A Launceston family has been left traumatised after claiming their husband and father passed away in a break room at the Launceston General Hospital.
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After spending two weeks in a medical ward in the LGH, Rex "Harry" Reeve died on February 15, less than two weeks before his 102nd birthday.
Mr Reeve's widow, Bev Reeve said her husband's death was unnecessarily painful and undignified after he was denied food and water and subjected to painful treatments.
After being injured in a fall, Mr Reeve was taken by ambulance to the LGH ED where he was treated for an oedema on his elbow and later transferred to the palliative oncology ward.
Ms Reeve said while on Ward 5D her husband's situation began to deteriorate.
Three days after being admitted to the hospital, open wounds on her husband's elbow and head - sustained in the fall - remained undressed and bleeding. Only after broaching the subject with ward staff were the wounds dressed.
As the swelling on Mr Reeve's arm spread, he became delirious, with staff at the hospital advising the family he could no longer drink or eat orally as he was at risk of choking.
Having been drinking from a cup for the previous three days, Mr Reeve was placed on a drip, something his daughter Vicki Biffin said made her father noticeably uncomfortable.
"Dad was just constantly thirsty," she said. "That was really unusual for Dad, he was really thirsty, just licking his lips and throwing his head around, he was uncomfortable, very uncomfortable."
With the obvious discomfort, both mother and daughter approached the staff at the hospital and questioned the oral restriction.
According to Ms Reeve, a ward doctor apologised for the measure and reversed the decision, allowing her husband to eat and drink with the aid of a nurse or family member.
Adding to the distress, a catheter was inserted causing significant discomfort, with Mr Reeve telling his wife he felt as though he had been cut by a sharp knife.
Ms Biffin has since questioned why the procedure was needed when her father was not drinking and less intrusive methods, including incontinence pads existed.
When asked about the concerns raised by the Reeve family, Launceston General Hospital director of operations Jen Duncan did not provide a direct response, only saying she had spoken to the family of Mr Reeve, offering her condolences and concern for the issues they had raised.
She said patient safety and care was the one priority for staff at the LGH.
"Our staff work very hard each day to provide care to thousands of patients across Tasmania, often at very challenging times in our patients' lives," she said.
Ms Duncan said Mr Reeve's clinical and patient care records would be independently reviewed to ensure they met the standards of clinical safety and quality of care expected for all patients.
"Mr Reeve's family will be involved and able to provide feedback and I will meet them to walk through the outcome of the review," she said. "We will ensure that Mr Reeve's family's concerns are directly addressed."
Chief among those concerns for Ms Reeve is why her husband was not moved to a palliative care unit once her husband stopped responding to treatment and his quality of life began to deteriorate.
Even after Mr Reeve was allowed to resume oral food and liquid, the infection in his arm continued to spread, which prompted the family to request he be moved to the Melwood Unit at St Luke's Hospital.
"We said we'd really like him to be transferred to St Luke's, he's a DVA patient and he can go to a private hospital," Ms Reeve said.
Two weeks after arriving at LGH and being cared for in a four-bed room, the LGH palliative care unit agreed to move Mr Reeve to St Luke's.
They placed him in what Ms Reeve described as a storage or break-room next to the nurses' station, but he died before he could be transferred.
Ms Reeve said that for two weeks she and her daughter were forced to continually confront hospital staff about the care and welfare of her husband, citing poor communication.
In what should have been a peaceful time in her husband's life, Ms Reeve said the experience was traumatic and stripped Mr Reeve of his dignity. "It wasn't a peaceful way to go and he deserved better," she said.
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