The wife of a man who died at John Hunter Hospital after waiting for surgery on an infected leg says "the system is not working".
"They left it too long. If they operated on him earlier, he might not have lost his life," said Sherry Pritchard, of Killingworth.
Terry Pritchard died on May 15 at age 81, after suffering from hospital-acquired pneumonia and suspected sepsis during the 18 days he spent in hospital.
"We have gone to John Hunter with Terry in the past and we've always thanked them," Mrs Pritchard said.
"But it was different this time."
She alleged delays in treating his leg infection led to his premature death.
"How many other people has this happened to? Something needs to change," she said.
Mr Pritchard had lost his left leg from the shin down in a workplace accident in the mining industry about 20 years ago.
"He had an infection in his stump. His leg was a pinkish colour, but there was no open wound," Mrs Pritchard said.
"We rang the doctor on the Tuesday morning of April 28 to see if we could get antibiotics.
"We couldn't get in until the Friday, so I took Terry to the hospital."
She dropped him off at the front door of the emergency department.
"He walked in on his crutches and was generally OK. But during his hospital stay, he went downhill," she said.
Mrs Pritchard took daily notes of the experience, as she wanted to keep her two sons informed of their dad's condition.
"He wasn't eating because he was waiting to go for surgery," she said.
"He was knocked off the list as he wasn't initially deemed a high priority. Others were ahead of him and the rescue helicopter would come in with emergency cases."
She said her husband had surgery on May 7, which was nine days after he was admitted.
"They opened it up and cleaned it out. They didn't sew it up. They packed it with gauze and said they'd leave it like that for a couple of days and he'd go back in to have it cleaned again," she said.
"On May 9, they sewed it up temporarily."
She said doctors told her before both surgeries that he would have his leg amputated above the knee.
"We were surprised that didn't happen," she said.
On May 6, eight days after he was admitted, doctors decided to put an incision in his stump to drain the infection.
"He refused consent to get a drain. By this time, he was delirious. He wasn't in his right mind," she said.
Mrs Pritchard was at the hospital at the time. She told a doctor "I will consent for him to put the drain in".
"They wouldn't accept my consent. I felt like they could have put the drain in earlier," she said.
"The next morning, it seemed like everything had changed. I wrote that in my notebook.
"It seemed like they realised they'd left him too long. He was spiralling downhill."
She said her husband was "in pain for 15 days".
"I kept asking the nurses to please control his pain. They could not control it. He was in agony," she said.
"It was mentioned that he may have had sepsis. I feel that could have been prevented if more was done in the first five days "
She did not get the feeling that the hospital had a lack of staff, but said there seemed to be a lack of senior doctors.
"All the doctors that came to see him were young. They said we have to go back and talk to our boss. None of the bosses ever came to see Terry," she said.
John Hunter Hospital executive general manager Julie Tait said "I offer my sincere condolences to the patient's family and deeply apologise for the distress caused by their experience".
"I would like to reassure patients and the community that decisions to reschedule surgeries are never made lightly and are only made when it is deemed clinically safe to do so," Ms Tait said.
"Staff communicate regularly with patients and their families while in hospital, including providing updates on scheduled procedures and treatment plans.
"We remain in contact with the patient's family and are reviewing the circumstances surrounding the death of their loved one."
