Brithdir Nursing Home inquest: Family of Stanley Bradford speak out

Former miner Mr Bradford died in September 2005 just three months after moving to the Brithdir nursing home in New Tredegar.

His family said he was so neglected by staff that he was left looking like an inmate in a prisoner of war camp because of malnourishment.

His daughters Pam Cook and Gaynor Evans described the evidence they heard over the last few weeks as harrowing.

Stanley Bradford

“We’ve been waiting a long time, all these years and this has been hanging over us like a black cloud,” Mrs Cook said.

“We have always felt we wanted some form of justice and we needed to hear the truth of what happened to our loved ones.”

Mrs Evans said: “We always carried a lot of guilt with us, but knowing what we know now and listening to all the evidence and what went on, we knew there was nothing more we could have done.

“He was let down by all the different agencies.”

They said they never knew their 76-year-old father was suffering from pressure sores – leaving him in agony when anyone tried to move him.

“He wasn’t getting enough fluids and nourishment and we were never told he had any pressure ulcers,” Mrs Cook said.

“It was the first time we had experienced someone who was at the end of their life and was so ill.

“We saw him cry out when we did see him moved, which was rarely, but we thought it was because his body was shutting down.

“We didn’t for one minute know about pressure sores, we had never been told. What has come out is that he had a number of pressure sores and they were necrotic.

“Being in that position for the first time, these people are professional people, in a professional caring job, and if they are telling you one thing, you are going to believe them.

“You shouldn’t have any doubts at all to believe what they are saying.”

Brithdir was one of several care homes run by Dr Prana Das, who had been the subject of investigations for a decade prior to the events with Mr Bradford, and his daughters believe action should have been taken much sooner.

Stanley Bradford

“We can’t believe how it was left to just go on and on. They knew what was happening and the risks to residents and he was still allowed to have his homes open. They should have been shut down,” Mrs Evans said.

“It makes me think now how many other residents, before this all came out, how many others suffered and died from neglect?”

Mrs Evans’s daughter, Haley, said: “We know there were problems since 1995 and that’s all been swept under the carpet.

“When we were choosing the nursing home never once did the social worker tell us it was Dr Das’s home, never once did she tell us the home was in trouble and placed under an embargo and under investigation by the Care Inspectorate Wales.”

Mrs Cook said: “We knew he didn’t have a good name or a good character. He was a doctor only a few miles from where we lived, and we knew his reputation and we wouldn’t have, on that basis alone, let dad go in there.

“Listening to the inquest we’ve shed a lot of tears and had a lot of upset but besides that it has made us very, very angry.

Stanley Bradford

“This was left to go on and no-one stopped it, and everyone blames each other.

“At least now we know exactly what went on in there. We know they failed him from the top to the bottom.”

Her sister said: “I think someone should have gone to prison, especially Dr Das. He got away with it all.”

They praised the support they have received from their solicitors Hogan Lovells and the Justice for Jasmine group.

Miss Evans said: “Because they couldn’t tell us, we couldn’t stop it. But at least by fighting on we’ve proved to them that we did love them, and it wasn’t covered up and left, unnoticed.”

Her mother added: “They knew the problems, but they were still sending people there. I still think the guilt will always be with us. I don’t think we will ever get over that guilt.”