A dad has died weeks after a phone call telling him to go straight to hospital – and his mum says that he’s been “badly let down”.
Kevin Gillett, 40, from Huyton, Liverpool, had started feeling unwell with sickness and tiredness in April but believed it was related to Crohn’s disease, which was a condition he suffered with.
But his mum Odette De Freitas said Kevin struggled to get an in person doctor’s appointment for six weeks – and by the time he was seen in early June he was unable to keep food down, reports the Liverpool Echo.
And less than a week after his appointment on June 13, Kevin received a phone call from a nurse who told him to go straight to the Royal Liverpool Hospital where doctors would be waiting for him.
Odette, 60, said: “He had high calcium levels.”
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She added: “I knew straight away it’s indicative of advanced cancer because I’ve had it happen to someone I know.”
Tests found Kevin had a tumour on his liver that had attached to a vein – and a biopsy showed the cancer had spread to his blood, lungs and lymph nodes.
Everton FC fan Kevin was told he could have four months left to live but died at Whiston Hospital six weeks after his diagnosis on August 1. He was surrounded by his family.
Odette said: “He’d been feeling quite unwell since having Covid after Christmas but by the end of April, May, he was finding he couldn’t eat at all and was vomiting.
“Six weeks he was trying to get an appointment.
“I feel like he’s been badly let down by the whole system.
“I couldn’t knock the nurses at the Royal or Whiston they are amazing.
“But it’s the whole system – they’re not seeing people and doing tests before it gets to that stage.
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“The staff are trying their best. It’s the whole process.
“I don’t know why they’re not getting face to face appointments. I know there’s a backlog after Covid.
“We just feel that when somebody has a chronic condition anyway that they would monitor it more closely and not do a telephone appointment.”
A Gofundme page has been set up to raise money for Kevin’s funeral and cover the cost of a memorial where his seven-year-old son can go to remember him.
Odette said: “He was a lovely, decent, hardworking guy who sadly had so much suffering in his life with Crohn’s then at the end.
“But every day he battled on, determined not to let that define him.
“His son and dogs were his life and he was truly inspirational, he was loved by everyone which speaks volumes.”
Kevin, who was born in London and moved to Liverpool when he was 20, worked as an account manager at Baa Bar followed by the NHS.
You can visit the Gofundme page here.
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