She was his teenage sweetheart and they were married for 70 years. During her final months he feared that she was starving to death in her nursing home and all he wanted was for her to come home.
Cy Thistlethwaite, however, was forced to watch as his wife wasted away in hospital and then in a care home until she died alone. She lost four stone in four months and her corpse was so thin that even the undertaker asked what had happened.
This weekend an MP demanded to know why Bess Thistlethwaite, 88, had not been allowed home to die in familiar surroundings.
Cy, 92, had asked for his wife to come home within seven days of her admission to a nursing home when she was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, because he believed that she was not being fed properly. He spent £900 on a special bed to make her comfortable and pleaded with Nottinghamshire county council to allow her home for two weeks so he could demonstrate the quality of care he could give her.
The bed was never used. When Cy refused to pay his final contribution of £393 in protest about the care his wife had received, the council threatened the bereaved man with legal action.
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The case comes as a report ordered by Andrew Lansley, the health secretary, reveals that greater use of 24-hour community nursing could save the National Health Service £180m a year, as well as allowing more people to die at home.
“Bessie and her husband weren’t given a choice about her care,” said John Mann, Labour MP for Bassetlaw.
“She was forced to spend the last months of her life in a substandard care home while protestations from her husband, the hospital and me fell on deaf ears. Everyone involved should be ashamed.”
Bess had a settled daily routine to deal with her Alzheimer’s until she was admitted to Bassetlaw hospital with an infection last August.
At home she would have porridge and a banana for breakfast, then fish or chicken with fresh vegetables for lunch. The meals were prepared by her husband and she ate them unaided with a fork.
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In hospital she lost a lot of weight. Social workers persuaded Cy that it was in her best interests to go into a care home and he visited her there for eight hours a day.
He and Janet Bray, his niece, who also visited daily, were soon dissatisfied. Bess needed encouragement to eat, but the young staff at Rufford care centre in Worksop seemed poorly trained.
In October Cy asked his MP for help. He wrote to Mann: “I met with social services yesterday, who tell me it would cost too much to send my wife home with a full care package. This is a bad way for a couple to spend the time they have left. I wish I had never asked for help from social services, as they have ruined our lives.”
He got nowhere, however, and his wife died in hospital in January. “She was dying before your eyes,” Bray said last week.
“We had a meeting with social services and I said: look, Cy can look after Bessie better than she’s getting looked after here. If she’d come home three days after she was admitted to hospital, she would have been alive today.”
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According to Age UK, someone with malnutrition dies in hospital every 10 minutes and more than a third of older people in care homes are also at risk.
This weekend Nottinghamshire county council said there was “compelling evidence” that a nursing home was the best option — but it also admitted that it was cheaper.
Two carers visiting Bess at home four times a day would have cost £600 a week. Her care home was £495 a week — with £387 coming from the council and the rest from the NHS.
“We do appreciate that Mr Thistlethwaite would have preferred his wife to remain at home,” said David Pearson, the council’s director of adult social care. “However, there is strong evidence that, at the time, there was no alternative to nursing home care.”
The council is still threatening the war veteran with court: “With regard to Mr Thistlethwaite’s decision to withhold fees due for his wife’s care, the matter is being reviewed and we will not proceed with action to recover monies owed until the completion of that review.”
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Cy’s niece is planning to take him to Malta, where he served in the navy, to give him something to look forward to. He is consumed by guilt that he failed to protect his wife.
Mimosa Healthcare, which owns Rufford care centre, said it had followed every instruction from a GP and a therapist on how to nourish Bess.
Bassetlaw hospital said: “Staff do encourage patients to eat, using whatever inducements are at their disposal. But we cannot force-feed patients.”
The following letter was received in response to this article:
YOUR article “Pensioner ‘died of hunger’ in care, News, last week) claimed that Mrs Thistlethwaite ‘died of hunger’ but this isn’t true. She was very ill and her health had been deteriorating prior to her being placed at the care home.
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The story also claimed that a place in a nursing home was the cheaper option. In many cases, it’s actually cheaper to provide care for a person in their own home instead of placing them in a care home. In this instance, the professional judgment of social care and health care staff was that Mrs Thistlethwaite’s needs were such that she required a higher level of care, supported by nursing staff, which could be provided around the clock as required.
Making decisions about the care of a vulnerable person is never easy. Our staff worked hard to explore all the options available and acted in Mrs Thistlethwaite’s best interests.
David Pearson
Corporate Director
Nottinghamshire County Council