Daughter of woman who died at Addenbrooke's hospital explains how she 'wanted to have every minute of every day'
Janet Tracey was preparing for the last year of her life last February. First she had been told that she had lung cancer. Two days later, she learned that it was terminal. Though her condition was not curable, her family say that she was told that she might have 12 months to live with treatment.
Tracey was a care home manager in Enfield, north London. "She really cared about the people in the home: their wellbeing, their day-to-day life. She used to talk of them with affection," said Kate Masters, one of her four daughters.
Now Tracey, too, was fighting for all the time she could get, enrolling on a drug trial and determined to enjoy the days she had left. Masters said that when her mother had first been told she had lung cancer: "She pressed the doctor to tell her how much time she had. He told mum that she had six-to-nine months with no treatment and up to 12 with treatment. Mum was devastated."
Only her parents were at this initial meeting, but two days later Masters was present when her mother saw her oncologist. "Mum did not ask again how long she had ? Mum had decided that it was not the time she had left that was important but what she did with it. She just wanted to fight her cancer and enjoy her time with her family." After Tracey's oncologist gave the prognosis, "she wanted to make the best of it, every single minute", said Masters.
"From the minute the doctor looked her in the eye and said, 'we can't cure you, but we can treat you', she had a fight I just can't describe. She wanted to have every minute of every day. We wanted to do nice things, things to focus on, away from the chemotherapy."
Masters's sister, Alison Noeland, agreed. "She was a very gentle, caring person. She also had a determined side which meant if there was a problem with one of her residents, she would be there and would fight to the end to get them what they wanted."
Noeland had travelled from her home in Norway to see her parents at their home in Ware, Hertfordshire, soon after the diagnosis. "We would have short-term goals. We knew time would be more precious than it had been.
"We were just all working together to be strong. Mum very clearly knew her diagnosis. She sat quietly and asked: 'Do you think I will get my 12 months?' I said: "Don't think about 12 months, think about today, think about tomorrow. That was the type of mentality we had."
But then, early on 19 February, as Tracey drove alone on a back road to Harlow to do some shopping, she was involved in a crash which left her with a neck fracture. Initially she was taken to hospital in Welwyn, but late that evening she was transferred to Addenbrooke's in Cambridge.
The family's account of what happened over the next few days, during which Tracey passed her 63rd birthday, is disputed by the hospital. But the family insist that from the moment of Tracey's admission to the day she died, there were no concerns raised regarding her mental capacity to make her own decisions regarding resuscitation.
They allege, however, that a ''do not resuscitate" notice was included in her notes on 27 February without her knowledge and this was cancelled when she objected.
Before the following weekend, the family and the hospital discussed how Tracey could be discharged to a hospice for care, but there was no hospital palliative care team on duty until Monday, say her husband and daughters.
However, on Saturday night, a second "do not resuscitate" order was included in Tracey's notes. It said three of the four daughters had agreed to it, a claim the family dispute.
"The patient does not want to discuss resuscitation," said the notes.
At no point, say the family, was this discussed with Tracey, nor her consent obtained. She died on 7 March.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/aug/26/janet-tracey-case-fight
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