Christine Tunnicliffe

Christine was my mother in law. She was one of the most speial people in a lot of peoples lives. She has left behind 4 chldren, Graham, Lynne, Andy and Kate who love her and miss her more than any words can say so i am setting up this site for them in honour of a special mum, mother in law, Grandma and best frien who went far too soon. She is reunited with her beloved Husband paul who was tragically killed in 1985 in a traffic accident. She is also reunited with her precious animals, Max, Gizzy and sadly tickles. Christine was the best friend that I had and i miss her more than i can ever say, She has 8 grandchidren who miss and love her a great deal.

I hope that you are free from pain now mum and enjoying all the shopping that you can do.

Please watch over all your grandchildren, the ones that are here with us and the ones that are with you and keep them safe until we meet you again.

All my love

Sarah

This is Christines story.

Christine was a person who was so very full of life, even though she had suffered so much pain through the painful trauma of loosing her husband and then having to go through the agony of dialasys and then a kidney transplant she tried her very best not to let life get her down. She suffered a great deal of pain on a daily basis due to arthritis in her hips and a curvature of the spine and numerous other medical problems, yet she still had a good quality of life. She lived in her own flat and was fiercly independant, only asking for help when it wass impossible for her to do something, you would often see her on her mobility scooter going round pudsey or setting off down to the asda to do her daily shopping and to see what bargins she could bag, she loved the reduced section in every shop and her eyes would light up at a sale sign.

When she couldn't get out she spent her time doing numerous jigsaws and i think at her last count she had 110 of them stacked up in her bedroom. She loved her grandchildren and would see them as often as she could and enjoyed spoiling them in little ways.

On the 19th of May 2007 we recieved a phonecall from her saying that she was insevere pain and that her usual painkillers were not helping so an ambulance was called and she was taken to Leeds General Infimary where she underwent a series of tests, x - rays and scans. She was diagnosed with pneumonia and an inflamed bowel on the sunday morning.

when we went in to see her on the sunday night she was still in a great deal of pain even though she had been given a high dose of morphine.

When we went again on the monday morning we were told that she had been moved to the High Dependancy unit as her breathing was bad. When we arrived we were met by a general surgeon who advised us that her bowel had perfourated and that she needed to have an emergancy operation and that her chances of survival was 50/50. We were told that she was aware that she now had a life threatening condition and that she would be very poorly after the op and that she would be in intensive care.

Kate and lynne stayed with mum before she went down to theatre and then went to wait in the intensive care ward 3.
The nurses in intensive care were brilliant and tried to explain each procedure in terms that we could understand.

When we all went back to see her on the Tuesday the news was worse than we thought, we were told that when they had done the anasthetic there had been a problem and that they had made a 2cm tear in her windpipe, we were told to wait for a specialist to come and see us.

When the specialist came he advised Graham, Lynne, Andy, Kate and her sister patricia that the best thing for them to do was to insert a stent into mums windpipe to cover the hole and let it heal naturally, we were told that they would do this on the wedneday morning.

on the Wednesday morning they went in and inserted the stent and then the specialist came to see us to tell us that the hole was in fact a 7cm tear and that it was over 3/4 the length of her windpipe. We were told that they were going to give her 48 hrs to recover and then try and wake her up.

On the friday they slowly started to take her off the sedatives and her eyes opened, we talked to her but she didn't make any kind response. She stayed like this for three days.

On the Tuesday May29th Mum turned 63, we all bought cards and said that when she pulled through we were going to rent a big pink limousine and take her shopping for her birthday as she would enjoy that.

On the Wednesday we asked if it was possible for us to have a meeting with the doctor in charge of the unit as we had many unanswered questions.

On Thursday 31st May the doctor in charge came in to see us and advised us that there was nothing more that could be done for christine and that the kindest thing would be to let her go as they didn't think that she would have any quality of life if she came round. We were told that she would be totally unaware of what was happening to her and would stay asleep and would pass peacefully. As you can imagine this was heartbreaking news for all of us as we had all held the hope that her spirit would be strong enough to pull her through. Graham, Lynne, Andy and Kate and Christines sister patricia stayed at the hospital with her over night while the rest of the family went home .

On the friday morning I arrived back at the hospital to be told that she had hung on through the night and that they would soon be removing the ventalation tube that was keeping her alive and usng a smaller tube.

We went into see her and i noticed that all her drips had been removed but that at the time she was still sleeping.

A nurse then showed us out whilst they removed the tube and we were then told to go back in but that she had resited them inserting another tube, What we saw then will haunt us all for the rest of our lives, Instead of the peaceful passing that we were told mum had her eyes open and appeared to be choking to death in front of us and there was nothing that we could do to ease her passing. It was the most horrific thing to see someone you love so much like that, there was no dignity for her at all.

We were advised afterwards that a postmortem was to be carried out. Unfortunatly they were unable to establish a a correct cause of death and the matter has gone to inquest, we are also seaing legal action as this should never have happened, we cannot have any closure and start the full process of grieving and healing for a woman that was so special.

Please light a candle for her so that we know that she will never be alone and that our thoughts are always with her, she has left a huge void in everyones life that no other person can ever hope to fill, My family have lost there mum and grandma and i have lost my best friend.

Rest in peace always mum.

Update 2/10/2009

Inquest verdict.

After a 2 day inquest and the evidence of some so called "independant Expert Witnnesses" the Coroner has given a narritive verdict being that my darling mum in law died from:

1, Pericolic absess due to diverticulitis
2, Long term imunosuppressent and sterod use due to a renal transplant
3, Bronchial Pneumonia
4, Tracheal Tear

We have a fantastic Legal team and are now waiting for the reports of our own world renowned experts to see where we go from here.

These so called experts didt get to read the medical notes only the reports that had been compiled by the previous witnesess so in our opinions they never had all the full facts!!



I saw this poem somewhere and it seemed so very fitting for you mum.

The Butterfly

A butterfly came floating by and I thought I knew it’s face
It landed on my shoulder and spread it’s wings of lace
I looked and saw it smiling as it winked and flew away
I’m sure I heard it whisper we will meet again one day

A butterfly came calling and I’m really not sure why
It just came down upon me as it tumbled from the sky
It didn’t stop for very long but its beauty did inspire
For it made me smile when I was low and life was feeling dire

A butterfly has flown away for I watched it on the breeze
Though its visit now has warmed me and made me feel at ease
It’s hard to share this grieving and the pain I have within
But a butterfly has shown me how a new time can begin


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:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~ *:._.:*:~*:._.: Their broken heart still loves you Their broken heart still cares Their broken heart keeps wondering Why you are no longer here :*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~ *:._.:*:~*:._.:

:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~ *:._.:*:~*:._.:

We had a wonderful grandma,
One who never really grew old;
Her smile was made of sunshine,
And her heart was solid gold;
Her eyes were as bright as shining stars,
And in her cheeks fair roses you see.
We had a wonderful grandma,
And that' s the way it will always be.
But take heed, because
She's still keeping an eye on all of us,
So let's make sure
She will like what she sees.

:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~ *:._.:*:~*:._.: