.
Bungling medical staff also gave the driver the wrong address for 76-year-old Sylvia Dawson, who was alone.
She could not tell him where she lived and the driver frantically tried to locate her husband Terry, 80.
Mrs Dawson finally arrived distressed at her front door in a rainstorm, clutching the plastic bag of clothes staff at the Carlisle hospital had not bothered to dress her in.
Yesterday health chiefs at North Cumbria NHS Trust apologised “wholeheartedly” for the mother-of-three’s treatment after a fall.
Tragically, within two days of her ordeal, Sylvia’s condition deteriorated and she is now in residential care, unlikely to return home to Appleby.
Mr Dawson was disillusioned and shattered” by his wife’s treatment.
“It is beyond belief,” he said.
“I can’t imagine what staff were thinking when they put her into that taxi, undressed, when it was very cold, pouring with rain and blowing half a gale. She was clearly distressed and stark naked save for a hospital gown and light wrap.”
He added: “It was the sheer callousness of the way they sent her home, shipping her off in the nearest cattle wagon they could find.”
In August, Mrs Dawson, a former office manager who has eight grandchildren, was assessed by carers and a psychologist and was unable to answer the simplest of cognitive questions.
Mr Dawson said it should have been “obvious to anyone at A&E” that his wife would not know her correct address.
Cumberland Infirmary, Carlisle, failed to update medical records and sent Sylvia to a former address after treating her head wound.
It was only because she had kept the same telephone number that the cab driver finally located her house.
Mr Dawson has also complained to the Care Quality Commission which is already investigating the NHS trust after it featured in the Keogh Review and was put into special measures.
The trust said: “The circumstances around Mrs Dawson’s discharge are clearly unacceptable and do not meet the high standards of safe and compassionate care that we aim to provide.”
An investigation has begun.
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Swindon
TAXI driver Will Russell has described the moment a minicab hit his vehicle and flipped onto its roof.
Will, 40, a self-employed driver from Lambourn, was standing next to his Peugeot Expert people carrier waiting to collect a passenger at the train station on Saturday when the incident happened.
Two taxis owned by Cross Street Radio Cars were involved in the crash on Station Road at around 9.30pm. One of the taxis, a Ford Mondeo, upturned onto its roof after driving into a Vauxhall Vectra taxi and Will’s people carrier.
“It was all a bit of a blur because I was standing next to my vehicle as it happened,” he said. “I was on the phone when the Mondeo came round the corner. The next thing I knew I heard a massive bang and my vehicle was thrown 10 feet down the road.
“The red Vectra had been parked just past the traffic lights. I spoke to the driver afterwards and he said it all happened in slow motion for him.
“When the Vectra driver saw me standing next to my car he thought I was a gonner. Luckily it did not hit me. Two minutes earlier I had been standing at the rear of the car and it could have been a very different story. I think there must have been a guardian angel looking after me.”
Reports that the Mondeo was speeding have not been proven, and Cross Street Radio Cars has stated unequivocally the Mondeo had not been travelling over the speed limit.
“There were between 50 and 100 people there at the time around the pubs, and it could have been a lot worse had he gone into some people at the station,” said Will, who is unable to continue his business because he says his car will be written off.
“My car is undriveable now and I am waiting for a replacement from my insurance company. The rear axle is snapped and part of the rear is caved in. I work for myself so I can’t carry on with my business.”
A spokesman for Cross Street Radio Cars said: “Reports of speeding are wide of the mark. We have a system which tracks our drivers and runs off a GPS.
“It gives a figure accurate to within half-a-mile an hour. The speed limit in this street was 30 miles per hour and our machinery shows the car was on 30 miles per hour.
“The worst case scenario is he was driving at 30.5 miles an hour.”
A Wiltshire Police spokesman said: “Even though we have spoken to witnesses, we would ask anyone else who may have information to contact us immediately.”
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