Derbyshire woman speaks of mum's harrowing hospital death as Marie Curie experts warn of crisis in palliative care
A Staveley woman has spoken out about the traumatic experience of watching her mother’s final hours at Chesterfield Royal Hospital as part of a national charity campaign highlighting a crisis in palliative care.
Customer service worker Zoe Cooney, 43, is sharing her story in support of Marie Curie, which this month published the findings of a major research study which found 170,000 people in England every year spend their final days in pain, distress or without vital support that should be available to everyone at the end of life.
Recalling her family’s experience in spring 2025, Zoe said: “The memory of what happened, and reliving that, I feel very guilty and like I could have done more but I trusted the hospital staff.
“It’s left us all really traumatised, and I feel in some ways I’ve not been able to grieve properly. That’s what’s moved me to try and make a change. The thought of other people going through the same thing is really upsetting.”
Zoe’s mum Karen, 65, was admitted to Chesterfield Royal just before the Bank Holiday weekend last April, due to complications arising from cancer which had spread rapidly through her body in the seven months since her first diagnosis.
Zoe said: “She’d been in hospital about a week, in and out of different wards. She started out with a bed on a bay where she was experiencing confusion and hallucinations. Most nights we had someone stay with her, but other times she would ring me up, really distressed.
“Eventually she was put into a side-room, and that wasn’t too bad, but on the Saturday things escalated and she was in a lot of pain which they struggled to manage through the night.
“On Sunday we were told she had days to live, because the drain for fluid in her stomach was no longer working. We weren’t given much more information than that. All the family were there and mum was laughing and joking – her usual witty self – then a few hours later she started to decline.”
As Karen’s condition worsened, Zoe and her siblings were shocked to find that staff seemed unready for the inevitable.
Zoe said: “It was as if they’d never had a patient dying before, and they said they didn’t have time to move her to Ashgate Hospice because it was a Bank Holiday and they wouldn’t be available until Tuesday. I don’t believe they ever even made that phone call.
“They said she had days to live, but they’d taken that as a goal, rather than monitoring her all the way. They just weren’t prepared. You’d think it wouldn’t matter, that this should be basic training, but even the older nurses seemed completely helpless, and everything seemed to be impossible because it was a Bank Holiday – as if people don’t die on Bank Holidays.
“As mum got progressively worse, they weren’t managing her pain at all. We were asking for people to come and give her medication to relax. You trust them, and they said they would make her comfortable, but she was so distressed, thrashing around, crying and begging for help. She was struggling to breathe and aware of everything that was going on.”
The ordeal went on for around 14 hours and even as Zoe’s family grew more insistent, they found the hospital response lacking.
Zoe said: “At one point a doctor did come down, who’d never seen mum before, then a more senior nurse. They gave her something that was supposed to help but nothing really changed. Maybe they didn’t feel comfortable prescribing anything, or they didn’t have the proper training and authorisation to give stronger medications, but it seemed like they were just messing around.
"She basically suffered all the way to her last breath, when she choked on the secretions. I’d nipped out of the room to talk to a cousin on the phone, but my sister stayed, and mum actually said, ‘I’m going.’ She knew, even in that last moment, when she should have died peacefully.
“At some points there were three or four nurses in the room, and they didn’t know what to do. We could see they were mortified, and when mum passed away they were crying in the nurses’ station.”
With so much to process following their loss, Zoe’s family have only recently begun the process of lodging a formal complaint with Chesterfield Royal, determined that lessons will be learned.
Zoe said: “Ward staff should be properly trained in end-of-life care, that training should be refreshed often, and if there’s any inkling that a patient is nearing the end of life, they need to put more capable people on duty.
“The other thing we noticed was staff attitudes. Mum had been on a few wards there, and the attitudes were just shocking. I don’t know if they’re struggling for staff and having to work extra shifts, but with some of them they come across like they don’t want to be there.”
In response to questions from the Derbyshire Times about the case, and the wider issues in palliative care identified by Marie Curie, the hospital’s Chief Nurse Krishna Kallianpur said: “We offer our sincere condolences to Karen’s family.
“We have not yet received any contact from them about their experience but remain committed to working with them to discuss their concerns and urge them to contact us to discuss these further.”
According to the researchers at King's College London and University of Hull, with contributions from the University of Edinburgh, unmet palliative care need is expected to rise by 23 per cent over the next 25 years, meaning that by 2050, over 212,000 people each year in England could die without the care they need.
That means more families like Zoe’s witnessing their loved ones’ last moments without access to vital medication, in ambulances, emergency departments, and even corridors following avoidable hospital admissions.
The UK Government committed to publishing a Palliative and End of Life Care Modern Service Framework this spring, then delayed it until the autumn.
Matthew Reed, chief Executive of Marie Curie, said: "The evidence is clear. People are reaching the end of their lives without basic palliative care, causing pain and distress that is often avoidable – and the situation is getting worse.
“The Modern Service Framework is a critical opportunity to fix this, but only if it delivers guaranteed 24/7 palliative care in every community, backed by proper funding. The UK Government has the evidence it needs, it must act. Dying people cannot afford further delay."
Marie Curie is urging the Government to make and fund three essential commitments, so that everyone can access care at the right time, in a place close to them, and with quality support from all healthcare providers, including compulsory palliative and end of life care training for all health and care staff, including GPs, paramedics, and emergency teams.
Zoe said: “Members of the Government might not experience this but they need to go to the hospital wards where this is happening, meet with families and really feel it.”
Marie Curie is inviting the public to support its Fix End of Life Care campaign and show the government how crucial change is. For more details, visit mariecurie.org.uk.