Terminally ill artist sketches 'undignified and shocking' scene in Lancaster A&E before discharging himself

The sketch, revealed after Michael Bryson's death, shows a packed corridor with elderly patients lined up on trolleys, chairs and wheelchairs.

Mr Bryson recorded one of his last trips to hospital before he died of prostate cancer in November at the age of 61.

He discharged himself after witnessing a woman’s death at the RLI, having waited 12 hours without receiving treatment himself.

Speaking to The Mirror, Mr Bryson's son Tom, who was with him on his visit to hospital, said: "Sketching was something he did all the time.

“It was his work, but it was a way of passing the time. I’m guessing, processing what he was seeing.

“It was the fact that it was so undignified, people lying on trolleys in corridors. You can see there’s no privacy, no space, there is chaos.

"Sadly, the woman died there on the trolley, and he saw that. That must have been awful for everyone – obviously for the lady’s family but also for my dad and everyone else there waiting. That must have been very harrowing.”

Mike was having chemotherapy at the time of his visit.

“His oncologist had given him a card to show if he went to A&E, but it was chaos,” Tom said.

“The staff were all doing their best, but it was so disorganised. My dad was moved by it, by how undignified it was.

“I’d not been in to A&E for a few years so it was shocking.”

After 12 hours waiting, Mike discharged himself.

“Dad didn’t get seen or treated in the end,” Tom said. “He gave up and went home.

“He had been nervous about going to A&E, knowing he was immuno-compromised it was a hard situation.

“I think it sums up everything happening in our NHS right now.”

When his former wife Dr Susi Harris visited him before he died, Mr Bryson shared his drawing with her.

“He told me the story it depicted, and I was just speechless,” she told The Mirror.

“I told him how powerfully it brought home the reality of trolley waits and corridor care.”

"At the time there was a lot of talk about ambulances queueing outside A&E and I thought there could be no better illustration of the reason why.

“It is done from memory, and he has managed to visualise the whole thing from a bird’s eye view.”

At Dr Harris's suggestion, he shared the picture on Twitter, and she decided to share the image herself on social media after his death.