A GRANDMOTHER of two died while being ferried over 600 miles from Somerset to Norwich in search of a mental health bed. Peggy Copeman, 81, died of a suspected heart attack as the ambulance she was in was heading along the M11 near Cambridge. The undignified end to a life well lived came as a […]
A GRANDMOTHER of two died while being ferried over 600 miles from Somerset to Norwich in search of a mental health bed.
Peggy Copeman, 81, died of a suspected heart attack as the ambulance she was in was heading along the M11 near Cambridge.
The undignified end to a life well lived came as a result of shortages of specialist bedding closer to her home in Norwich, where she was heading back to spend Christmas with her husband and family.
Mrs Copeman’s devastated family said that she had suffered periodically from schizophrenia for decades and had recently begun to experience vascular dementia.
Only four days earlier, she had been moved almost 300 miles to a hospital in Taunton, Somerset to an appropriate bed.
Her daughter Maxine Fulcher, 56, told the Daily Mail: “The way she was treated was just awful,
“I put my trust in people to look after her – to take her somewhere to get better – but Taunton was too far for her to go. It shows we have no respect for elderly people any more. As a society, we don’t care.”
Mrs Fulcher’s husband, Nick Fulcher, 54, said Mrs Copeman had picked up a urinary tract infection in Taunton and was unfit to make the long journey back.
She had suffered periodically from schizophrenia for decades and more recently had begun to experience vascular dementia.
He said: “If she had not been sent down to Taunton, I can categorically state she would still be with us.”
“When it comes to mental health, elderly people are forgotten. Doctors and nurses just blame their problems on dementia.”
A spokesman for Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust said: “We are very sorry about Mrs Copeman’s death. We will be working to investigate the circumstances and we will keep the family informed.”
The Trust said it had reduced the number of patients being treated outside the two counties from 71 in the spring to ten just before Christmas and was seeking to increase the number of mental health beds.
Besides Mrs Fulcher, Mrs Copeman also leaves a grandson, a granddaughter and her husband, Neville, 85.
