My mum was treated like a slab of meat Sat, Nov 12, 2011 | The New Paper SOMEONE had wrongly put a tag on her that said "do not resuscitate". So when Mrs Immacolata Lacovara, 74, started gasping for air, the nurses just stood by and watched until she died. Mrs Lacovara's case is among the 16 harrowing tales released in a damning report on Britain's National Health Service. The report was released by charity group Patients Association, which said that these cases come from among the thousands it gets on its helpline, and called for tough action against hospitals' neglect of the elderly. Other cases involved elderly patients left starving, thirsty and in agony after being denied drug relief, reported the Sun. Mrs Lacovara's son Matt told the Sun: "They stood back and watched my mother die in the arms of my helpless father. "My beautiful mother was treated with no dignity or respect. Instead, she was treated like a slab of meat." The report comes just weeks after one in five hospitals was found to neglect elderly patients so badly that they broke the law. Patients Association chief Katherine Murphy said: "The accounts of care in this report shame everyone involved." This article was first published in The New Paper.