80-yr-old 'treated worse than a dog' as op cancelled FOUR times; EMERGENCY WARD ROW.Byline: VICTORIA BONE AN 80-year-old woman had her emergency hip operation cancelled four times in less than a week. Catherine Cumming was treated "worse than a dog" when she was made to fast before each postponement. And her treatment only went ahead after local MP and former Government minister Robin Cook intervened. Mrs Cumming's relatives have blamed her ordeal on a shake-up of hospital services. She was sent to Edinburgh Royal Infirmary after falling and breaking her hip because emergency major surgery was axed at St John's Hospital - less than a mile from her home in Livingston, West Lothian Coordinates: Livingston is the fourth post-war new town to be built in Scotland, designated in 1962. It is located approximately 25 km west of Edinburgh and 50 km east of Glasgow, and is bordered by the towns of Broxburn to the northeast and Bathgate . Ellen Glass, Mrs Cumming's care home matron, branded her treatment "inhumane in·hu·mane adj. Lacking pity or compassion. in  hu·mane ly adv. ". She added: "Catherine was 13th on a
list of people needing emergency operations, but they still fasted her
anyway.
"She was very malnourished mal·nour·ished adj. Affected by improper nutrition or an insufficient diet. . No one would treat a dog like that." A spokesman for NHS Lothian urged the family to get in touch about their complaint. CAPTION(S): DELAY: Cath waited 5 days for op |
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