By JULIE ASH and HELEN TUNNAH
A grieving Grant Dalton has asked medical authorities to explain the shock death of his mother after a routine test.
The veteran sailor told the Weekend Herald that he needed to understand how his mother, Rose, could die after undergoing what the family thought was
a simple medical procedure.
"She drove to the test and she should have been able to drive home. It was terrible."
Dalton was this week named new head of America's Cup syndicate Team New Zealand, having juggled his first interview for the job with visiting his seriously ill mother in hospital.
Mrs Dalton, 75, died late last month after a private specialist conducted a liver test.
Complications set in and Mrs Dalton was transferred to Auckland Hospital critically ill. She died a few days later.
"She was on life support, and the day we were told she was going to die, I walked out of a doctor's meeting to my first meeting with Team New Zealand.
"My mother went in for a liver test because she'd been quite over-tired. In the process of the test, which doesn't appear to be a particularly dramatic test at all, she developed pancreatitis and died from it.
"It was pretty traumatic for the family.
"We want to ascertain exactly what happened and how it happened. There are obviously risks in any test, but we've got questions ... were those risks adequately explained?"
Dalton said the level of care his mother received at Auckland Hospital had been "unbelievable ... My faith in the public system was majorly restored".
An autopsy had been conducted and a coroner's report would be prepared, said Dalton.
"We have requested the documentation, the medical files from the specialist who performed the procedure, the [private] hospital where she started and then from Auckland.
"Once we have the medical files ... then we can decide what to do."
He said he had also approached the office of the Health and Disability Commissioner.
Dalton declined to name the specialist who conducted the test.
