Family want answers over father's end-of-life care

Nina Burkinshaw said she misses her father every day

A woman is taking legal action against the NHS after her father died less than 48 hours after being admitted to hospital with stomach pains.

Slobodan Dragovic - known as Joe - passed away in the early hours of 30 November last year when he fell into a coma and his oxygen supply was withdrawn.

Nina Burkinshaw said that despite having chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), her 74-year-old father was relatively well before he attended Pinderfields Hospital in Wakefield's emergency department.

She believed the end-of-life care he received was poor, and Mid Yorkshire Teaching NHS Trust later apologised to the family for the standard of communication.

Mrs Burkinshaw said: “He had fish and chips and curry sauce and peas the night before he went into the hospital. He was constantly on Facetime to me and my daughters. He was laughing, joking. He was just his normal self - nothing that would ever indicate what was going to happen.”

Mr Dragovic was a former miner with five children and eight grandchildren who was originally from Serbia but had lived in the UK for 50 years.

Slobodan Dragovic – known as Joe – died in the early hours of the 30 November

Mrs Burkinshaw described her father as a man who was full of “bounce”. She said: “We miss him every day. I just feel robbed.”

According to Mrs Burkinshaw, Mr Dragovic had a three-minute video call with a friend and a few hours later he fell into a coma.

She said: “I just couldn’t believe it.”

“I asked: ‘Please, if this is the only thing you can do for him, then please don’t let him suffer. If he’s going to go, then please go peacefully.’ After that discussion he was left a further 12.5 hours with no end-of-life care in place, nothing.”

Mrs Burkinshaw claims a nurse removed Mr Dragovic’s oxygen without warning while the family members were absent from the room, telling them he hadn't wanted to do so when they were present.

She said: “He decided my dad’s fate. I’ve got to live with that. I have awful nightmares of that happening and playing over and over again because it’s an image I can’t move.

“You don’t expect things like this to happen to you. And I’m sure there are many cases out there that nobody’s spoken about. But I am speaking about it because it’s not right and my father’s not here today and I think his care fell well below standards.”

Mrs Burkinshaw said she was not motivated by compensation but instead wanted "answers" and improvements to end-of-life care.

Mid Yorkshire Teaching NHS Trust chief nursing officer Talib Yaseen offered his sympathies to Mrs Burkinshaw and her family.

He said: “We understand this is a truly awful situation for the family and want to offer our sincere condolences.

“We can confirm we have conducted a full investigation into her father’s care, including having met with Mrs Burkinshaw. And whilst we have attempted to address each of the family’s concerns in turn, we appreciate some concerns remain, so we continue to work with the family to try and answer all their queries.

“As part of this process, we have recognised that some of the communication surrounding Mr Dragovic’s condition fell below the high standard we strive to achieve, for which we have apologised. Learning from this is already being shared within those teams.”

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