A grieving grandmother has slammed NHS staff who failed to diagnose her 35-year-old daughter’s fatal cancer.
Mum-of-five Penny Wyatt tragically died just a day after being declared fit to be discharged from hospital.
A post mortem found her body was riddled with cancer after emergency services found her slumped over her toilet in her flat.
Her mother Tina Dubben, 60, is also unhappy that an inquest was not held into the death of her only daughter.
Penny had no idea she had cancer when she was taken to Peterborough City Hospital’s Accident and Emergency Department by ambulance after collapsing at a court hearing on July 18 last year.
NHS documents show she was declared fit for discharge after a four-hour hospital stay and was taken home in a “hospital transport” car one hours’ drive away in Cambridge, Cambs.
But a post mortem revealed Penny’s cause of death was cancer in her brain, lung, ovaries and lymph nodes which Tina said should have been picked up by hospital staff.
She added that police who found her lifeless body slumped over her toilet two days later told her Penny had been dead for 24 hours.
Mrs Dubben claimed no inquest was held as officers believe “no third party involvement” in her death because of a cover-up by the public services involved.
She believes her daughter could have been attacked at her council flat shortly before she died.
The post mortem found bruising on her arms which was inflicted after she left the hospital and Mrs Dubben, who had to collect her belongings, said her bank cards missing from the flat.
It also had take-away food boxes littered in it and dog food served despite Penny not owning a pet.
The cleaner, who has created a memorial for her daughter in her garden and visits her grave every week, criticising the hospital staff, said: “I feel I was robbed of my daughter.
“I don’t think they’ve done enough for her.
“Why didn’t they pick up on anything? If they were so good at their jobs they should have found something, they should have kept her in, not send her home like that.
“When she got home she couldn’t get upstairs in her flat, her neighbours had to help her.
“I expect A&E should have kept her in because 35-year-olds do not go around dropping dead like that and collapsing.”
She added: “I didn’t think my daughter was going to die.
“Penny didn’t know she was ill. She was starting to feel unwell about a week before but I had assumed she had a stomach bug.
“They didn’t even keep her in under 24 hours observation – she did not discharge herself.
“I think people should know, don’t believe what A&E say, I wish I had been there, she would not have been let out if I had been there, believe me.
“But I wasn’t, I wouldn’t like it to happen to anybody, not even my worst enemy I would like.
“I don’t think four hours (in A&E) was long enough, she obviously died the next day or maybe even the night she came out of hospital because the police said she was dead a good 24 hours before they got there.
“My daughter died home alone, I feel I should have been with her but I wasn’t given that opportunity and she wasn’t given painkillers and no medication this is how much they took her seriously and there was no inquest.
“When I visited her in the undertakers she looked liked she had all the troubles in the world on her shoulders, she didn’t look at peace and that’s a lot for a person all their grandchildren and their only child all in one hit, now I’ve just got my husband.
“I was shocked when all this happened no body could be more shocked than I was.
“She could have been scared out of her wits there. Had she been in hospital she would probably have still died but she would have had care, family there in those last moments.
“They didn’t do a chest x-ray or anything and they would have found it (the cancer) in the lung.
“I think the story should go out there because I was robbed of my daughter, the doctors could see they couldn’t save her life but my daughter died home alone, she could have been petrified.
“She could have been on the floor fitting, scared out of her wits, she was an only child.
“If anybody else had a young girl, 35, collapsed you would expect a bit better and keep them in hospital for 24 hours at least because it’s not normal for 35-year-olds go and collapsing dead.
“I’m still in shock and I don’t think she was treated right.
“I go (to her grave) every week put flowers on every week.
“I get panic attacks, I get a lot of headaches which I think is all to do with what’s gone on, I’m having counselling still.
“I still get tearful, I miss her, we cannot have mother’s days, christmas days or any days. It’s so sad, all of it.”
Mrs Dubben partly blames a Cambridgeshire County Council social worker Sally MacFarlane for her daughter’s death.
She said Penny was seen by a psychiatrist during her four-hour stay at hospital after medics were misled by the worker.
NHS documents show Ms MacFarlane spoke to paramedics attending to Penny at a family court hearing where her baby daughter was taken into care.
Paramedics’ notes stated Penny told them she “didn’t feel her normal self” and did not know why she collapsed, adding “?mental health problems”.
Their report added that Ms MacFarlane stated: “Patient is known to social services, has a history of personality disorder – narcissistic tendencies – removal of four children due to neglect – nothing diagnosed”.
But a letter from Penny’s GP Dr Richard Marriot at The Red House Surgery to Mrs Dubben said “through 2015 and 2016 there was no evidence of any narcissistic personality traits whatsoever.
“It was therefore unfortunate that when the paramedic arrived he was informed that she suffered from ‘narcissistic traits’…”
Mrs Dubben said she believed Penny’s “low mood” in hospital referred to NHS documents was due to her brain tumour and carried on: “That girl deserved better than but I think social services put the spanner in the works and the hospital listened to social services.
“If you cannot trust A&E who can you trust, as far as I’m concerned somebody is answerable.
“They were busy looking up there (Penny’s head) with a psychiatrist, they missed it (her brain tumours), didn’t one of them think perhaps she’s got something wrong with her brain?
“She had poor eye contact and low mood all don’t you think that could be something going on but no they all missed that, I think they should have definitely kept her in at least 24 hours observations but they even even bothered.
“She was very bright, intelligent. I’ve lost my grandchildren and I’ve lost my only child, what can I say, I’m heart-broken.”
A post mortem report by Consultant Pathologist at Addenbrooke’s Hospital Dr Roshina Ahmed stated: “This 35-year-old lady has died from metastatic malignant melanoma. The postmortem examination showed deposits of metastatic tumour in the brain, right lung, both ovaries and a paratracheal lymph node.
“Tumours in the front lobe are known to cause behavioral and emotional changes.”
A toxicology test showed Penny had drugs in her system other than prescribed antidepressants “consistent of therapeutic use”.
Mrs Dubben said she rescued her daughter and took her into her home in Cambridge after Penny became a victim of domestic abuse after marrying an abusive husband in Malta more than 16 years ago.
She, her 74-year-old husband Derek Dubben and Penny had only decorated her council flat nine weeks before she died.
Mrs Dubben, referring to bruise marks on Penny’s arms the post mortem confirmed happened after she left hospital, said: “I think there should have been an inquest – I spoke to the coroner and she said the police said no inquest because there’s no was third party involvement but I believe deep in my heart there was.
“Something somewhere else doesn’t add up, I feel someone is covering for someone.
“The police are wrong to say no third party involvement. I’m not saying she didn’t die of that (cancer) but she could have been roughed up before her death.
“It’s like somebody had grabbed hold of her.
“I’m still bringing it up with the police now but they don’t want to answer that.
“I would have liked to have those minutes because there’s a lot of things I would never know.”
