A WOMAN who was left to nurse her dying husband for a full day says she is not interested in suing hospital chiefs.

Software designer David Clayton, 40, lay shaking, vomiting and sweating on a trolley with one dirty blanket and no sheets.

Although he was drifting in and out of consciousness due to a brain haemorrhage, he was not given a brain scan until 17 hours later.

His wife Melanie was so angry with the lack of treatment at Warrington Hospital she kept a diary cataloguing her husband's ordeal.

But despite approaches from lawyers, she says she is not interested in compensation from the cashstrapped NHS.

Mrs Clayton, 36, who lives in Warrington with daughters Yasmin, 10, and Tiffany, 15, said: "Money is not my goal. My main concern is to make sure no-one else has to go through this. Maybe my speaking out might help.

"David was treated appallingly at Warrington.

"I had to fetch clean sheets and blankets from home. He said ' Melanie, fight for me. I can't cope with this.'

"It is shocking that someone should go through what David went through. I know conditions at hospitals aren't up to the high standards we expect but the treatment he received was absolutely appalling.

"David was repeatedly vomiting and he was suffering violent pain. He was lying on a trolley and I cleaned him and washed him.

"I even emptied his urine bottle because there were no nurses around."

Mr Clayton was taken to Warrington Hospital on at 9.25pm on October 29 last year after he collapsed while lifting weights at the gym.

An inquest heard how he was left on a plastic trolley with a dirty blanket and no sheets. After finally being scanned at 2.30pm the next day, he was diagnosed with a bleed in his brain.

On October 31 he was transferred to Liverpool's Walton Hospital where he died eight days later.

Mrs Clayton, a holistic practitioner, said: "David had only been to the doctors four times in 10 years but I was told I was over-reacting and being neurotic when I said he needed treatment. At one point I was told he had a migraine.

"We carried on keeping a diary at Walton which showed us how fantastic the care was there."

At the inquest, consultant Don Pearson from Warrington Hospital had been due to give evidence into a mix-up that led to the extra five-anda-half hour delay in diagnosis but he called in sick.

Liverpool coroner Andre Rebello said there would have been grounds for adjourning the inquest if the family had requested it.

But Mrs Clayton said she wanted to move on from the appalling events.

Mr Rebello did not blame the hospital for Mr Clayton's death, recording a verdict of natural causes.

But he said: "It would be unthinkable to believe this is the standard of care provided by any health service anywhere in the western world, or indeed beyond."

Last night hospital chiefs expressed their "sincere condolences" to Mrs Clayton and her family.

A statement said: "The trust does take seriously any issues raised about the care and treatment of patients.

"The trust is bound by patient confidentiality not to discuss publicly specific aspects of individual cases."..SUPL: