A WIFE who was left to care for her husband in Carlisle’s A&E department as he suffered internal bleeding feels that what they went through was a result of failings by the hospital trust.

Gillian and Martin Digan have spoken out about their “horrendous” experience at the Cumberland Infirmary in the hope that action will be taken to prevent anyone else having to go through the same ordeal.

Martin, 61, collapsed at home after he started passing blood and was admitted to hospital at about midnight on February 5.

He was put on a drip and Gillian was told he needed a blood transfusion.

She was given bed pans and gloves to deal with his bleeding throughout the night and although staff came and went, she was largely left to her own devices.

“I was just doing what I felt I needed to do and they were leaving me to it,” she said. "I just thought it was normal practice and this was the NHS for you.

“You put your trust in going to hospital. I just thought staff must be run off their feet so all I could do was help out because somebody else might be more urgent than Martin was."

The following morning Martin suffered a seizure and cardiac arrest.

“They said they’d had to put him in an induced coma and on a ventilator but they didn’t really give much hope at all for him to pull through,” Gillian continued.

Martin was transferred to intensive care where he spent six days.

Despite what they went through, the couple didn’t make a complaint and had focussed on Martin's recovery.

It wasn’t until they received a Duty of Candour letter from the hospital in April that they realised the potential severity of the hospital’s failings.

The letter stated Martin had been involved in a “patient safety incident” which was being investigated.

Most recently they came across a report by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) of an inspection of the emergency department carried out on February 24 and 25.

It highlighted that the department did not have sufficient numbers of appropriately qualified nursing and medical staff to meet what is a legal requirement.

Martin now suffers from short-term memory impairment, anxiety and is reluctant to attend hospital.

The couple say they have many unanswered questions about his care. They feel they have been let down by the trust and are not aiming their anger towards hospital staff.

Martin said: “No nurse or doctor goes into the medical profession to allow patients to die. And on that night I was allowed to die, I was allowed to bleed to death.

“It wasn’t because the doctors and nurses approved of it. It’s because they didn’t either have the expertise, the equipment or staff to deal with it.

“I wasn’t being picked on. That could have been anyone. It was just the wrong place, wrong time. I don’t want this happening to someone else.”

Gillian added: “The consultant said to me if he’d not had a strong heart he basically wouldn’t have survived.

“We feel, has this happened before, is it still happening? Are people aware that they are going to the Cumberland Infirmary and it’s not staffed well?

“There didn’t seem to be anybody in charge. It must be really difficult for some of the nurses and doctors there who are trying to do their job. I really feel for the staff who are working in there.”

Overall, CQC rated the hospital's urgent and emergency care services as 'requires improvement', though the safety aspect of the report found the service to be 'inadequate'.

"The service did not have enough medical staff with the right qualifications, skills, training and experience to keep patients safe from avoidable harm or to provide the right care and treatment," stated the report, which was published in May.

North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust said the findings of its serious investigation, due to be completed this month, would be shared with Mr and Mrs Digan directly.

It a statement the trust said: “A complaint was received from Mr Digan relating to the communication he received from the trust following a Duty of Candour letter. This was responded to on July 10 and we are sorry for the short delay.

"We have apologised for the distress the Duty of Candour letter caused and for the poor communication he experienced following receipt of this, meetings have been offered to reiterate this."

Mr Digan has now sent information about his experience to the CQC. The regulator said it is reviewing the information and "monitoring North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust’s services very closely to ensure people are safe."