Dad’s physique saved in ‘chilly storage’ for a 12 months as household say stays are ‘proof’
Bill Trotter, 73, died in July 2024 after being treated at the Cumberland Infirmary in Carlisle – is family have raised serious concerns about his care and are fighting for justice
A grandfather has been kept in “cold storage” for over a year while his family battles for justice. It comes after alleged “failings” in his treatment with relatives believing his remains contain crucial evidence.
Bill Trotter spent most of his grown-up years in Cumbria but was originally born and raised in Washington. He passed away in July 2024 at the age of 73 following medical care at the Cumberland Infirmary. His relatives have voiced grave concerns regarding his treatment – claiming he was wrongly diagnosed on multiple occasions.
The pensioner died after falling into a diabetic coma – with his family alleging they were even informed that a leg amputation might not have been required, reports Chronicle Live. Additional grievances include their father being left for approximately 12 days after medics noted a bladder problem before a catheter was inserted – discovering he had retained nearly a litre of urine.
They’re also troubled by discrepancies in paperwork following his passing, particularly assertions that he had been hospitalised with the severe infected abscess that would trigger sepsis. It has now been acknowledged by NHS officials that Bill did not suffer from such an abscess when he was last hospitalised.
Yet this assertion was reiterated in a post-mortem examination. The NHS trust has expressed its “deepest sympathies” and confirmed it had “previously conducted a detailed complaint investigation into multiple issues raised” which aimed “to be an open and honest” process.
Bill’s situation was highlighted in the House of Commons last week by MP Julie Minns (Lab, Carlisle), whilst the Care Quality Commission (CQC) are conducting further investigations.
Children Mike and Kelly spoke to ChronicleLive about how dreadful their father’s final days had been – and expressed their desire to see those responsible held to account.
The family has obtained medical records revealing that their dad’s blood sugar levels plummeted to 1.2 – a dangerous “hypo” – following the administration of a substantial amount of medication.
At first, this wasn’t reported to the national records service which monitors severe diabetes harm incidents and had initially been documented as having only dropped to 2.4.
However, Bill’s family possessed his medical records and have been able to demonstrate this wasn’t accurate. Furthermore, after the family contacted the National Diabetes Inpatient Safety Audit programme, this incident was belatedly recorded properly, though only over a year afterwards.
Bill had relocated to Carlisle in the late 1970s to accept a position as a sales manager. He subsequently established his own office supplies business.
The family asked for Bill’s body to be transferred to storage in Newcastle as they believe it remains crucial evidence regarding what happened to him.
Mike revealed: “In terms of how awful it was for our dad, in hospital he was screaming and shouting that he was in pain and wanted to die. He was hallucinating and he just wanted out of there.
“With us being pretty switched on, we quickly picked up that things were not sitting quite right – and we were very very nervous. We really did fear for dad at the time. And since then, it’s been an extraordinarily trying and tiring situation. It feels like there is no protection for the general public.”
Kelly described the agony her father endured as tantamount to “torture” and declared: “We want all the facts to come out. We have all the evidence. We want all that went on to come out.”
The relatives are now fighting a ruling against holding a comprehensive inquest into their father’s death.
They’ve also secured backing from NHS whistleblower Paul Calvert – the individual who exposed serious worries about the lack of transparency surrounding failures within the North East Ambulance Service.
A CQC spokesperson said: “Our deepest condolences are with the family and friends of Mr William Trotter, following his sad death in July last year at the Cumberland Infirmary, run by North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust.
“As soon as we were made aware of the concerns around Mr Trotter’s death, we asked the trust to provide evidence around the care and treatment he’d received. Since then, we have received additional information regarding Mr Trotter’s care and treatment. We have asked the trust to provide further evidence, and we’ll review this to decide whether CQC need to take any regulatory action.
“We’ll continue to monitor the trust in line with our usual processes, to ensure people are receiving safe care and treatment. CQC’s priority, at all times, is the health and wellbeing of people using health and social care services, and all information we receive informs our monitoring of services and future inspections.
“We would encourage anyone who has concerns about a health and social care service to let us know. This can be done via our customer service centre on 03000 616161 or [email protected].”
A spokesperson for the NCIC NHS Trust expressed: “We would like to reiterate our deepest sympathies to the family of Mr Trotter at what has been a very upsetting and traumatic time.
“The Trust has previously conducted a detailed complaint investigation into multiple issues raised. The complaints process aims to be an open and honest review of concerns raised by patients and families and we have responded to these issues in full and shared the outcome with the family.
“We are sorry we have not been able to resolve the concerns of the family and they have been advised as to further steps they can consider taking in the event that they do not accept the outcome of the Trust’s complaint investigation.
“We have not been approached by the public accounts committee but should this be an issue they choose to investigate we would cooperate fully.”
