Mother of seven died at Northampton General after routine scan
The children of Yvonne Graham say almost a year on they are still awaiting an inquest hearing to get answers about their mother’s sudden death
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By Sarah Ward
The last words Yolanda Graham heard her mum speak was as she threw her handbag towards her, before she walked into the X-ray room at Northampton General Hospital on February 1 last year.
“Here catch that buggar,” Yvonne, 66, told her granddaughter Latisha, before heading in for a routine scan in the hospital’s X-ray department at 5pm. Less than five minutes later Yolanda heard her mum groaning from inside the treatment room. Two hours later she was dead after suffering a cardiac arrest, her sons and daughters gathered around her bedside, crying out her name.
Yvonne had had an anaphylactic reaction after being injected with a contrast dye routinely used before a CT scan.
She had been referred to the hospital by her Daventry GP after suffering from a bloated stomach. The referral notes show the GP was concerned about a potentially sinister pancreatic or gastric diagnosis.
Days after the referral she was given an appointment as there had been a cancellation and her daughter Yolanda and granddaughter Latisha took her to Northampton General.
Yolanda says everything happened so quickly after her mum walked into the X-ray room. After she heard her mum in distress, she says the doors of the room suddenly flung open and then a crash team arrived.
She said:
“I am saying, ‘What is going on? What is going on with my mum?’ and all they are saying to me is ‘Someone will be out in a minute’. They just kind of left me. I started calling my family to get my brothers and my sister there and they chucked me in a back room and put a screen around my mum.
“I had this doctor - he said; ‘What’s your mum’s medical? What does she have wrong with her? What medication is she on?’ and he was writing it on his hand. I am thinking, ‘You should know all this before injecting anything into anyone. What are you doing?’
“There was just no protocol there at all.”
Yvonne had long suffered with asthma and had stage three kidney disease, as well as arthritis and was on medication for high blood pressure.
A team of medics worked to save Yvonne in the X-ray room, while her family waited outside. Her son Clinton says they were mistakenly told by a doctor their mother had died.
He says:
“He come out after a little while and said ‘we’re sorry but she has gone’. Then next minute he has gone back into the room for another five, ten minutes. Then he has come back out and said ‘We’ve got her circulation going again, but just be on high alert because this is serious still’. We told them ‘Don’t stop working on her.”
Yvonne was taken down to the critical care department where she died at around 7pm.
Clinton says:
“We had to wait for someone to come and escort us down there. We were left for about an hour and a half and then we all got pulled into a room. Then woman came, sat down and said ‘sorry, she has gone’.
When they went in the room to say their goodbyes she still had tubes in her mouth.
The family say their mum should not have lost her life after attending NGH for a precautionary scan.
Yolanda is convinced her mother’s life could have been saved if there had been an epipen (an adrenaline used to treat anaphylactic reactions) in the room.
“She was bubbly on the way and we know she was perfectly fine. To just be gone, just like that over an injection - how can this happen?”
Clinton says:
“She had just had her hips done and she had been feeling a lot better because she was getting about again. She had a holiday booked abroad with myself and my partner.
“She was healthy enough to do it all - which is why it got booked. She even wanted to come quad biking, because she loved having fun.”
The family says their treatment by the hospital following their mum’s death has been disgraceful. Her death is being treated as a sudden hospital death and as with all sudden deaths has been referred to the local coroner. Yet almost a year on the Graham family are still awaiting an inquest hearing.
Yolanda said after their mother’s death they did not receive any communication from the hospital, instead she had to chase with numerous phone calls. Yvonne’s body was kept at the hospital for several weeks and the funeral director had to contact the hospital to get her body released. They were unable to follow their Romany heritage tradition and have an open coffin for their mother due to the time between her death and her funeral.
Yolanda says:
“They [the hospital] did not tell us anything. It seemed everything just went silent. We have just had all the coroners reports through, we have had to wait ten months.
“We have been treated like dogs,” says Yolanda. “This has devastated our family.”
Clinton cancelled his planned wedding after his mum’s death and their younger brother, who has autism and lived with his mum has been particularly affected.

At the start of this month the family received documents from the coroner including hospital statements.
The Graham’s have challenged various parts of the statements given by staff, including the time of death.
The family say they have also had to chase up the coroner’s office, even attending in person to try and move things along.
Asked what has caused the delay Northamptonshire coroner Anne Pember said: “I am currently awaiting additional reports from Northampton General Hospital.”
NN Journal asked a series of questions to Northampton General Hospital about Yvonne’s death and were told due to the impending inquest there were some questions they could not answer. Asked whether they had a policy for dealing with sudden deaths they said:
“Currently, we do not have a dedicated policy for sudden deaths, however our bereavement teams do offer support to families. We recognise the importance of this support and are actively working to strengthen our services to better meet the needs of families during these difficult circumstances.”
However they have refused to say how many sudden deaths have occurred at the hospital in the past two years, instead suggesting we submit a Freedom of Information request.
The hospital has now apologised for how the Graham family have been treated after the death of their mother.
Chief nurse at University Hospitals of Northamptonshire Julie Hogg, said:
“We offer our sincere condolences to the family of Mrs Graham at this difficult time and are continuing to work with the Coroner at pace to provide all appropriate statements required of us for the forthcoming inquest.
“We acknowledge that we should have improved our communication with Mrs Graham’s family during this time, and we would like to apologise for any additional distress this may have caused them.
“Our teams will be reaching out to the family to offer support ahead of the inquest and update them on the current position”.
The family says the apology is too late. An inquest date is yet to be set.
Just another example where some basic compassion and kindness (which has to be taught to staff because they don’t seem to understand they need it) might have made this situation more bearable. Has the chief nurse looked into that? Of course not. Because all NHS staff are heroes aren’t they.
Scandalous. So sorry for the family.