Mum’s death meant I HAD to fight for justice, says woman who spearheaded campaign after the death of her mother at Stafford Hospital

By Julie Bailey

PUBLISHED: 22:37, 6 February 2013 | UPDATED: 08:55, 7 February 2013

After the harrowing death of her mother at Stafford Hospital, Julie Bailey campaigned to bring those responsible to account. Yesterday, her courage was finally vindicated.

The other night, I had a recurring dream – one which comes back to haunt me regularly, and leaves me sweat-drenched, shaken and bereft.

A nurse is standing in front of me, hands planted firmly on her hips, refusing to fetch the drugs which will save my mother’s life. Mum is gasping for breath, her rheumy eyes gazing at me in terror and her nails digging into my hand.

The nurse is ignoring her dying gasps, but is shouting at me instead. ‘I’ll decide when to call a doctor,’ she screams.

Then, without fail, I wake up and remember that most of my dream did happen. But in reality, no doctor was fetched. My mother died within hours – in a Third World hellhole known as Stafford Hospital.

Yesterday, the long-awaited report into failings at the hospital found that between 400 and 1,200 patients died needlessly.

My 86-year-old mother Bella was one of them. She passed away on November 8, 2007, and from the moment I lost her, I’ve fought to expose the indifference, cruelty and neglect which I witnessed over eight horrendous weeks when I refused to leave her side in the ward.

Mum was admitted to Stafford Hospital that September with a hernia. When I left her, I asked the nurse if she could be given something for her pain. But when I returned the next morning, Mum was agitated.