To feel sorry for this doctor?

[HarryStylesismycrack]

I am not in any way downplaying the death of that beautiful little boy and it is clearly acknowledged there were some failures by the doctor in question however AIBU to feel as though this intervention by the GMC into the independent decision making by the MPTS is concerning? It appears to me that the MPTS took into account many things, not just the outcome (which I completely acknowledge is heartbreaking), the fact that this doctor was working the job of several other medical staff in an unfamiliar environment with significant IT issues with no senior input. It feels like this doctor has been made a bit of a scapegoat for huge systemic failures.

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/jack-adcock-latest-downs-syndrome-death-doctor-hadiza-babwa-garba-struck-off-general-medical-council-a8177721.html

A different link to a blog by other medical practitioners 54000doctors.org/blogs/an-account-by-concerned-uk-paediatric-consultants-of-the-tragic-events-surrounding-the-gmc-action-against-dr-bawa-garba.html

the mother says she will look into an appeal against the decision. I am hoping someone sets up a crowdfund page to help her expenses. She should be in jail not practicing.

@DopeyDazy have you read anything about the case? She was covering four people and six wards and her consultant refused to come and help. She had over 100 sick children in her care. How is that safe? Consultant has skipped the country and voluntarily taken himself off the register after using Hadiza as a scapegoat. Have you been following the actual facts at all?

It was the right decision. She seemed competent but over-worked I’m a virtually unworkable environment (too busy, lab results down). If I was a junior doctor I’d have refused to work with her consultant though who made her the scapegoat. It was a busy shift with more than one very sick patient - he should have realised from the gas how sick the boy was and come in to help.

No functioning IT systems to get results, no support on first day back from maternity leave, consultant nowhere to be seen, two very new junior colleagues, 100 children to care for. I honestly can’t see the competency issue and it has always looked massively like scapegoating to me.

Snap, laptop. I didn’t realise the consultant had left although it makes sense. This case has been discussed in medical journals in Australia as well, with the consensus that she was wrongly treated and that his lack of support was inexcusable.

of course I have . thought patient had a DNR wrongly . Doesn't matter how overworked she was that shouldn't happen. Would you accept an overworked mechanic not tighten wheelnuts and killing someone.

Just watched Panorama.

Very glad with the decision.

She admits mistakes and that she missed something but the reasons behind it were not of her making and also easy to make.

You can't argue with stupid.

Dr Bawa-Garba did mistakenly stop resuscitative efforts, confusing Jack with another patient, although this was not seen as contributory to the final tragic outcome. There had been confusing movement of patients of which Dr Bawa-Garba was not informed, so that when she was crash bleeped 13 hours after attending one arrest situation, having had no time for food, drink or a break, she raced to the area and wrongly assumed that she was going to the same patient. There were a minimum of 7 professionals in the cubicle, including Jack’s named professionals and equally senior, less exhausted paediatric and intensive care doctors leading or assisting the resuscitation. No–one queried Dr Bawa-Garba or double checked the name but rather they stopped resuscitative efforts on her word

the DNR thing makes great headlines but is not the reason this poor little boy died

I can't work out from that article what actually happened? All I see is the young lad caught sepsis? What are the failings reported? Sorry not sure if it's fully loading the article my end but it's very short & not very informative...

Would you accept an overworked mechanic not tighten wheelnuts and killing someone.

If there were systematic failures which meant it was not possible for that mechanic to do his/her job then I would blame the people responsible for those failures, not the mechanic

It was heartbreaking watching. I think that she was scapegoated but I also think it had nothing to do with her hijab that’s a ridiculous argument. And so immature.

beautiful there is a letter from
3 paediatric consultants on (I think) page 1 of this thread which is really clear and helpful. It’s not impartial but I gives a lot of background.

Having just read "This is Going To Hurt" I see this as 99% the inevitable tragic consequences of what has been done to the NHS and how it now treats poor junior doctors. however, if it was my child, I couldn't get over the DNR mistake. No matter how tired you are, you should double and triple check that every time I think.

Got it thanks @namechange. Awful story, so sad. She's been 100% scapegoated though hasn't she? So many failings there, so much pressure on one person. & doctors are human right? We trust them with our lives but they're not super human & do make mistakes( may be harder to say that had jack been my son though) There will be no doctors left if this is how they're treated, imagine the anxiety of not only the pressure that naturally comes with the job but knowing if you do make a mistake you could put chucked in jail? Wouldn't be worth it to me!

my DH passed away a few months ago but at least I felt everything was done for him by doctors and nurses. Cant imagine how his mom feels thinking if she got a competent doctor he might still be here.

The paused resus had nothing to do with his death. He died of sepsis.

beautiful it’s horrendous all round isn’t it? I truly don’t understand why anyone is going into medicine at the moment and taking on that risk under the crazy pressure, but I’m very grateful that they are.

Yeah I agree @namechange they should be supported in every possible way with the huge decisions they have to make. Money is money but I wouldn't want to live with that stress, but like you say I am grateful that others are...

She is a competent doctor. If you want a doctor who will, in their whole career, never miss a diagnosis then you’ll be looking a long time.

She was working in a broken system. The consultant never reviewed the patient. The patient’s parent gave him a medication he shouldn’t have had at that point and which hadn’t been prescribed for hospital use. It’s the perfect example of everything going wrong. It’s nobodys fault.

I’m so pleased she won her appeal. And pleased for every junior dr too, they can’t be scapegoated for lack of staff and money.

The patient’s parent gave him a medication he shouldn’t have had at that point and which hadn’t been prescribed for hospital use

I didn’t know this. Is that what the slightly oblique reference to an “unprescribed” drug is getting at?

It was prescribed by his GP and brought in by his parents. It shouldn't have been given to in hospital as his condition contraindicated it and the doctor vetoed it. The parents wouldn't accept what she said.

He was on an ACE inhibitor which the doctor correctly withheld as he was hypovolaemic. By all accounts he was still sick but getting better (clinically improved and gas better) when his parents gave the medication. Presumably his just-holding-it-together cardiac output decompensated as his BP dropped due to the medication. He arrested shortly afterwards.

Reel I have also read "this is going to hurt" by Adam Kay. Everyone should read it. He burned out and broke down after a horrific incident on his watch and has written an expose of his time in the nhs - in his words the doctors and medical staff are too overworked to defend themselves so he has done so. Plus it's actually extremely funny.

One shift a nurse announced that Michael Jackson had just died "which cubicle?" was the weary response of the duty doctor.