[SPCI-5] "I obtained his medical records... My brother had been placed on a trial... I found that his signature had been forged... that withheld the antibiotics"
Pamela Thomas tells how her 41-year-old brother died in hospital during the covid era
Dear Church Leaders (and everyone else)
This is post #5 in a series featuring presentations at the recent Scottish People’s Covid Inquiry (SPCI, as distinct from the official Scottish Covid Inquiry).
This one is from Pamela Thomas, whose 41-year-old brother died in hospital during the covid era. It is much shorter than the others.
A transcript is below.
I’m here today because I lost my brother James [Cameron]… the 5th of October 2021. He was 41 years old. He went to the hospital because he was dehydrated and had really bad diarrhoea. My son took him. It was Nine Wells Hospital [in Dundee].
When they arrived at A&E, my son was told that they wouldn’t let my brother in. They were not going to come and see him, so my son had to basically put up a fight to get my brother seen to. He was really unwell else he would never have went to the hospital.
[My son] had to phone 999… and the call handler eventually phoned into the hospital and got somebody to come out and see him. They took my brother in. My son said he was going to wheel him in… in a wheelchair if they didn’t take him… They went in. Within a couple hours, I received a phone call to say that my brother… potentially he was going to die… he was that unwell… he was going to die.
During this I was communicating with my brother via Messenger and stuff like that, and it was very, very short messages and thumbs up and stuff like that. But what happened over the next couple of days [was] that the messages started [to] become less and less and less. I joined a ventilator survivor group on Facebook, and I was reading about other people that was on ventilators and stuff like that…
Over the course of the weekend… he went in on the Friday… and in the middle of the night on the Monday night they put him on a ventilator without asking me or making me aware. They just phoned me and told me that he was on a ventilator. But I knew something was going to happen because the communication became less and less. And I’d phoned them up and I’d asked them if you gave him anything to make him sleepy.
So over the next few weeks he was in the hospital. He was on this ventilator. We weren’t allowed to see him. I think it was… roughly about a week before he even got to do a WhatsApp video call. He was… unconscious by then, sedated and paralysed… I would phone four times a day and do my video call at tea time.
After about three weeks… there was one evening one weekend… we’d noticed that he was changing colour and stuff like that. [He] was a bit red and swollen-looking. And then on the Sunday night he’d swollen up. His face was like a balloon. It was red raw, and then I found out the next… I think it was on the Tuesday… my brother was dead. I got a phone call — a 41-second phone call — and it it was… dead. He’d had a cardiac arrest.
After that, I obtained his medical records. I refused to take him out the hospital. My brother had been placed on a trial… and his medical records… I found that his signature had been forged. The trial REMAP-CAP randomised trial… it was a Dr Pauline Austin from Nine Wells who was a Study Investigator… put him on the trial. She forged his signature and put him on it. That withheld the antibiotics.
I tried to get a private post mortem. I went to the police and reported his death. I refused to take him, like I said. I wanted a post mortem to find out the cause of his death… how he died… because of the state he was in… They eventually allowed me to see him after he died. And since then it’s been kind of a battle with the Crown Office.
I gave evidence at Scottish Covid Inquiry. We were never allowed a post mortem. And they were never going to investigate his death. Recently, in 2024, a very, very kind consultant with over 30 years experience from England took hold of my brother's medical records [and] asked permission if he could have them. And he then submitted a report for me to state what he felt was the cause of my brother’s death. And what he had noticed… in the report was that my brother wasn’t tested for… sepsis on arrival, and he had no antibiotics. So all the… protocol that was in place usually before the pandemic or whatever… they would follow certain protocols… That all went out the window.
My brother… when I got to see him… he was unrecognisable. He had gained over four stone in weight. The funeral directors weighed him in his coffin and stuff like that… deducted all the weight for me. I’ve been fighting non-stop with the Crown Office. They now have this consultant’s report. The major crime team has been in touch with me. I’ve gave a statement to them. I’ve gave statements to the police in the beginning, and the Crown Office have now asked for two extensions… and they have these medical records in this report.
The report initially was only initialled, and again very kindly this consultant [from England] came and gave his full name. I’ve never spoken to him directly because obviously… potentially a witness in this, but he’s gave his full name to the Crown Office, and they are, I assume, investigating [my brother’s] death. They are passing it all up to the Crown Council…
That’s… our journey. And it’s been horrific. My brother’s face… he was unrecognisable… the size of him… his neck was in his face… it looked like he’d done 10 rounds with Mike Tyson. He died alone, face down, swelling for days. And I’ve lost absolutely all trust in the NHS. There’s zero there… I wouldn’t leave them in charge of my pets… That’s… all I’ve got to say.
This post features a longer version of the above account:
Related:
Links to the other posts in this series:
#1 Alan Mordue | #2 Diane Rasmussen McAdie | #3 Richard Ennos | #4 Alison Walker
#5 Pam Thomas | #6 Bill Jolly | #7 Martin Neil | #8 Liz Evans | #9 Clare Craig
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Some posts, including a version of this one, can also be found on Unexpected Turns
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