‘JEREMY Hunt. How dare you!’ wrote Julie Lovell, a woman whose 33-year-old daughter Karen, died after the end of the two-day junior doctor strike. Her daughter’s death, she makes absolutely clear, was not in any way due to the strike.
In a facebook post she slams the Tory health secretary for his ‘attempt to destroy and discredit’ the NHS. She adds that she will ‘NOT accept’ her daughter’s death being included in any statistics aimed at discrediting the striking doctors. Her powerful and unequivocal post has been shared more than 40,000 times.
Julie, 51, praised the staff at Wythenshawe Hospital in south Manchester, where her daughter Karen passed away four hours after the junior doctors strike ended. The 33-year-old had been in critical care for four weeks following an operation on her heart.
Julie Lovell wrote: ‘My darling daughter passed away at 9pm Wednesday evening in Wythenshawe Hospital at the end of the two day strike by the young doctors whom I fully support. She did not die due to this strike and I will NOT accept her name included in any statistics saying it was.
‘Every member of the doctors and nurses who looked after and worked tirelessly for the four weeks she was in there were, and remain, amazing people. How dare you Mr Hunt. I challenge you to sit quietly in intensive care and watch the staff treat patients with so much care and attention.
‘Both nurses and doctors at all levels. 12 hour shifts 16 hour shifts and more. Our NHS is amazing and deserves to be supported and saved. My daughter Karen had many procedures some surgical and, Mr Hunt, even on Sundays! How dare you Mr Hunt!
‘Karen and every other patient in that Critical Care Unit received expert care and treatment day and night and 7 days a week despite your attempt to destroy and discredit these wonderful people who I know did everything in their power to save my beautiful daughter.
‘How dare YOU Mr Hunt. And thank you everyone at Wythenshawe. I am a big supporter of the NHS and junior doctors, and it was my biggest fear that Karen became a statistic used by Jeremy Hunt against these wonderful people. They cannot be blamed for her death – Julie Lovell.’