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Daily Record
Daily Record
National
Vivienne Aitken

Shamed GP Krishna Singh blamed for death of a 69-year-old gran

Shamed GP Krishna Singh has been blamed for the death of a 69-year-old gran.

Singh, 72, was jailed for 12 years for sexually assaulting 47 women –including teenagers, mums-to-be and a rape victim – while a GP in Coatbridge.

Now, a grieving daughter has told how he twice ignored signs her mum was seriously ill – leaving her 30 minutes from death the first time and causing her death on the second.

By the time it was discovered by chance Linda McLenaghan had lung cancer, nothing could be done and she died 14 weeks later.

As she lay on her death bed, she said: “This is Dr Singh’s fault. I told him, and told him, and told him, I wasn’t well.”

Daughter Fiona Mortimer, 40, said: “He must have got his medical licence out of a lucky bag. Dr Singh was her doctor for as long as I can remember. He was my doctor as well.” But as she grew older, Fiona didn’t want to see him.

She said: “He wasn’t fit to be a doctor. I would always request to see other doctors because I felt you would go in to see him and he spent time asking how the family was and how my husband’s job was rather than what I went in for.

“I felt he was checking books to check if he was right. He would even come up to the house to see my mum and read the paper before examining her.”

But she really lost faith in his abilities in 2016 when her mum took ill.

Fiona said: “She had been going to see him with diarrhoea and sickness but he just told her repeatedly it was a bad bug.

“Five weeks on, she couldn’t string a sentence together so I took her straight to hospital.

“Doctors said if we had waited another 30 minutes she would have been dead because her potassium levels were so low.

“I went into the surgery and pulled him up about it in front of everyone.

“He was very blasé about it as if he didn’t take it seriously.”

Linda had a history of heart disease and COPD and she had non-Hodgkinsons cancer at 25. In 2018, she felt really poorly, breathless and with sickness and diarrhoea.

Fiona said: “Dr Singh told her he didn’t need to see her and it was all down to her COPD and gave antibiotics and steroids.

“She was contacting him at least once a week saying she still did not feel great. There was a rapid change in her breathing and simple daily tasks she couldn’t do any more.”

Fiona continued: “Her steroids are normally just for seven days but she had been on them and antibiotics from January until April and she never got to see the doctor.

“She developed a pain in her left ribs and her breathing was getting worse.”

Linda had a history of heart disease and COPD and she had non-Hodgkinsons cancer at 25 (Ross Turpie/Daily Record/Sunday Mail/Reach PLC)

Singh said on the phone she must have pulled a muscle but, two weeks later, she was referred to the renal unit because of her pain.

It was only when she had a fall at home after collapsing from dehydration because of sickness and diarrhoea she was finally diagnosed with cancer.

Fiona said: “When she went to Monklands Hospital she told them she hadn’t felt well for months. They performed a bronchoscopy and discovered a mass on her left lung.”

Linda was told there was nothing doctors could do as she wasn’t strong enough.

He also failed to follow up the renal unit’s request for blood to be taken in May which may have led to an earlier diagnosis.

Fiona lodged a complaint with NHS Lanarkshire and they upheld her complaint.

The judgment stated: “The quality of the medical records in the GP practice is poor and therefore this presents us with difficulties in finding clear evidence of the clinical thought process of the doctors concerned, nor justification.”

Fiona said: “I want him to pay for what he did to my mum. It was medical negligence.

“He has completely ruined my life. I am lost without my mum and I have lost trust in dctors.

“He failed my mum medically and morally.”

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