27^th  April 2013 - there is a disturbing photo here so if likely to be upset please be aware

Dear Mr Andrew Stoner,

I am in receipt of your letter 23^rd April 2013. I am disappointed but not surprised at your response.  You would know writing to Ms Skinner is useless as she never answers any letters. Not even an acknowledgement.  Re the letter sent previously and parts of emails you sent to me in 2007 and 2008. You have not addressed any of the issues raised at all. I note that Ms Skinner is also responsible for Medical Research – surely a conflict of interest if she is there to ensure the public is protected from dangerous research as was done to Don in the last weeks at RNSH

It was Medical Research run by the George Institute in ICU wards in Australia and NZ which made Don's last weeks even more miserable than they would have been. A study called the NICE Study - "Joint Statement on the NICE-SUGAR Study on Intensive Vs Conventional Glucose Control in Critically Ill Patients http://www.newswise.com/articles/view/550381
The American Diabetes Association (ADA) and the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists (AACE) maintain that the findings of the Normoglycemia in Intensive Care Evaluation-Survival Using Glucose Algorithm Regulation (NICE-SUGAR) study should NOT lead to an abandonment of the concept of good glucose management in the hospital setting. Uncontrolled high blood glucose can lead to serious problems for hospitalized patients, such as dehydration and increased propensity to infection.

Results from the study indicate that critically ill patients treated in the intensive glucose control group were 14% more likely to die compared to critically ill patients in the conventional control group. 

More than 6,100 patients with hyperglycaemia in critical care units were randomized to either intensive glucose control (insulin infusion with target blood glucose between 80-108 mg/dl) or to conventional glucose control (insulin infusion begun if blood glucose was over 180 mg/dl, and discontinued if blood glucose dropped below 144 mg/dl). Severe hypoglycaemia (blood glucose below 40 mg/dl) occurred in approximately 6.8 percent of intensively treated patients compared to 0.5 percent of conventionally treated patients. The study showed no difference in length of time in the intensive care unit or in the hospital, or in other major outcomes such as time on ventilators or need for dialysis.
http://www.newswise.com/articles/view/550381 
http://www.diabetes.org/for-media/pr-NICE_SUGAR-study.jsp 

On the first day Don was in Intensive Care this research was pushed to us with the qualifier that taking part meant only miniscule amounts of blood would be taken, but as this would be getting tested more regularly than normal, this would give Don a better chance of survival. At one time his Haemoglobin levels were down to 66 a dangerous level when 130 is normal – they still took bloods from him for this study.

Don was given many bags of blood over the time in ICU because his haemoglobin levels were dropping. He had 10 bags of blood over the last two weeks alone, always in an amount of two bags per transfusion. It was never explained why he would need this much, and I would dearly like to know why. Around 10th May, near the end, I was present when a doctor and nurse actually force-squeezed two bags of blood into Don as if it were an emergency. One of them was squeezing the bag while the other attended to the connection, then they changed positions with the second bag. I have no idea why this was happening. The notes record the times these bags were given as being hours apart, but they weren’t. I would say they were given within an hour of each other. God knows why the records are different from what I saw with my own eyes. My sister says in over 30 years of nursing she has never seen this done. She said it would have caused him suffering to have the blood forced into his body that quickly. I would also like to know why, if Don’s haemoglobin levels were so very low, and knowing how sick he was, why some days they did full blood tests eight, ten, twelve times a day? There is no way his poor sick body would have been able to make up all that blood. My sister is a nurse of over 30 years in renal Dialysis– she said he would have suffered terribly because of this – added to what else had already been done to him.

After election I met with Leslie in her rooms. She was a different person and her attitude had changed. She suddenly came up with the observation that the amounts of blood taken were not that high. The nurses I have had contact with one who actually worked in ICU at RNSH were shocked at how much blood was being taken. I think I would rather listen to these highly qualified nurses – one being Eve Hillary author of “Sarahs Last Wish”.

So by the Statistics 14% of the 6000 people who found themselves fighting for life in ICU’s in RNSH and other, would have died because of this study – that’s about 840 people who would not have died! But how many others like Don had their suffering made so much worse by this disgraceful and useless research. Who speaks for these people, certainly not the minister of medical research?

My sister with my permission, took this 18^th April. At this stage Don had no infection, the research had started the day before, he had not become full of fluid and had not forcibly had the ventilator removed five times and held till he was at the point of Respiratory arrest which is horrible to watch and how much more horrible to go through for no reason. At his point he had another dreadful 33 days, that’s four weeks and five days to endure their torture. I am not enclosing this for shock value just to remind you that there was a human being involved here.

My husband’s treatment and death has so many levels which need investigation that to thoroughly investigate his killing would open up too many areas of criminality which is at present covered up by the Medical and medical Research world, and the Health Department. A Department which has always no matter who was in Government protected the medical criminals and abandoned the vulnerable people who find themselves in their hands.

You know there should have been a full Inquiry into Don’s brutal treatment and death. An Inquiry where we would have the help needed to have independent from the Health Dept doctors go through the sequence of events, the medication stuff ups, the effect of covering up of unnecessary treatment, close examination of Scans and Pathology, the multiple infections, the dangerous research, the filthy surroundings and a list that only a medical person could cover. I do not have the funds to do this.

What really haunts me is that I know that in NSW Hospitals there are people like Don, like Vanessa Anderson and others being killed right now because nobody in either Government has had the humanity to actively work for changes.

Andrew just referring this all on to Jillian Skinner as you know is worse than useless. It appears to me that all people do when they are in Government refer us to other Ministers who don’t answer. I don’t apologise for writing in this vein. Our small family was and is very close. For us to not work for justice for Don is unthinkable as it would be with all loving families. We are his last line of defence as it seems there is none to be had anywhere else.

I hope you reconsider.

Yours sincerely,

Mrs Therese Mackay