Great-grandmother, 78, has leg amputated after ‘four-day wait on trolley in hospital corridor’

A great-grandmother had her right leg amputated after spending four days on a trolley in a hospital corridor, her family have claimed.

Geraldine Newing was admitted to Medway Maritime Hospital in Kent with a septic foot infection on Good Friday, March 29.

But relatives claim she was then left on a trolley for days and had to wait to be seen, before a surgeon said on April 2 that urgent action was needed.

The 78-year-old was told she could die if her leg was not amputated and was taken to have the life-changing surgery.

Mrs Newing’s son, father-of-two Michael Newing, has blasted the standard of care she received and claimed she may not have needed as much of her leg amputated if she had been treated sooner.

Mr Newing, 57, said: ‘It’s disgusting the way she was treated. It was like a war up there – that’s the only way to describe it. 

‘It’s particularly degrading for elderly people. For five days she was only seen by nurses and auxiliaries and there were no wash facilities.’

The family first called for medical attention at the end of last month at Ms Newing’s home in Sittingbourne, Kent and decided to go to MedOCC – an on-call service dealing with urgent care problems when GP surgeries are closed – when her condition deteriorated.

The factory worker from Sittingbourne, said: ‘MedOCC told us she needed urgent attention.

‘They took one look at her foot and said she needed someone to see her there and then.

‘They tried for two hours but none of the on-call consultants picked up.’

She was then taken to hospital, and five days later Mrs Newing’s husband Anthony was suddenly told his wife would have to undergo her shock operation.

Her right leg was amputated from the knee down, with doctors warning she could die if the surgery was not undertaken.

Mrs Newing remains at the hospital, where she is on a drip and antibiotics to fight the infection.

Her son Mr Newing continued: ‘She’s not doing too good. If someone had looked at her foot properly on Friday, when she first went to hospital, it might not have been so severe.

‘Maybe she would have lost her foot or a few toes or something. The surgeon said that if he hadn’t amputated the leg, my mum wouldn’t be here now.’

Mr Newing said he and his family have been appalled at the treatment his mother, who is diabetic and has had strokes in the past, has received.

The family have now launched a complaint against Medway NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the hospital, about her initial treatment.

Mr Newing added his mother has sadly developed a blood clot on the lung and another problem with her heart.

He also claims that, during the time she was waiting to see a doctor, there were at least 10 other patients on temporary beds with poor washing facilities.

He continued: ‘It’s 2024. People say it’s not that bad, but I saw a person die on that hospital corridor.

‘Four days my mum was there and she didn’t have a wash – my mum’s a very clean person.

‘It was that bad that she was saying she smelled bad… It was her foot that was smelling, but we couldn’t tell her that.

‘When they changed the bandage on her foot, they took it off, cleaned the foot and put the same dirty bandage back on because they didn’t have any more bandages.

‘There’s no compassion up there, no dignity. It’s degrading for any elderly person.

‘And they’re building more houses in the area, so the hospital’s just not going to cope.’

The family also had a meeting with a chief medical examiner from the hospital earlier this week to discuss their complaint.

Sarah Vaux, interim chief nursing officer at Medway NHS Foundation Trust, said: ‘We are very sorry that Mrs Newing waited so long in our emergency department.

‘We are in contact with her and her family to investigate and learn from their concerns about her care.’

MailOnline has contacted the Medway NHS Foundation Trust for further comment.