Darent Valley Hospital has agreed to pay compensation to the family of a woman who died while waiting for a CT scan.
Jean Simmons, 81, was admitted to the hospital when she began to suffer with stomach pains in 2010.
While waiting for a CT scan, her bowel burst which resulted in her death.
To compound her family’s suffering, when her granddaughters came to say their goodbyes at the hospital’s chapel of rest, it became apparent they were shown the wrong person.
The hospital admitted it had breached its duty of care towards Mrs Simmons and agreed to pay her son, Paul Simmons, £5,000 in compensation.
A spokesman for the hospital said: “Mr Simmons claim has been settled in the amount of £5,000.
“We have given Mr Simmons a full account of events during his mother’s stay, in response to his complaint.
“We have offered Mr Simmons our sincere apologies for the poor service his mother experienced.
“We see 100,000 patients a year in our emergency services and occasionally some patient’s symptoms are not straightforward.
“Each case is unique but where we make a mistake, our staff will learn and put measures in place to stop it happening again.”
He continued to say: “We have apologised for the breakdown in communication at the Chapel of Rest. We had received a message that the family were running late and subsequently prepared for the next viewing.
“When the family arrived they were mistakenly assumed to be for the next appointment.
“We have now changed our procedure to ensure that names are confirmed, before relatives are escorted to the Chapel of Rest.”
