An 80-year-old woman collapsed in the car park of a hospital after being discharged on New Year’s Eve – and died the next day.

Widow Hazel Jarvis had had a hernia for 30 years and was admitted to Broomfield Hospital in Chelmsford at 7pm and underwent tests for pain.

Local newspaper the Daily Gazette reports that her son and daughter Steven Jarvis and Georgina Hughes were asked to collect her at 10pm.

Mr Jarvis said his mother – who lived alone in Braintree, Essex – was sent home in freezing conditions from the hospital. She collapsed in the car park and was readmitted to the hospital, where she died the next day.

The family has lodged a formal complaint against the hospital for discharging their elderly mother. Her daughter said she was shocked by her mother’s condition when she saw her in hospital after she had been discharged, claiming that her speech was still slurred and she looked no better than when they had taken her there earlier in the evening.

She said that a nurse told her that, apart from her mother’s blood pressure being ‘a little high’, there was nothing wrong with her.

Mrs Huges, 48, said however:

‘She was going home to an empty house. She was 80. It was 10pm and it was freezing. She couldn’t even dress herself. She had no energy.’

Mrs Hughes said that she and her brother struggled to get their mother into the car as she could not pull herself out of the wheelchair. At this point, their mother began to lose consciousness and Mrs Hughes ran back into the hospital for help, while her brother dialled 999. Mr Jarvis said he held his mother’s head while they waited in the freezing car park for paramedics to arrive.

Mrs Jarvis was resuscitated and readmitted to Broomfield Hospital, where it was discovered that her hernia had ruptured her bowel and she was suffering from previously undiagnosed diabetes.

Mrs Jarvis – who had eight children, 19 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren – died on 1 January.

Her daughter said that, although her mother might have been too ill for doctors to have saved her, she should not have been discharged at 10 o’clock at night – and the circumstances of having to go out into the freezing conditions contributed to her death.

A spokesman for NHS Mid Essex, Jo Triggs, said:

‘We have received a formal complaint from the family and, in line with our complaints policy, their concerns will be fully investigated and a full response provided by 12 February.’

The trust has offered its condolences to the family.

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