Redditch diabetic's death leads to payout by health trust

An undisclosed settlement has been paid by a health trust to the family of a woman who died after a hospital failed to treat her diabetes.

Margaret Pitt, 55, from Redditch, died in November 2010 after staff at the town's Alexandra Hospital failed to monitor her glucose levels.

Mrs Pitt had lived with Type 1 diabetes for 30 years.

Worcestershire Acute Hospitals Trust gave an unreserved apology for "failures in Mrs Pitt's care".

The mother of three suffered an irreversible brain injury and later died.

'Let down so badly'

Chris Tidman, deputy chief executive of the trust, said: "A number of improvements have been made to our clinical processes and our staff training to ensure that these mistakes don't happen again."

Mrs Pitt's 62-year-old husband, David, said: "The entire family is distraught by her death and it's hard not to remain angry that she was let down so badly by the nurses that were employed to care for her and make her better."

A coroner ruled in June 2012 that Jackie Charman committed a gross failure in not taking a blood sugar reading for Mrs Pitt.

A second nurse, Sarah Morgan, who was described as a diabetes specialist, had misunderstood what to do when she found Mrs Pitt had low blood sugar levels and failed to give a proper handover.

Deputy coroner Marguerite Elcock described the failings as "unacceptable".

Lawyers Irwin Mitchell said they had referred the case to the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) on behalf of the family.

Mr Pitt said: "Whilst the settlement draws a line under the legal action and we are pleased the trust has admitted wrongdoing, we cannot begin to think about rebuilding our lives until the NMC investigations are complete."