Decision report 201101348

Summary
Mrs C was unhappy with the care and treatment provided to her late father (Mr A). She complained that the board failed to reasonably monitor Mr A after he had a heart pacemaker (a device that regulates heartbeat) fitted, and that they unreasonably delayed in identifying that, after Mr A had knee replacement surgery, his anticoagulant (blood clot preventing) medication was causing nausea (sickness).

We did not uphold Mrs C's complaints. We looked at the medical records and took advice from one of our medical advisers and found that the board monitored Mr A reasonably after his pacemaker was fitted. Our adviser was of the view that the care provided was in line with appropriate standards for the insertion and follow-up of pacemakers. The records suggested that Mr A had a combination of nausea, fatigue, diarrhoea and generalised weakness after knee replacement surgery. His blood count had fallen and his kidney function had worsened to some extent.

Our adviser said that just after an operation none of these symptoms or problems was unusual in patients in Mr A's age group, and all could have a wide variety of causes. Our adviser said that a worsening in kidney function could cause nausea, as could many medications used around the time of surgery.

Taking all this into account, there was no unreasonable delay in suggesting that the anticoagulant medication used might have been responsible for Mr A's nausea, and no unreasonable delay in changing it to another drug. Overall, our adviser said that no aspect of the care Mr A received fell below a standard that could reasonably be expected.