Man who survived the Liverpool Care Pathway 13 years ago now dead

Craig told me this story in August 2023: he died in June 2024. I don’t know the circumstances of his death but pray he wasn’t euthanised.

What Craig told me last year…

“In 2010, I had Crohn’s disease and was in hospital with a ruptured oesophagus. I was being fed through tubes but they left the tubes in too long and I got sepsis. That’s when they put me on the death pathway. I was on it for six days. It destroyed my kidneys. I suffered full organ failure - I have this written in my medical records.

Doctors obviously decided I wasn’t dying fast enough so they ordered that I stayed on the pathway for another six days.

I was fighting for my life, fighting to survive. I was hallucinating badly - really terrifying visions - and I was so thirsty. I believed I was in the jungle, searching desperately for water. At one point, using all my energy, I shouted out ‘get me a drink now!’ If I hadn't have shouted, I would be dead now. I wouldn't have lasted another day.

Amazingly, I’m still alive. I’m still unwell - I was diagnosed with thyroid cancer three years ago - but I am living proof the doctors get it wrong. I survived, so it’s obvious that others put on that pathway would have survived too.

The LCP was barbaric and I was glad to hear it had been abolished in 2014. But from what I’m hearing now, it never went away. It was renamed NG163 in 2020 and innocent people who aren’t at the end of their lives are being killed using this guideline.

I’m hoping that by telling my story, I can raise awareness of what’s going on in U.K. hospitals and pray that people will look out for their family members who have to go into hospital.

By the way, I’m not elderly. I am 51 now and was 38 when I was put on the LCP.

Keep a close watch on the doctors and nurses. They’re not all good. I don’t want to tar them all with the same brush: some are really kind and would fight for their patients, but others would kill you without a second thought. An evil person is never good to be around when you're ill and vulnerable. Your life is in their hands and that’s scary. They can - and they will - make you die slowly and painfully, whilst telling your family and friends they are doing it to be kind. Many are ‘just following orders’, others are making the orders. They all need to be held accountable.” - Craig, Liverpool, UK.

RIP, Craig Smith