KEY POINTS:
The phone call Kirsty MacFarlane got to tell her her mother had died in hospital was hard enough to take.
But a second call, two hours later from a nurse at Dunedin Hospital, to tell her it was a mistake and her mother was alive, left her dumbfounded.
"I repeated what the nurse said to me on the phone, and my partner and my son were standing there at the time, and their mouths just dropped," Ms MacFarlane said.
"A, I was really hacked off that they had screwed it up so bad, but B, I was more elated that my mother was still alive. It was like a second chance for me. So it was a real mix of emotions."
That second chance did not last long. Valda Ada MacFarlane, 79, died the next day, September 30 this year.
Ms MacFarlane, 39, lives in Queensland and did not get a chance to see her mother before she died.
Her irate family have complained to the Health and Disability Commissioner about the botched message as well as several other issues in relation to Mrs MacFarlane's care.
An inquiry was done but the family say the findings are full of errors.
"It just shows me that the hospital is basically a joke. They had tried to pass this misconduct off to a third-year nursing student who we have never heard of," Ms MacFarlane said.
The family want compensation for their trauma.
Otago District Health Board chief executive Brian Rousseau gave them a written apology and explanation, but Ms MacFarlane said his response contained errors and left them with "more questions than answers".
"I feel as though I can't rest until I have got some closure on it ... I can't grieve until it is sorted out."
Mr Rousseau said yesterday that the health board had apologised for the mistake, learned from it and could do nothing more.
"It was not a good occurrence from our side. We have apologised to the family and I'm not sure what more we can do about it, quite frankly."
Although monetary compensation had been paid by the hospital before, when it could be proven medical mistakes had occurred, Mr Rousseau had "never seen it happen for the reasons [Ms MacFarlane] is raising".
"Every dollar we give her is a dollar less we can spend on health care to the people of Otago.
"It was an error, it's been picked up, acted on and we've apologised."
- Additional reporting by Craig Borley
