Family’s fight for tragic mum

KEEPING up the fight . . . (from left) Judith Smith and Robert Parkisson, the late Lisa Parkisson’s mum and dad; Aaron Ziemniak and Alison Ziemniak; Lisa’s brother-in-law and sister, who now look after Lisa’s son, Zac

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THE family of a mum who died two days after a Caesarian section at the Royal Oldham Hospital have rejected a coroner court’s conclusion, vowing to keep fighting for “the truth”.

Lisa Parkisson (35), from Derker, died on June 23, 2014, two days after giving birth to son Zac at the Royal Oldham Hospital in an emergency Caesarian section.

On Friday, North Manchester Coroner’s Court, which covers Oldham, confirmed a verdict of natural death, caused by sudden adult arrhythmic cardiac death (known as SADS).

While the hospital was found to have shown shortcomings in the way it observed and documented Lisa’s condition this did not amount to neglect, the inquest said. And there was no evidence that any shortcomings while in hospital caused Lisa’s death, said area coroner Lisa Hashmi. The conclusion followed a lengthy, complicated inquest which included at times conflicting views from three medical experts. However, the coroner said this was not unusual at inquests, when evidence had to be tested thoroughly. At the end of the inquest, the coroner said there was a general agreement between the medical experts who were entitled to revise their opinions in light of what other experts and witnesses said.

Legally, their judgements had to be based on evidence, not suspicion or sympathy, she emphasised.

Lisa had thrombocytopenia — in which the blood has a low number of platelets, however it was not considered a major concern. Although it didn’t cause Lisa’s death, the family felt that better care should have been shown.

They raised a series of questions surrounding her surgery, medicine and care, including whether staff had properly checked Lisa closely in her bed during the early-morning of the day she died.

In a later inspection that morning, Lisa was found cold and unresponsive despite being in a warm maternity ward. Attempts were made to resuscitate her before she was formally pronounced dead.

Friday’s final conclusion followed an earlier hearing which reached the same conclusion on a provisional basis.

However the family issued a fresh statement, saying they remained unhappy with the verdict.

Zac was Lisa Parkisson’s first child and he is now cared for by Lisa’s sister and brother-in-law, Alison and Aaron Ziemniak.

Reading the statement, Mr Ziemniak said: “The family does not agree or accept the cause of death given today. We do not feel that many questions have been answered sufficiently - some not at all.

“The family is still waiting for investigations to be concluded within the trust regarding trust policy on access to records and the quality of record-keeping. These concerns have been upheld and subjected to further action.

“The family also still awaits the invitation into the trust, to have any questions we may have answering, as suggested by the Coroner Mrs Hashmi.

“The last 23 months have at times been unbearable for us. On top of the tragedy, we feel we have had further distress from errors and inconsistencies. Over this period we, as a family, have worked extremely hard on everything we have on front of us. We will continue to do so until such a day arrives when we are satisfied with the answers and corrections put to us. Until that day, we will continue to seek as much truth as possible - more so for Lisa’s beautiful little boy Zac.

“The power of love should never be underestimated and our love for Lisa was, and still is, the greatest.”

Representatives from Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust were at the inquest. Two representatives of women and children’s services and midwifery services said they were happy to meet the family to discuss their concerns.

In a statement after the hearing, Gill Harris, Chief Nurse at the NHS trust, said: “Lisa’s death was tragic and wholly unexpected. We fully accept the coroner’s findings following the inquest, confirming that sadly Lisa died from natural causes and we would like to again offer our sincere condolences to Lisa’s son Zac, Zac’s father Chris, and her family and friends for their loss. It is such a sad case.

“The circumstances surrounding Lisa’s death were included in the independent external review we commissioned two years ago into a small number of maternity cases at out hospitals between January and June 2014. The findings of the review have been shared with the families involved and our partner agencies. Although we, as a trust, have identified and implemented areas of improvement as part of our maternity improvement programme, the Coroner has found no link between the findings of this review or our own internal investigation and Lisa’s death. Nevertheless, it is important that we are committed to continual learning to help us improve and achieve the highest standards of maternity care our staff provide.

“The trust will be in contact with Lisa’s family and we will arrange to meet with them to answer any further questions and discuss any concerns they may have. We want to be open and honest with the family and offer our support to them at this difficult time.”