Legal help needed. Hospital records

[hallmark]

You, as a patient, can ask your G.P. to check her records as it is adversly affecting you... You might not get the records but G.P. should be able to!


Talk to your Doctor!

[roopat]

I agree with others, please speak to your doctor. You are carrying a huge burden and deserve to have it lifted. What a terrible event to have suffered, so sad.


Pat

[Ruskie]

BuddysMummy - I see you live in Australia and your own Mum died in the UK. Whether this helps or hinders your search I don't know. With some requests to archives in the UK I feel that I have been sent records which otherwise I may have had to obtain in person or pay for. Different situation from yours though as they were much older records.

I think that the first thing you need to try to find out is if the hospital records do still exist and where they are located. Someone with more knowledge will be able to advise you who to contact. With everything transferred to digital these days, would hospital records from that era still be kept and stored for so long?

I would say though that if you don't happen to get the answers you want first try, keep going. It is easy for busy people probably working in the National Health Service to just dismiss queries like this as it is easier for them. Possibly understandable. However, keep pushing - you may find a very helpful sympathetic person who is willing to go the extra mile to help you.

If you find that the records survive but they are reluctant to give you a copy, perhaps a letter from your GP mentioning that your health is suffering due to this playing on your mind, may help?

Best of luck and don't take no for an answer! If one person tells you the records are no longer held or not available, ask someone else. You may find they give you a different answer. 

[Rena]

My heart goes out to you.  I haven't anything to add regarding gaining access to historical records but I do want to try to lessen your current train of thoughts about the circumstances.

Your description of the little two year old you absolutely reminded me of my offspring when she was a two year old little girl.  She imitated everything I did.  I have one photo of the time I'd taken the baby and her for a picnic down by the river, as I was spreading the blanket to sit upon, she said "baby's crying".  I looked up to see her climbing up into the pram where she promptly put the teat of the baby's prepared milk bottle into his mouth - she was only 15 months old.

Thus, I think you probably had to try to feed yourself and/or tried to give your poorly mummy a little tidbit of food to make her better. As well as using a knife to cut bread, cake, or spread something, I also use a knife to cut open packets of food such as a packet of biscuits.  Then, of course, there's the scenario that your mum had dropped the knife and you'd picked it up at some point.   You shouldn't blame your two year old self.

I do encourage you to speak with your doctor before your thoughts completely take over.

[Guy Etchells]

I don't know if anyone can help me. I wonder if there is any way of seeing part of the hospital records of my mother from 1958? I think there's a 100 year limit, but might it be waived for exceptional circumstances? Are they likely to even exist?
My mother died in Redhill Hospital in Surrey on 1958. I was 2yrs old.
I was always told that I had killed her (i know, right?) and assumed it was the pregnancy which had led to her ill health and subsequent death. However I have found letters which detail that I was alone with her at home for several hours after she had collapsed. Also that I was carrying a knife when we were found.
I am now haunted by the thought of what little Annette might have done in innocence, to try to wake mum up.

Is there any hope of finding the truth? There is no one still alive who would know

You mention you were home alone with your mum before she was found, the more important time period is what happened after that. Did you stay at home, did you stay with relatives or were you taken into care?
It is highly likely, in those days, if there was the slightest suggestion that you were responsible for your mother's death you would have been taken into "care".

I obviously have not read the letters you refer to but it sounds to me that the writer was blaming the pregnancy plus the effort required to look after an infant with little help from a husband who worked rather than anything you had done.
Many women had a difficult pregnancy and birthing of their children, high numbers had little or no prenatal care and huge numbers had no postnatal care. In many cases the midwife was a local woman who had no medical training but but was looked upon as a safe pair of hands in the locality.

Rather than trying to access your mother's medical records, I would suggest accessing your own early medical records under the Freedom of Information Act to see if you underwent any mental health investigation as an infant.

I am confident that you would find nothing of concern in your records and that may dispel your fears.
Cheers
Guy

[Ruskie]

Excellent idea Guy. 

[BuddysMummy]

 Thank you all for your help. I will try to find out. Distance really is an issue.

Guy, I went to live with grandparents after that, until my grandmother died when I was four and I returned to my Father. I don't think anyone would have been looking at my mental health.

[Guy Etchells]

Thank you all for your help. I will try to find out. Distance really is an issue.

Guy, I went to live with grandparents after that, until my grandmother died when I was four and I returned to my Father. I don't think anyone would have been looking at my mental health.

That supports the view you had nothing whatsoever to do with your mother's death.

If there was even the slightest suspicion you were in any way involved with it you would have been placed in secure accommodation.

Cheers
Guy