A grandmother was left to die after a doctor she had never met marked her file ... - Telegraph.co.uk

He said: "My wife is a very strong-willed person.

"Because my wife has got a huge medical file it is easy to give up on her but in every other circumstance she was OK.

"I told them 'my wife is a fighter and we will take everything step-by-step. I would like you to keep us informed'."

Mrs Shinwell died on December 4, 2009 and Mr Green has been battling for three years for answers from hospital bosses.

She had a complex medical history, including diabetes and heart problems which meant she needed a pacemaker to regulate her heart

But just days before she was due to be released from hospital, Mrs Shinwell began suffering heart complications.

Dr Anser Qureshi, the on-call consultant physician, told the inquest that she was dying and that CPR would have been futile.

He said the decision not to resuscitate was made with her best interests at heart.

"Generally we tend to discuss it with the family and patient," he told Chelmsford Coroner's Court.

"But at this point the patient was critically ill and did not have the capacity to respond.

"I must say that it was an extremely complex case and a very hard decision. The patient was so unwell, I firmly believed it would do her harm rather than any benefit."

Pathologist Dr Martin Goddard, who conducted the post-mortem, told the inquest: "This is a woman who was at the end of her cardiac function.

"This is a heart that really had nothing left to give."

Essex Coroner Caroline Beasley-Murray recorded a narrative verdict and criticised Broomfield Hospital for failing to communicate with the family.

She said: "Clearly communication has been an issue in this case.

"Two doctors have commented on the matter and I hope that new measures introduced since 2009 will prevent this happening in future."

Mrs Shinwell's daughter Heidi Coles, 42, from Chelmsford, fought back tears after the hearing as she criticised doctors for not doing enough to keep her mother alive.

"If you're dying then your family should be there with you," she said.

"We wanted to be by her side but instead she died alone. The doctors stood there and just left her to die.

"They probably thought 'well you're just going to die anyway' and stuck her in a corner out of the way.

"They stripped her of her dignity in her final hours.

"We know my mum had heart trouble, we know she'd had kidney trouble but she was stable. She was strong and she was a fighter – we miss her every day."

Mr Green added: "We have been fighting this so no other family has to go through losing someone they love in this way."

A spokesman for Mid Essex Hospital Services NHS Trust, which runs Broomfield Hospital, said an investigation into the circumstances of Mrs Shinwell's death had been undertaken and that it was confident in the care it had provided.