We want answers, demand dead mother’s family

Date published: 07 January 2016


THE distraught family of a new mum who died two days after giving birth are no closer to finding out the cause of her death 18 months later.

Lisa Parkisson from Derker died at the Royal Oldham Hospital in June 2014, after giving birth to baby Zac — but a cause of death is yet to be established.

Lisa was found unconscious two days after a Caesarian section and a team of doctors was unable to revive her.

Since then her sister Alison Ziemniak (41) and her husband Aaron, of Watersheddings and dad Robert Parkisson, have been searching for explanations.

The family met representatives of the NHS trust to raise concerns about the way they received Lisa’s medical notes - which were handed over in a car park.

Alison claims their solicitor has received a new set of medical notes from the trust, which includes a late, backdated entry added to it by the staff member who gave the original notes.

Alison said: “I thought it was extremely bizarre for a senior member of the trust, or any member of staff, to suggest meeting in the B&Q car park to hand me the notes. As grateful as I am for having these notes it’s how she has done it. It left us feeling something isn’t right.

“Now, 18 months down the line we’re none the wiser and then there’s this untoward behaviour on top of it.”

A pathologist suggested a possible cause of death last February, which the family is disputing.

Since then, they say, two experts — one from the coroner’s office and one they have appointed — have given two further causes of death, all of which contradict each other.

Aaron (43) said: “We’re in a worse position now than 12 months ago. We’re not medical people but we have felt the need to do our own reading.”

An inquest was supposed to be held in June but was postponed until December, and has now been pushed back to later this year. The trust is currently carrying out its own investigation.

Gill Harris, chief nurse at the trust, said: “Lisa’s family has raised a number of questions and concerns in relation to where they feel some of our trust policies and procedures were not followed by some of our staff, particularly in relation to the quality of record keeping, access to health records and support provided to the family following Lisa’s death.

“We have looked thoroughly into these concerns. Where the trust has made mistakes and the standards of care have fallen short of what both our staff and patients expect, we are deeply sorry and are committed to learning and improving all aspects of care we provide.”