Down's Syndrome Child Patient Starves to Death In Hospital

[Suave]

Hi All,

I was very sad and upset to see on the news today that a Down's Syndrome child patient died of starvation at a NHS Hospital after not being fed for 27 days. Apparently the Doctors thought the nurses were feeding him and the nurse though the Doctors were (?).

I cannot even begin to imagine what that poor kid must have gone through and am very angry at how such a thing could have been overlooked for 27 days days straight whilst he was actually in hospital - he was supposed to be fed nasally by means of a fixed placed feeding tube. I am flabbergasted that in all that time not a single person noticed that there was no nasal feeding tube secured to his face and that no one even noticed his deteriorating condition.

What is even sadder is that the Down's Syndrome Association has stated that this is not the first time something like this happened and happens on a more frequent basis than we all generally know but for whatever political reason, we never get to hear about. I am so very extremely saddened by this.

Suave.

[Iccz]

I'm lost for words, that is absolutely disgraceful.

But I know the NHS take a lot of slack and it's very rare that you get bad cases like this, they do provide overall under-rated care in a lot of cases.

But this certainly needs investigating, poor poor child and the family

[Cocacola]

I suppose no one noticed the weight loss or other vital signs in the child either

[Mr Incredible]

Awful. Tragic. Where did you get the bit about it being a child? Only item I could find was a 43 year old patient.

[Suave]

Originally Posted by Mr Incredible

Awful. Tragic. Where did you get the bit about it being a child? Only item I could find was a 43 year old patient.

I saw it on the news - they said as a child that had severely limited mental capacity he could not even express anything even at a basic level - I am pretty sure it was a child but if I am mistaken, then I sincerely apologise.

Suave.

[Iccz]

Yeah it was a 43 year old.

Starved to death in an NHS hospital: Damning inquiry highlights case of patient left without food for 26 days | Mail Online

[Suave]

Originally Posted by Iccz

Yeah it was a 43 year old.

Starved to death in an NHS hospital: Damning inquiry highlights case of patient left without food for 26 days | Mail Online

Hi,

I sincerely apologise for the error on m part - I think the news reel I saw also mentioned something about a 11 year old boy with DS dying under similar circumstances a few years ago and I must have muddled up between the two. Profound apologies to all. (Mods. please feel free to amend title to reflect this)

Suave.

[Singh400]

Holy crap, thats some serious miscommunication right there. I can't believe they don't have checks in place. Wait I mean, I know they do have checks in place. I can believe that no one bothered to carry them out!

[Ian J]

Originally Posted by Suave

I sincerely apologise for the error on m part

I don't suppose that it really matters whether it was a child or an adult as it's equally distressing that such a thing could happen to either.

[kopchoir]

Yet another break down in communication this case happens all the time and im afriad to say that this all boils down to poor nursing care most patients by policy in every trust now has to be weighed on admission food in hospital is still poor not everyone wants to eat when they are ill medical reasons,painkillers antibiotics especially the elderly. Trusts have a malnutrtion score so patients get weighed frequently the problem with this is time nurses dont have time to weigh patients all the time if someone is not eating then they get refered to the dietitian, who then assess what is needed and high fat foods are then ordered for the patient and what kind of foods they like to eat.
In this case the patient needed a peg feed why it took so many days to do is beyond me and how poor must of been the nursing care that this patient did not recieve it as a former nurse it was always our priority for our patients to make things happen i have myhthered a doctor for days to agree to certain things, as a nursing team to give our point of view usuall the right one as we see the patient 24 hours a day so i cant understand why all the multi disciplinary bodies dietitian speak and lanaguage team who asses swallowing reflexes stroke team and doctors could not do something so basic it makes me feel quite sad this story as its basic nursing and medical intervention would of saved his life.
I am always the first to defend me fellow proffessionals but im afraid until we start recruiting properly again and giving those who we train, jobs with a salary to match their skills and quality then we are going to see more and more of this many student nurses i have seen who would make super nurses i have seen working at asda becuase they couldnt get a job because of to many foreigners some parts of the system are fundamentaly floored and its when this kind of tragedy happens then us nurses all over the country just shake our heads because we know that
1.this should never have happened and
2. that this will happen again unless we act

[Ian J]

Originally Posted by kopchoir

I am always the first to defend me fellow proffessionals but im afraid until we start recruiting properly again and giving those who we train, jobs with a salary to match their skills and quality then we are going to see more and more of this

My wife is a nurse and her major complaint is the huge volume of paperwork that has to be done. It would seem that this paperwork is required partly to keep all the various Government departments happy but also as we now live in a litigation society it's deemed more important to carefully document what has been done, down to the smallest detail than to actually do it.

She says that report writing takes up an hour out of her seven hour working day and she does this at the end of her shift in her own time and unpaid. Many others will handle the paperwork during the shift so that their seven hour working shift will only give time for six hours nursing

[kopchoir]

Originally Posted by Ian J

My wife is a nurse and her major complaint is the huge volume of paperwork that has to be done. It would seem that this paperwork is required partly to keep all the various Government departments happy but also as we now live in a litigation society it's deemed more important to carefully document what has been done, down to the smallest detail than to actually do it.

She says that report writing takes up an hour out of her seven hour working day and she does this at the end of her shift in her own time and unpaid. Many others will handle the paperwork during the shift so that their seven hour working shift will only give time for six hours nursing

Its just not that though its different policies shoved down our throat from managers to, i mean new guidelines come out all the time and it doesnt come form NICE half the time either it comes from big wigs who have not got a clue,
We hired phillipinos to come over when we had a nursing shortage and they are still here some are fine nurses others are not but they were supposed to be a stop gap but when nurses qualified they couldnt get jobs because they are still here wrong imo.
If nurses took their time back every week the nhs would shutim actually pleased im out of the ward side of things work your ass off for very little money and for very little thanks and it sucks

I was in surgery yesterday and the surgeon said a woman succesfully sued her local trust for £800 for a new carpet because of the antiseptic soloution used in surgery stained her carpet whats all that about because it costs less to write a cheque then get legal egals in

[Sunni]

I can't believe how this happened. Doctors are meant to prescribe the NG or PEG feed, dieticians regularly check this and recommend adjustments/blood tests, and nurses are meant to give the feed.

There are meant to be daily ward rounds where food charts are kept.

There must have been more than one party at fault here...