A hospital has apologised to a man whose dementia-suffering mother died “under state detention” without his knowledge.

Lil O’Neill, who had been living at assisted living facility Rutland Lodge on Nascot Road for six years, was one month shy of her 100th birthday when she died from multiple organ failure at Watford General Hospital in April.

At an inquest in Hatfield today (Thursday), a death by natural causes verdict was recorded by Hertfordshire assistant coroner Edward Solomons.

After the inquest the Ward sister approached Lil’s son Bill, of Courtlands Drive, to apologise for allowing him to spend the week leading up to his mother’s death at her bedside without knowing of the Deprivation of Liberties (DoL) order imposed on her.

A DoL order is designed to protect a person from harm when they lack mental capacity to consent to care or treatment.

The Department of Health stipulates that efforts should always be made to inform a family member the order. Mr O’Neill was not, despite spending most of what turned out to be his mother’s final week at her bedside, frequently talking to doctors, nurses and other staff.

He only became aware of the order when he applied for written confirmation of her death.

“If I had known about the DoL I would have tightened my awareness. I would have stayed by her side continuously,” he said.

“She told me ‘I just want to go home’, although she was too frail to move anywhere at this point.”

Mr O’Neill said his mother was “inappropriately” moved from intensive care to an outpatients ward when she was still very ill, and administration of antibiotics was changed from intravenous to oral application.

She had poor hearing and struggled especially with new voices, according to her son. Combined with her dementia, this made any hospital stay very traumatic for her.

Mr O’Neill said his mother’s dementia made her “difficult”, leading to the imposition of the order. However he said the lack of transparency from hospital staff created problems that could have been easily dealt with had he known about the DoL.

“Had I known about any misgivings among staff, which I’m charitably presuming led to the order, I could have advised on better ways to support and assist her,” he added.

“I feel that the order was imposed to make life easier for the hospital, and that its effect was to make life fatally worse for my mother.

He said the DoL order was the “tipping factor” in his mother’s death, adding: “It instigated a regime at our hard-pressed and dysfunctional hospital that saw my mother bumped to the bottom of the queue for treatment and support, contrary to those legal safeguards.

“I would have preferred to move on after mum’s death but I feel I must raise awareness of what I see as the system being abused to the detriment of fragile, vulnerable patients, and how easy it is to do so.”

Chief Nurse Tracey Carter said: “I would like to offer our sincerest condolences to Mr O’Neill on the death of his mother.

“The Sister in charge of the ward where Mrs O’Neill was a patient apologised, on behalf of herself and the staff that looked after her, that they personally didn’t mention to Mr O’Neill that his mother had been under a DoL safeguard at the time of her death.

“The investigation which we undertook has allowed us to learn lessons so that we continually improve the care we provide for our patients and their families.

“Our staff have been reminded of the importance of speaking to relatives when DoL safeguards are considered”.