When 74-year-old Marian Green was rushed into hospital with heart and kidney failure, her family knew they were probably witnessing the last days of her life.
Her children, grandchildren and great-grandchild were brought to her bedside to bring some quality to the time she had left.
Their efforts succeeded in lifting her spirits — until they discovered four days after Marian was admitted that a hospital worker had stolen cash and a bank card from her handbag and gone on a ￡2,500 spending spree, buying clothes, a TV, a games console and alcohol.
‘It ruined the last precious days we had left,’ says her daughter Patricia. ‘We had to spend time with the police when we should have been spending it with her.
‘We tried to reassure Mum, but she was worrying. She had wanted to leave that money to the family. She died two weeks after the theft. I feel bitter and angry about the whole sorry episode. What kind of person would steal from a sick patient in hospital?’
It is a good question: yet Marian is far from the only hospital patient to be robbed while at their most vulnerable.
While no national figures are available on this most despicable of crimes, reports across the country suggest hospital patients are increasingly seen as easy targets.
There was the case last month of nine-year-old Chloe Challoner, a cancer patient who had her mobile phone stolen while receiving chemotherapy at the Queen Alexandra Hospital, Portsmouth.
Her father, Jamie Giblen, 31, was so concerned that an intruder had been in her room that he asked for her to be moved to another hospital.
Other crimes simply beggar belief, such as the theft of wedding and engagement rings from a 93-year-old woman as she lay on a ward at the West Suffolk Hospital in Bury St Edmunds last May. She died two weeks later. The NHS has entire departments concerned with crime, but not necessarily crimes against patients.
And there seems to be little co-ordinated action to stem the disturbing level of thefts inside hospitals. A trawl of newspaper reports reveals thefts of cash, credit cards, jewellery, clothing, music players, hearing aids, iPads and mobile phones from hospitals nationwide.
Nine-year-old Chloe Challoner, a cancer patient, had her mobile phone stolen while receiving chemotherapy
At the Western General Hospital, Edinburgh, a spate of more than 60 thefts led to hospital managers holding a meeting with police in February to try to halt the tide of crime.
Four pensioners, including one who was terminally ill, had jewellery stolen while they were patients at the Tameside General Hospital last August. A hospital orderly is awaiting trial.
All these crimes have one thing in common; they cause untold distress and upset to victims and their families.
‘On the one hand, you are grateful for the wonderful care the NHS provides and the vast majority of excellent staff on the ward,’ says Marian Green’s daughter Patricia.
‘Yet on the other, you find out that someone who should have been caring for your mother has actually taken advantage of her at the most vulnerable time in her life.
‘Before my mother went into hospital, she had asked someone to fetch ￡200 for her from the cashpoint, and unfortunately they left her card with a piece of paper with her PIN inside the bag. They were all taken from her handbag.
‘The police and hospital were fantastic, and when they found out that money had been withdrawn from an ATM in the hospital, they told us they were examining footage from a CCTV camera aimed at the machine.
'My sister told a nurse who was looking after my mother about the CCTV. The nurse went white. Several weeks later, after my mother had died, we found out that she had handed herself in to the police.’
She adds: ‘On the day that she realised her things had been taken, my mother’s blood pressure went through the roof and she had terrible chest pains.
'It still upsets me to think about it. We told her that all of the money had been recovered, even though it hadn’t, just to give her peace of mind.’
An employee of the hospital is awaiting trial.
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