Justice For Howard Lew Lewis

TV STAR’S DEATH IS PROBED BY PO­LICE Fam­ily say comic was killed by NHS drugs The Scottish Mail on Sunday28 Jan 2018By Ge­or­gia Ed­kins THE death of one of Bri­tain’s best-loved char­ac­ter ac­tors is be­ing in­ves­ti­gated by po­lice af­ter his fam­ily claimed he was ‘killed by the NHS’. Howard Lew Lewis – who starred in TV favourites such as Maid Mar­ian and Her Merry Men, Brush Strokes and Black­ad­der – died last Satur­day in a com­mu­nity hos­pi­tal in Ed­in­burgh. Just days be­fore his death, his daugh­ter told The Scot­tish Mail on Sun­day that her fa­ther’s medicines had sud­denly been changed – and ‘were killing him’. Howard Lew Lewis – who starred in TV favourites such as Maid Mar­ian and Her Merry Men, Brush Strokes and Black­ad­der – died last Satur­day in a com­mu­nity hos­pi­tal in Ed­in­burgh. Just days be­fore his death, his daugh­ter told The Scot­tish Mail on Sun­day that her fa­ther’s medicines had sud­denly been changed – and ‘were killing him’. His med­i­cal records show he had re­cently been placed on a regime of high-dose seda­tives and max­i­mum-strength opi­ate painkillers. Al­though such drugs might be com­monly pre­scribed for pa­tients in the fi­nal stages of ter­mi­nal ill­ness, Mr Lewis’s daugh­ter says he was suf­fer­ing only from treat­able di­a­betes and early-stage de­men­tia. Just be­fore Christ­mas he gave an in­ter­view to the Scot­tish Mail on ‘The new med­i­ca­tion killed him’ Sun­day in which he spoke clearly of his de­sire to leave hos­pi­tal to live with his daugh­ter and grand­son. Last night med­i­cal ex­perts ex­pressed their shock at the ap­par­ently ‘in­ap­pro­pri­ate’ treat­ment given to Mr Lewis. His daugh­ter Deb­ora Mi­lazzo, 42, has now filed of­fi­cial com­plaints with NHS Loth­ian and watch­dog body the Care In­spec­torate. Last night, she said: ‘My dad was killed by the NHS. They killed him. Jus­tice needs to be done. ‘We’ll all get old at some point. The ques­tion is, when are they go­ing to do the same to us? This is hap­pen­ing all over the place and it’s terrible that peo­ple have to die be­fore any­one takes any no­tice.’ Po­lice Scot­land con­firmed it was in­ves­ti­gat­ing Mr Lewis’s death – which it de­scribes as ‘un­ex­plained’. A post-mortem ex­am­i­na­tion will now be car­ried out by a state pathol­o­gist and Mr Lewis’s daugh­ter is ar­rang­ing to com­mis­sion a sec­ond, in­de­pen­dent post-mortem. Po­lice Scot­land con­firmed it was in­ves­ti­gat­ing Mr Lewis’s death – which it de­scribes as ‘un­ex­plained’. A post-mortem ex­am­i­na­tion will now be car­ried out by a state pathol­o­gist and Mr Lewis’s daugh­ter is ar­rang­ing to com­mis­sion a sec­ond, in­de­pen­dent post-mortem. Mr Lewis, or ‘Lewy’ as his friends knew him, died last Satur­day. Last month, Mr Lewis re­vealed he was fight­ing the City of Ed­in­burgh Coun­cil, which he claimed was keep­ing him ‘hostage’ in hos­pi­tal, hav­ing taken con­trol of his for­tune worth half a mil­lion pounds. Mr Lewis, or ‘Lewy’ as his friends knew him, died last Satur­day. Last month, Mr Lewis re­vealed he was fight­ing the City of Ed­in­burgh Coun­cil, which he claimed was keep­ing him ‘hostage’ in hos­pi­tal, hav­ing taken con­trol of his for­tune worth half a mil­lion pounds. The coun­cil was granted a guardian­ship order in Oc­to­ber last year over Mr Lewis’s wel­fare and fi­nances – in­clud­ing his act­ing roy­al­ties and the pro­ceeds from the sale of his fam­ily home. In Au­gust last year, the 76-yearold had been sent to Ellen’s Glen House com­mu­nity hos­pi­tal in the Lib­er­ton area of the city against his and his daugh­ter’s wishes. Speak­ing to this pa­per be­fore Christ­mas, Mr Lewis said the coun­cil was com­mit­ting a ma­jor in­jus­tice by seiz­ing con­trol of his fi­nances and wel­fare, and was abus­ing its safe­guard­ing pow­ers. Al­though Mr Lewis suf­fered from the early stages of de­men­tia, his im­pas­sioned plea to the au­thor­i­ties was crys­tal clear. He said: ‘I want to go home. I’m just here in my bed all day and they won’t let me out. I want my money. I haven’t had any money for months and months. I just wish they’d give it to Deb­bie.’ Al­though Mr Lewis suf­fered from the early stages of de­men­tia, his im­pas­sioned plea to the au­thor­i­ties was crys­tal clear. He said: ‘I want to go home. I’m just here in my bed all day and they won’t let me out. I want my money. I haven’t had any money for months and months. I just wish they’d give it to Deb­bie.’ On the same day the Scot­tish Mail on Sun­day pub­lished Mr Lewis’s mov­ing tes­ti­mony against the coun­cil, med­i­cal records show his drug regime was changed, with a can­nula put into his ab­domen. Through it, an opi­ate 30 times the strength of oral mor­phine, Alfen­tanyl, was pumped, in com­bi­na­tion with Mi­da­zo­lam – a seda­tive which pre­vents the cre­ation of new mem­o­ries. The dosage of these drugs was in­creased in­cre­men­tally over the month-long pe­riod lead­ing up to Mr Lewis’s death. A for­mer se­nior NHS ex­ec­u­tive told the Scot­tish Mail on Sun­day this com­bi­na­tion of drugs was ap­pro­pri­ate only for a pa­tient ‘in the ter­mi­nal phase of a ma­lig­nant dis­ease’. The dosage of these drugs was in­creased in­cre­men­tally over the month-long pe­riod lead­ing up to Mr Lewis’s death. A for­mer se­nior NHS ex­ec­u­tive told the Scot­tish Mail on Sun­day this com­bi­na­tion of drugs was ap­pro­pri­ate only for a pa­tient ‘in the ter­mi­nal phase of a ma­lig­nant dis­ease’. But Mr Lewis’s daugh­ter in­sists her fa­ther had re­ceived no such ter­mi­nal di­ag­no­sis at the time of his death. She said: ‘My fa­ther didn’t have cancer, he didn’t have heart dis­ease. They sud­denly just changed his med­i­ca­tion and it was the new med­i­ca­tion that killed him.’ The for­mer NHS ex­ec­u­tive ex­pressed shock at Mr Lewis’s treat­ment, say­ing: ‘I can­not con­ceive of cir­cum­stances which would ne­ces­si­tate the re­peated ad­min­is­tra­tion of these drugs. I am not in the least sur­prised that the pa­tient died. In a nut­shell, these drugs stop peo­ple breath­ing. ‘If this were my rel­a­tive I would post­pone fu­neral ar­range­ments un­til in­quiries have been ini­ti­ated – I per­son­ally be­lieve this is a po­lice mat­ter and de­mands im­me­di­ate ac­tion. This man was re­ceiv­ing a pro­longed anaes­thetic. I can see no rea­son for this and, short of him be­ing in the ter­mi­nal phase of a ma­lig­nant dis­ease, I can­not con­ceive of cir­cum­stances which would ne­ces­si­tate the re­peated ad­min­is­tra­tion of these drugs. ‘If this were my rel­a­tive I would post­pone fu­neral ar­range­ments un­til in­quiries have been ini­ti­ated – I per­son­ally be­lieve this is a po­lice mat­ter and de­mands im­me­di­ate ac­tion. This man was re­ceiv­ing a pro­longed anaes­thetic. I can see no rea­son for this and, short of him be­ing in the ter­mi­nal phase of a ma­lig­nant dis­ease, I can­not con­ceive of cir­cum­stances which would ne­ces­si­tate the re­peated ad­min­is­tra­tion of these drugs. ‘I can see no good rea­son for in­creas­ing the dose, ei­ther. Alarm Bells are ring­ing all over this sce­nario.’ Nine days be­fore Mr Lewis died, Ms Mi­lazzo raised se­ri­ous con­cerns about her fa­ther’s new med­i­ca­tion plan and said she feared for his life. In an email to The Scot­tish Mail on Sun­day, she wrote: ‘The care home is killing my dad. He will die be­fore the end of the month if no­body stops them.’ In what was to be his fi­nal in­ter­view be­fore he died, Mr Lewis told tales about his life as one of Bri­tain’s best-loved com­edy stars, in­clud­ing how he felt at his first au­di­tion, his favourite roles and what it was like to work along­side Ron­nie Barker and Rowan Atkin­son. He joked and teased, he posed for the cam­era and begged to be asked more ques­tions. In what was to be his fi­nal in­ter­view be­fore he died, Mr Lewis told tales about his life as one of Bri­tain’s best-loved com­edy stars, in­clud­ing how he felt at his first au­di­tion, his favourite roles and what it was like to work along­side Ron­nie Barker and Rowan Atkin­son. He joked and teased, he posed for the cam­era and begged to be asked more ques­tions. But just be­fore our re­porter left he said: ‘I was watch­ing the horses on TV to­day. They were so…’ he low­ered his head into his hand and wept. ‘They were so free.’ Mr Lewis said all he wanted was to go home to be looked af­ter by his daugh­ter and be with his grand­son but he was kept at Ellen’s Glen House un­til he was de­clared dead at 3.05pm on Jan­uary 20. A Po­lice Scot­land spokesman said: ‘The death is be­ing treated as un­ex­plained but is not thought to be sus­pi­cious. A re­port has been sub­mit­ted to the procu­ra­tor fis­cal.’ Dr Tracey Gil­lies, med­i­cal di­rec­tor at NHS Loth­ian, said: ‘Our con­do­lences are with Mr Lewis’s fam­ily at this sad time. A Po­lice Scot­land spokesman said: ‘The death is be­ing treated as un­ex­plained but is not thought to be sus­pi­cious. A re­port has been sub­mit­ted to the procu­ra­tor fis­cal.’ Dr Tracey Gil­lies, med­i­cal di­rec­tor at NHS Loth­ian, said: ‘Our con­do­lences are with Mr Lewis’s fam­ily at this sad time. ‘How­ever, it would not be ap­pro­pri­ate to dis­cuss any de­tails from his med­i­cal record. ‘All of the nor­mal pro­ce­dures, which in­clude in­form­ing the procu­ra­tor fis­cal of his death, have been car­ried out.’ If this were my rel­a­tive I would post­pone the fu­neral un­til in­quiries had been ini­ti­ated… I can see no rea­son for this [drug treat­ment]… alarm bells are ring­ing all over this sce­nario FOR­MER NHS EX­EC­U­TIVE