The Health and Disability Commissioner is considering launching an investigation into the treatment a Nelson dementia sufferer received at two Nelson hospitals.
The daughter of Colleen De Valera, 77, has claimed that Nelson medical staff gave up on her and withdrew her nutrition for almost five days.
However,three months after the incident, Mrs de Valera is living in a Stoke suburb retirement village and can feed herself, the Nelson Mail reported.
Mrs de Valera's daughter registered nurse Su Wyatt said her mother's treatment was "barbaric and extremely cruel".
Ms Wyatt - who has worked as a nurse in India and Guatemala and has a master's degree in nursing - said the level of care her mother received in Nelson and Alexandra hospitals was worse than in many Third World countries.
She said the improvement came only after pressure from her to restart Mrs De Valera on food and water.
Mrs De Valera had been diagnosed with bowel cancer.
However, medical staff refused to acknowledge or test for this, putting her mother's condition down to end-stage cancer, Ms Wyatt said. They withheld food and liquids and did not turn her in bed.
Mrs De Valera is now living in the Ernest Rutherford Retirement Village.
The Nelson Marlborough District Health Board's chief medical adviser Andre Nel said he stood behind his staff.
The hospitals provided high quality and appropriate care for elderly patients comparable with the best in the world, Dr Nel said.
Deputy health and disability commissioner Rae Lamb said the office would decide whether to formally investigate the complaint in the coming weeks.
