Missing - and nobody knew
A terminally-ill man with cancer was so fed up waiting for treatment at Shropshire's Princess Royal Hospital that he got up and left - then walked two miles to his house with a needle still attached to his arm.A terminally-ill man with cancer was so fed up waiting for treatment at Shropshire's Princess Royal Hospital that he got up and left - then walked two miles to his house with a needle still attached to his arm. After spending four days in hospital in Telford, 56-year-old Graham Rushton decided he was well enough to leave and set off for his Donnington home. Mr Rushton, known by his friends as Rocky, was a disc jockey and GKN Sankey production worker until he was diagnosed with a rare form of stomach cancer six years ago. On Thursday, January 4, he checked into the hospital for a blood transfusion, which went ahead the next day. He expected to be discharged over the weekend. Read the full story in the Shropshire Star
After spending four days in hospital in Telford, 56-year-old Graham Rushton decided he was well enough to leave and set off for his Donnington home.
Mr Rushton, known by his friends as Rocky, was a disc jockey and GKN Sankey production worker until he was diagnosed with a rare form of stomach cancer six years ago.
On Thursday, January 4, he checked into the hospital for a blood transfusion, which went ahead the next day. He expected to be discharged over the weekend.However, by Monday, he had still not been seen by doctors, says his wife Valerie, 53. And when she arrived to visit him on Monday afternoon, she says, no-one had even realised her husband was gone.
She said. "I thought he had gone for a walk around but I looked around and couldn't see him. Then I noticed his slippers weren't by his bag and his coat wasn't there, and I thought, 'Oh God, where's he gone?."
Eventually she went home and found Mr Rushton waiting for her to return. He still had a cannula needle in his arm, which would have been used to connect a tube for another transfusion.
She said. "He was lucky he didn't collapse on the way home. A nurse had to come and take the needle out the next morning.
"He realised it was stupid what he had done. I just want to know how it was allowed to go unnoticed for two hours. It could have been longer if I had not have come along."
Mr Rushton, a father of four and grandfather of three, is currently staying at the Severn Hospice in Shrewsbury.
Adrienne Murphy, for the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospitals Trust, said: "We would of course on all occasions make every effort to ensure that patients are seen regularly and appropriately." She said the Rushtons could contact the trust and the issue would be investigated.
by Dave West
