A DEVOTED family were horrified when they discovered a Barnsley hospital consultant had written 'end of life treatment' on the medical notes of their beloved dad and granddad.
Until then, they believed he was being treated and getting better.
James Gallagher, 75, died less than 24 hours after his relatives made the grim discovery that the antibiotics treating his pneumonia had been withdrawn and he was only being given morphine.
What has really angered his daughter, Maureen McCarthy, 54, and granddaughter and medical student Shelley Burton, is they had spent hours that day at James' bedside and had even approached the consultant and asked if they could discuss James' condition and treatment.
"The consultant said they would talk to us later and was quite dismissive, then went off duty without saying a word.
"It was only later we learned what had been written on my dad's notes and that the antibiotics had been stopped," said Maureen, of The Square, Kingstone.
** The full story appears in the Barnsley Chronicle, dated February 13. **
