A 70-year-old woman and her daughter are still seeking an apology from the hospital a year after an IV placed in her thumb caused a possible fatal blood infection.

Audrey Flood was taken to King Edward VII Memorial Hospital (KEMH) on November 8, 2007 by her daughter Dawn Perkins after complaining of tightness in her chest.

Fearing she was having a heart attack, the KEMH cardiac team kept Ms Flood in the hospital for observation and scheduled her for a stress test the following Tuesday.

Before Ms Flood could get the stress test, however, a member of the IV team changed her needle. Rather then put it in her hand or arm as she requested, he placed the IV in her arthritic thumb.

She began complaining of a "twanging" and the next day, Tuesday, she was vomiting and complaining of tightness in her chest again.

Ms Perkins claims, however, that she only knew about this change in her mother's condition because one of her friends called to tell her — not the KEMH.

She claims that when she was contacted by the hospital hours later, she was told her mom was having another heart attack and had to be flown to Johns Hopkins.

Ms Flood then started running a fever while in the airlift to Johns Hopkins and the next day the women were told she had a blood infection — Staph — not a heart attack.

When they returned to Bermuda, both mother and daughter met with officials to voice their concerns of being sent off the Island and incurring the cost of almost two weeks at Johns Hopkins. They claim no one wanted to listen.

Now they are telling their story hoping no one else will have to go through a similar ordeal.

Ms Perkins said: "All we are looking for is a 'I am sorry'. She (her mother) is more concerned that it could happen to someone else.

"Luckily we were in a position that we could just up and go. I am a single mother so either my son had to come with us or he would have to figured out a way to go up later. We literally went with the clothes on our backs.

"And we go to these overseas hospitals and everybody is accountable for everything and here they don't have to.

"If they hadn't given her a Staph infection I wouldn't have had to take two weeks off and take my son out of the school.

"We are just getting more and more frustrated and nobody is listening to what we are trying to say. It has gotten to the point where we are just terrified to go to the hospital now."

And Ms Flood added: "All I wanted was an 'I am sorry'. But in the meetings I was told I refused stents.

"I was sent up and I didn't have a heart attack. I am back to work (but) I was out from November to April and I lost a lot of money and wages. I know my insurance covers a lot but I had to pay for my daughter and grandson.

"I just got to the point where (it felt like) a losing battle. I feel like the way we were treated we were treated like trash."

Staph infection can cause anything from minor skin infections to scolded skin syndrome and abscesses, to life-threatening diseases such as pneumonia, meningitis and toxic shock syndrome.

According to a letter shared with this paper by Ms Perkins from Richard Lange, professor of cardiology and chief of clinical cardiology at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Ms Flood contracted Staph from the IV site.

He added that a stress test on Ms Flood proved her heart was working at 90 percent of its predicted heart rate without chest pain or abnormalities.

A Bermuda Hospitals Board spokesperson refused to speak directly on the issues with this newspaper but offered this response:

"While Ms Flood has already met with many hospital personnel to discuss her case, she is still welcome to return to discuss her concerns.

"Generally we can say that patients are only flown overseas for treatments or procedures that we cannot provide on-Island and this is done in the interest of patient safety.

"A patient would not be flown overseas for an infection, but in this case, it did relate to the condition Ms Flood originally came to hospital with.

"Discussions took place between KEMH and Johns Hopkins regarding the patient, and these are recorded on the patient's record.

"We would add that our blood infection rates are very low at KEMH compared to overseas hospitals. However, there is a medically recognised risk of an infection with an IV drip.

"We have international standards in place to prevent them but they will occur from time to time and are treated appropriately."

Complaints of mistreatment at KEMH have been made over the years.

In 2005, a coroner determined that Gladys Smith died after suffering a heart attack and two first degree burns to her feet when she was left alone in a scolding hot bathtub at KEMH.

And a year later, Jerome Taylor faced medical bills of almost $70,000 after KEMH misdiagnosed a heart attack and sent him to the Lahey Clinic.

Yesterday, Shadow Health Minister Louise Jackson said she was disappointed that more had not been done for the family.

She said: "We must hold our health care system of the highest standards of medical practices. Our policy must provide us, its patients, with the best quality of care and highly trained personnel.

"However, it's important that a person's complaints and concerns are dealt with, with compassion and in a timely manner. It's unfortunate that Ms Flood's series of incidents at KEMH have caused her such distress."