BCG sepsis

First point: I am not medically trained, so my comments are purely my opinion based on reading and observing the treatment received by my parents and my own BC treatment experience since 2017 (but no BCG).  I fully understand the feelings of you and your family regarding the circumstances of your Grandad's passing. It is tough on everyone when a close family member dies, more so when you are not certain that treatment was conducted properly.

All medical procedures have risks. Patients and practitioners are human, meaning that a diagnosis can turn out to be incorrect or delayed if there are multiple symptoms making the cause difficult to quickly identify,  and a patient's condition can vary between treatment sessions. As an example, I have had over 30 long term urethral Foley catheters replaced since mid 2018. Some have caused a lot of pain, a few have been very straightforward, about 20% have caused significant bleeding for a few hours, my prostate sometimes makes insertion of the new catheter extremely difficult, I've had bladder spasms needing A&E intervention a few hours later (once) and been hospitalised for a week with sepsis once (with many of the symptoms you described). The last example required an ambulance ride.

When my dad died in the 1990s whilst still in hospital following a 'routine' operation which he had delayed until retirement a few weeks before, my mum wanted to pursue the matter because she was aware that certain medication my dad had been taking should not be suddenly stopped as it risked heart attack or stroke complications. The hospital stopped the medication (no weening off it), the op was carried out successfully but my dad had a massive fatal heart attack about 5 days later before he had been discharged. Mum's colleagues, some of whom were in the medical profession, gently advised that the cause of dad's death was not clear cut despite the obvious initial thoughts. Months of investigation would not necessarily bring a neat conclusion to the matter and the mental stress on my mum (and me) would be even worse than just accepting it as a risk that had ended in tragedy. Ironically, my mother died 6 years later after major surgery at a different hospital, about 12 weeks after her return to work and then retirement. Life can be cruel.

Listen to all appropriate advice you can get with regard to your grandad's sad demise, try to assess whether you and your family could bear the inevitable stress of an inquiry that could last for months, then take the decision to pursue or not, depending on all of your views.

I hope this has helped a bit. It is not easy to give generalised answers to these emotionally charged, tragic events.

Best wishes. Ray.