Toowoomba woman Kim Sutton determined to hold aged care facilities accountable for quality of care after death of her father

Plagued by her father’s excruciating death and claims of poor quality care by his nursing home, a Toowoomba woman is determined to create nation-wide aged care reform.

What should have been a comfortable and dignified end-of-life experience was instead filled with unimaginable suffering and prolonged pain despite John Currie’s repeated pleas for help and relief.

A dedicated firefighter in the Toowoomba region for 23 years, John had withstood his fair share of pain.

His painful screams have haunted his only daughter Kim Sutton and her family since his tragic passing while a palliative care resident at Northridge Salem Aged Care.

“It was like a horror movie,” she said.

“I’m 54, and I sleep with the light on because all I see is the vision of his face.”

The circumstances in the lead up to the firefighter of 23-years’ death prompted Ms Sutton’s petition, ‘Justice for John: Grant everyone the right to die with dignity’ to have a new aged care ruling imposed similar to ‘Ryan’s Rule’.

Toowoomba woman Kim Sutton has started a petition 'Justice for John' after her father was poorly treated at a local aged care facility while dying of pancreatic cancer. Photo: Jessica Klein

Ryan’s Rule is a three step process to support patients of any age, their families and carers, to raise concerns if a patient’s health condition is getting worse or not improving as well as expected, however only applies to patients admitted to any Queensland Health public hospital — including the emergency department — and in some Hospital in the Home (HITH) services.

John was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in early 2022 after presenting to Warwick Hospital complaining of back pain from a recent fall.

After 15 weeks in hospital, John’s care team advised Ms Sutton he would need to transition into a palliative care facility, where he would be made comfortable and free of pain until his passing.

“I asked what would happen to him and they said … they’ll give him morphine and he’ll get comatosed and basically pass that way,” she said.

“I was happy with (that) because I didn’t want him in pain, he’d been through enough at the Warwick hospital with the pain.”

On top of the crippling pain of cancer, John was also enduring heartbreak following the death of his wife Ellen to a heart attack, just a few short weeks into his admission at Northridge Salem.

Shortly after John’s death and after an unsatisfactory meeting with Northridge Salem, Ms Sutton took her complaint to Queensland’s Aged Care Quality Commission.

John's wife Ellen (right) sadly passed away of a heart attack not long after he was admitted to Northridge Salem Aged Care.

Ms Sutton said her father’s passing was far from comfortable and pain-free during his residency at Northridge Salem.

“What he went through in three weeks no one should have to,” she said.

A number of shocking instances were outlined in Ms Sutton’s complaint, including claims of a lack of pain management assessment or proper wound care, rough handling by staff, at times starvation and lack of general assistance.

Ms Sutton said that she and her family had counted over the period of John’s residency they’d pressed the buzzer for medical assistance more than 200 times.

There had also been an incident Ms Sutton recalled where the facility had contacted her to advise that John had fallen out of his wheelchair earlier in the day, almost six hours after the incident happened.

In another instance, Ms Sutton said a staff member at the facility was overheard telling a colleague they thought John was lying about the severity of his pain, which was predominantly being managed with paracetamol.

This allegation was unable to be verified, but not discounted by the ACQSC, according to the final report.

John Currie fought fires in the Toowoomba region for 23 years before he sadly passed away in August 2022.

Two nights before John passed away, he was admitted to Toowoomba Hospital for severe abdominal pain.

On August 18 2022, the night of John’s death, Ms Sutton recalled the heartbreaking phone call she received from her son who was by his grandfather’s bedside at Northridge Salem.

“On the Wednesday night my son rang around a quarter to six and said, ‘get up here, I can’t take his screaming’, it was horrific because he wasn’t getting any pain relief,” she said.

“My dad was a very pig-headed, strong minded bushy, he could handle pain.”

The findings from the ACQSC report substantiated parts of Ms Sutton’s claim, identifying the service didn’t appropriately assess or evaluate John’s pain levels during his admission from July 25 to August 18 2022.

The report states John’s care records note he struggled with verbal communication and in this situation would require staff to look for non-verbal cues to gauge his pain levels.

The report further found when pain relief was administered, staff had failed to complete pre and post treatment assessments using the appropriate pain assessment tools.

The findings reported evidence that on one occasion, a nurse refused a request from John for further pain medication, as there were no further medications prescribed.

John’s hospital discharge paperwork noted ‘as required’ for additional pain relief, with the ACQSC report noting “it is expected a nurse would have proactively reviewed this paperwork and followed the relevant instructions, but this did not occur”.

Ms Sutton had discovered during a dispute with a nurse over the administration of pain medication, that John’s discharge paperwork from the hospital, which noted an increase of opioid pain medication ‘Targin’, had been misplaced by the facility.

The ACQSC report ultimately found Ms Sutton’s complaint highlighted particular areas of improvement for the facility, specifically on staff knowledge of pain management and wound care.

After the conclusion of the 10 month ACQSC inquiry, Ms Sutton was advised the commission was satisfied the aged care facility had addressed the issues raised in the complaint.

John Currie was left in excruciating pain while receiving palliative care at a Toowoomba aged care facility in 2022.

“I acknowledge that your father will not benefit from the actions taken by the service in response to your complaint. However, I hope you find some comfort in the knowledge that the improvements made by the service will benefit current and future care recipients,” the report said.

Ms Sutton also received a letter from Lutheran Services in June 2023 in relation to the ACQSC report.

“We regret that you experienced additional distress regarding the care of your loved one at what was already a difficult time,” the letter said.

“We thank you for your feedback, as it provided essential opportunities for clinical care review and quality improvement.

“Please be assured we are working on continuous improvement to ensure the best care is provided in our facilities.”

In calling for more accountability of aged care facilities in their quality of care, Ms Sutton hoped her petition would help bring more awareness.

“I just want justice for dad, I just don’t want to see anyone else or their families go through this, because it was just vile,” she said.

“Everyone should die with dignity.”

Kim Sutton is haunted by the death of her father John Currie, who lived the last few months of his life in excruciating pain.

Ms Sutton is in the process of arranging a community forum to take place in April to raise awareness and share concerns about the quality of care in nursing homes.

The Chronicle reached out to the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission and Lutheran Services for comment on their investigation and Ms Sutton’s petition.

Aged Care Quality Safety Commissioner Janet Anderson said the commission uses a number of avenues to closely monitor and identify services warranting closer attention or investigation.

“In September 2022, the Commission visited Lutheran Services – Northridge Salem to conduct an unannounced comprehensive re-accreditation audit,” Ms Anderson said.

“Following the audit, the service was found compliant with the requirements of the eight Aged Care Quality Standards and accredited until October 2025.”

The audit report of Northridge Salem is available to the public via the ACQSC website.

Lutheran Services chief executive Nick Ryan said the wellbeing of people in their care is at the heart of the services provided by the not-for-profit and their facilities.

“As part of our commitment to continuous improvement, we implement ongoing measures to support high-quality resident care, including staff training in the areas of pain management, wound management, clinical assessments and care planning, and monitoring and evaluation,” he said.

“We are committed to working closely with the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission to ensure compliance with regulatory requirements and have confidence in the existing escalation pathways and complaints process for residents and families of aged care.”