Dad's trapped in hospital bed

Pensioner Albert Russon, who was once the Queen's telephonist, has been in hospital for the last 14 months, during which time he has contracted the MRSA superbug.

Pat Dann, Mr Russon's only relative, lives 200 miles south of Perth, Western Australia, and has spent her life savings flying back to Sussex to visit her father.

Because he has been in hospital so long, Mr Russon has been forced to give up his flat and all his belongings have been stored with friends.

But, despite Pat's efforts to find him a nursing home, Mr Russon remains in a hospital bed.

His daughter, a retired nurse, says he should be in a nursing home.

Brighton Health Care NHS Trust maintains he should remain in hospital for continuing treatment, whether or not a nursing home place was available.

Pat said: "All I want is to get Dad into a nursing home so he can have some quality of life.

"He's 87, he's lost his home, his independence, he can't come back to Australia with me because he has this superbug and he's just wasting away in hospital.

"The NHS seems to me to be in chaos and it seems to be the very elderly who are suffering most. It's as though they have passed their sell-by date.

"He's trapped in a Catch 22 situation. He has a chronic infection that is not going to go away. Everyone I talk to is passing him off to someone else. He is utterly shattered. I don't think he wants to go on.

"It seems we are in a world that doesn't care very much. All he needs is help but it's very difficult when you are 12,000 miles away."

Before retiring, Mr Russon, who lived in South Heighton, near Newhaven, operated the switchboard at Buckingham Palace.

Pat said 15 months ago her father was a fit and active pensioner, able to get about and care for himself.

He shopped and cooked and regularly caught the bus into Newhaven.

But she said all that changed when he was taken into hospital 14 months ago with a deep vein thrombosis in his left leg.

Pat came back to Britain to spend Christmas 2000 with her father. But eight days after returning to Australia, she had a call to say her father had been admitted to the Royal Sussex County Hospital and needed to have his leg amputated.

She flew back immediately to help care for him. To Pat's relief, doctors decided the amputation was not necessary but while being treated for the DVT, Mr Russon contracted MRSA.

Pat said the hospital's barrier nursing, where an infected patient was kept in isolation, was very poor.

Mr Russon was then transferred to Downs Hospital in Newhaven.

Pat visited her father every day and fed him and he appeared to be getting stronger. But 24 hours before she was due to return to Australia, Mr Russon fell out of bed and broke his hip.

He was transferred back to the Royal Sussex for a hip replacement and Pat once again flew back to Britain to try and get him into a nursing home.

However, following the operation, the hip became dislocated.

Doctors operated again, carrying out a girdle stone operation, where part of the bone is removed.

During the procedure Mr Russon contracted cellulitis, a bacterial infection of the skin and tissues beneath it.

Pat said: "That operation left him crippled and completely unable to walk or stand. The hospital told me he had a 'little infection' in his leg but it turned out to be major cellulitis."

Mr Russon was again transferred to Downs Hospital but was in such pain that he was taken back to the Royal Sussex. Pat returned to Britain once again.

All this time Pat fought to retain her father's flat but eventually had to let it go last August.

"I virtually poured his whole life into three suitcases and they are now stored in a friend's attic.

"If he is terminally ill then he needs a hospice where he can have some of his roots around him. If he isn't then he needs to be in a nursing home where he can have some kind of life. A man of his age shouldn't be treated this way."

Pat said she had no idea what had happened to her father's pension since he had been in NHS care.

"I've been in touch with social services but they say they cannot help him because he is in hospital."

Pat said she found the way her father had been treated very distressing.

"Like a lot of old people, he is frightened by being in hospital and I'm like a cat chasing my tail - I just don't know what to do to help him."

Pat said her father was currently receiving excellent care at the Royal Sussex and had been given a private room. However, it was too little, too late.

"My father has always been a fit and healthy man. He had never been in hospital in his whole life until this happened. It has left him crippled and broken.

"I'm now waiting to see whether they will operate on him again or if he could even survive another anaesthetic."

Pat, who is staying with friends in South Heighton, said: "Although it's not the major issue here, flying back and forth is taking its toll on me.

"It's a round trip of 24,000 miles and it costs about £2,000 each time. All the money I saved during 40 years nursing is going down the plughole."

Brighton and Hove City Council has said that despite the chronic bed shortage within the NHS it was unable to help because of a lack of care home places and funds to finance them.

A trust spokesman said Mr Russon was currently getting ongoing medical treatment for a range of conditions and complications.

He said even if Mr Russon had not developed MRSA when first admitted he would still have had to stay in for treatment.

It was extremely unfortunate Mr Russon fell out of bed while at the Downs Hospital which further set back his recovery.

He said Mr Russon had been sent to the Downs Hospital for rehabilitation and admitted that if he had not fallen and broken his hip he would have had more of a chance of being moved into a nursing home.

He said: "Mr Russon is not being kept in hospital for any other reason in that he needs care.

"He has not been in any way abandoned or treated badly.

"However, we would be guilty of abandoning him if we simply left him to fate and we are offering him the best service and care we can.

"There is no doubt that Mr Russon has been through a terrible series of events which has been extremely unfortunate for someone of his age and who is so poorly."