A grieving family has made a shocking claim that they only learned their loved one had died 15 hours earlier at a major regional city hospital when they went to visit him.
They told 7NEWS they arrived at Tamworth Hospital in NSW on Tuesday to visit Steve Kandemir, only to learn from a computer screen that his body was already in the morgue.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Family’s shock as they arrive at hospital to learn loved one dead for hours
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Kandemir was known as someone who would give the shirt off his back and help anyone who needed it.
Originally from Armenia, he moved to Moree in northern NSW where he met the Bartholomew family.
“He has been in our family for around 30 years, so pretty much the majority of my life,” Steve Bartholomew told 7NEWS.
“He was a close family friend but we treated him like family and he treated us like family.”
Kandemir suffered a sudden health issue and ended up in Moree Hospital on September 25, before being flown to Newcastle.
He was later transferred to Tamworth hospital and put on end of life care before passing away in the early hours of Tuesday.
Steve Kandemir died at Tamworth Hospital, but loved ones were not told until they arrived at hospital for a visit. Credit: 7NEWSTamworth Hospital. Credit: 7NEWS
Bartholomew received a missed call from a private number at 2.27am on Tuesday, but no message was left and he could not phone them back.
Fifteen hours later when Bartholomew arrived at hospital with his kids for a regular visit — believing Kandemir was still alive — a patient search gave them the devastating news.
“I spoke to a nurse and she looked upon the screen to see which ward he was in as he wasn’t in the coronary ward which we believed he was,” he said.
“When she searched it up it said the patient you are trying to view the records of is deceased.”
Bartholomew said his children were “asking where old Steve was”.
“I had to break the news to them he was gone to heaven,” he said.
“If they hadn’t have called on a no caller ID, we would have called back and I wouldn’t have taken my kids up there to see him if I knew that he had passed away.”
Steve Bartholomew was shocked to find Kandemir had died. Credit: 7NEWS
Neither Bartholomew or his sister, who was marked as Kandemir’s next of kin, were notified in those 15 hours, they said.
Bettyjo Bartholomew said one of her biggest fears was that “Steve would die alone”.
“Sadly that fear became a reality,” she said.
“I was his next of kin, yet I was not notified when he passed away.”
The family wants better lines of communication in place such as a phone number you can call or a text message service indicating it is an urgent matter.
“Give better resources to the hospital, but also hospital staff to be trained better to do things in a more dignified way when someone is at the end of their life, and respect the family,” Bartholomew said.
The Bartholomews also want to shine a light on the kind and generous nature of the man they cherished.
He was able to donate his eyes, “meaning someone else may now have the gift of sight because of him”.
Hunter New England Local Health District, which operates Tamworth Hospital, was sought for comment but did not respond before publication.
