boy dies after calling 999 from ward

[ohdobuckup]

I just cannot believe this appalling story, can't link but it was in most papers and headlined in Daily Mail.

Inquest being held into the case of a young man who appears to have suffered severe neglect at Tooting hospital, with 'lazy' nurses and indifferent doctors allowing him to die of thirst because he was confused following major operation.The poor sod even dialled 999 to get help, police arrived but were ushered off the ward

How the fuck has nursing become such a corrupted profession?
I am an ex-nurse, mostly Mental Health, and not that ancient either, and whilst not claiming any perfection on my part, and have had lapses of judgement and bad days too, I am truly appalled by this one.

Any other nurses/exes seen this?

Daily Telegraph version of the story

Just horrifying. ESPECIALLY after the Mid-Staffordshire scandal and enquiry, ffs. Clearly the same appalling treatment is still being meted out in other hospitals around the country.

What a tragic story.

This is just appalling, I'm finding it difficult to get my head round it tbh.

Why on earth would a nurse refuse a simple request like a drink of water and given that such an important part of their job is administering medication, how can they just not bother especially after being reminded by his mum.

Poor boy, poor mum :(

It doesn't surprise me sadly. My mother starved herself to death on a NHS ward 4 years ago - it took her 2 months and although she had cancer and had also had a stroke, not one single nurse or other "professional" noticed the fact that she'd lost 2 stone, wasnt eating and was hiding her food in her napkins etc, even though I kept asking them about it.

My father died in the same hospital 3 years earlier after his CAT scans were lost by the hospital. By the time they found them, hours later, the bleed in his brain had gone too far and he never recovered consciousness,

DH is under strict instructions never to leave my side if I am ever admitted t an NHS hospital, and I will do the same for him and the DCs.

Oh, and I was told by a group of nurses that I couldn't fetch a jug of water for my mother - who was sufering from advance renal failure and had been told to drink a jog of water every 2 hours by the doctor - because they were having a staff meeting in the kitchen where the tap was. I'm afraid I uttered the f-word and fetched the water regardless.

What can you do in that mother's position? Take names and threaten legal action if protocols are not followed? Refuse to leave your loved one (impractical if you have other caring responsibilities and you might get thrown out)? Have you any right to demand an issue be escalated?

My own experiences have left me utterly terrified of hospitals. Bullies are drawn to the caring professions, to the power they can have over the vulnerable.

While the majority may well be wonderful, the impact of the spiteful few is devastating.

Scary, scary stuff. Why do some people bother to become nurses when they clearly don't care?

Bullies are drawn to the caring professions

Yes, yes, yes in my experience.

I tried to volunteer on a ward feeding elderly patients. I didn't last long and it put me off a career in nursing for good. I reported what I saw and never went back.

OMG!! What an awful awful story.

So sad and so vile and so worng. .

Thats just awful. It has really disturbed me. His poor family.

good grief, how horrendous.
that poor, poor boy :(

I wonder why his mother didn't get him a drink though

And doubtless things will get worse as hospitals have to cut back further.

It's not because of cuts that this happens - it's because of staff who don't do their job properly. They should face serious consequences for this. There are no excuses for not giving water or medication and for lying to the patient's family.

Have just signed a petition linked to in the Telegraph comments about improving arrangements for whistleblowing and patient safety - it's here if anyone's interested. I appreciate Toughasoldboots that you did all you could and people who speak up about these things should be supported.

IME formal complaints are pointless.

Fear of litigation might give staff the incentive to follow protocols. But it often leads to arse-covering and gaming the system.

What needs to change is the culture of contempt for patients.

Horrific. Terribly sad story, but unfortunately I'm not surprised after witnessing the terrible lack of care when my Mum was dying in hospital in 2002, and again when my Dad was in the same hospital a year later .

Not surprised either. My step-FIL has dementia and cancer. He had a bowel op and was fitted with a colostomy bag. The ward he was admitted to never changed it. The staff MIL raised it with said they don't know how. She had to change it because they wouldn't. She would leave him at night and when she returned in the mornings, the bag had burst and he was lying covered in his own drying faeces. Once they stripped his bed and left him all day and night on a plastic covered mattress.
They said he could change it himself and that he was just being lazy. He has dementia. He can't do it himself.
Not surprisingly, his op wound became infected.

I read the story, and I was utterly shocked at the complete callousness of the staff and the lies they told - they were obv just interested in covering their own backs and one nurse even asked the man's mother, 'are you finished yet? can I bag him up?' which - if she had been me -would have had me killing her, outright. What a stupid, callous, cruel woman. Am so sad and shocked that this kind of thing can happen in a British hospital.

This is disgraceful. Everyone concerned should be sacked and barred from working in medicine ever again. Furthermore, I'd charge them with manslaughter or wilful neglect and send the bastards to prison for a very long time if / when found guilty.

This is a function of the NHS being such an unwieldy behemoth. Serious thought needs to be given to breaking it up into smaller chunks with fewer places for the incompetent to hide.

That's dreadful.
When my father was ill and in hospital, my mother camped out by his bed, she wasn't leaving anything to chance. Unbelievable that this is in the UK.

MrJudgeypants, I don't think that's the point. This happened in a hospital ward - a small enough place where no-one should have been able to hide.

A friend of a friends wife was in constant pain, losing weight and couldnt sleep. Repeat trips to the GP to be reassured ot was only an ear infection. Things got so bad her husband had to carry her into the hospital. Two hours later she died. In agony. She was in her thirties.

It was lung cancer. Every doctor missed it despite her husbands desperate pleas for more tests.

A lot of doctors have serious arogance issues IME. When will they start listening to families?