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Devastated family criticise Royal Stoke after death of Susan, 65

Devastated family criticise Royal Stoke after death of Susan, 65

A grieving family are still struggling to come to terms with the loss of their loved one at Stoke-on-Trent’s main hospital. Susan Twigg, from Tunstall, died of “heart and kidney failure” at the Royal Stoke University Hospital in May 2023.

Susan, 65, had been given up to three months to live when she was admitted to Ward 121. But her relatives say Susan suffered falls on the ward – despite requests for the bed rails to be raised – and broke her head falling into the toilet. She died three days later.




Today, her husband Leonard and daughter Andrea believe Susan should not have died so early.

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Andrea, 26, said: “The NHS killed my mum. She went into the Royal Stoke with kidney failure – which we knew about anyway – and my dad told them never to leave the bed rails down. She had a few falls out of bed and one day a nurse took her to the toilet, left her alone, and she fell off the toilet and hit her head. Her head was cracked and there were really bad bruises.”

“She died three days later, even though the doctors had given her two to three months. Mum couldn’t walk on her own and my dad made that very clear. I had a feeling something was wrong the day she died – May 16, 2023 – and at 11:55 that night the hospital called us to tell us she had passed away.

Susan Twigg pictured with her husband Leonard Twigg at the Royal Stoke Hospital after her fall(Photo: Andrea Twigg)

“She was in such a state that I couldn’t recognize her in the monastery chapel. Her face was blacker than black, I couldn’t even recognize that it was my mother. We couldn’t put her own clothes on because she was covered in blisters and had deteriorated, and the makeup didn’t cover anything.