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Source: ONE News -
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The family of a diabetic grandmother is calling for someone to be held accountable for her death.
An independent review found a series of what have been termed "missed opportunities" in the treatment of Maureen Pineki.
The 68-year-old died in Auckland City Hospital's intensive care unit on September 12 from a critically low level of glucose in her blood - hypoglycaemia, according to an Auckland District Health Board report.
Pineki's daughter Marie Hanson told ONE News that while New Zealand's medical system is good, "they did stuff up and they gotta be accountable for it".
The report says that on the information provided there appeared to be a number of missed opportunities for intervention to reduce Pineki's insulin dose.
Auckland's new medical laboratory provider Labtests is criticised in the report, along with the medical centre which ordered blood tests, and an ambulance crew who treated Pineki.
The report said Pineki's call to her GP's clinic was handled by a nurse but her concerns were not passed on to the doctor.
The nurse ordered a home-visit blood test but did not make any special note of Pineki's reported hypoglycaemia, which resulted in the tests being treated as "routine".
The results were found to be critically abnormal, but a delay in processing meant it was unclear if this was real, or caused by natural breakdown in the blood sample.
Labtests should have urgently contacted the medical centre, the report says. On receiving the Labtests fax, which probably "downplayed" his interpretation of the results, Pineki's GP tried once to phone her, but got no answer.
That morning, an ambulance crew was called after Pineki fell. They gave oral glucose, without determining her history of hypoglycaemia, "which would have indicated transport to hospital was required".
Labtests said the report's authors had told the organisation its handling of the tests did not directly lead to Pineki's death.
However, her family says they are not satisfied with the report and are planning to consult a lawyer about her treatment. They claim the missed opportunities highlighted in the report were actually mistakes committed by the very health professionals Pineki was relying on to keep her alive.
No apology has been made to the family and they say because of everything that has happened they have not been able to get closure.
