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?

MIL believes, with good reason, that FIL starved to death in their local hospital. She has cancer so was not able to camp out with him, but when she visited she noticed that they plonked the food down on his table and just left it- he was deaf and blind so had no idea there had been a delivery. And they called him by the wrong name, so even if he could hear he wouldn't have twigged they were talking to him.

I don't think they were being deliberately nasty- just too thick to realise that if it says in the notes that the man has hearing and visual impairments, then a cheery Here You Are Other Person's Name isn't actually going to do the job.

Or perhaps not thick: it just didn't seem to occur to them that it was part of their job to think.

Otoh when he fell ill on a visit to us and was treated in our local hospital the degree of care was immaculate. Really couldn't fault them in any way.

at all the shocking personal experiences.

Joan, are you a HCP, what do you advise families to do to ensure that loved ones get best care? Is there any non exacerbating technique to ensure that nurses monitor patients efficiently?

My experience- fortunately low level is that there does seem to be a low level contempt of patients and an over professionalism among that nurses that precludes them from doing the basics.

Yeah, this is why I camp out when DP is in hospital. Otherwise they just starve him, leave him with no water, pain reliefthere's no nursing care available in NHS hospitals if you're seriously incapacitated. It's got worse since they put all the non-nurses on, over this past 10 years it's become very obvious to us. The auxiliaries don't do anything; they're just extrasward artists!

Poor guy. Poor family.

IME private healthcare is nothing like this. The NHS is a failing behemoth and drastic changes need to be made. Unfortunately it is a vote loser for politicians to take up the challenge, because it is almost taboo to publicly slate 'our wonderful' NHS.

I too am horrified by the number of awful stories on this thread, but if I posted in AIBU (for eg) a thread title along the lines of 'to think the NHS is utter pants and should be broken up/privatised' I would be flamed off the board for having the nerve to slag off this 'fantastic' institution. . And this is why nothing will change.

That is jaw-droppingly appalling. I hope they all actually get some punishment for causing his death by neglect.

What a horrific story! I would say it was unbelievable but my last 3 experiences of being in hospital (2 emergency sections and gall bladder removal) have left me pretty disillusioned with the quality of nursing care.

IME the nursing profession attracts 2 types. Those people who really care, save lives and make being in hospital a less stressful experience. They are wonderful. And then there's the type that just seem angry with the patients and couldn't give a stuff about their wellbeing.

I have to say that you can get nurses with shit attitudes in private hospitals too.

DH had a hernia repair in one of our local BUPA hospital and was told by his surgeon that he had to drink lots of water and that the resulting urine had to be inspected and measured by a nurse.

The measuring jug became full to overflowing but no nurse had appeared, so I went off in search. I managed to find one (after some legwork round deserted corridors) but his designated nurse had deigned to turn up by then and tutted at him crossly, telling him that it was almost spilling and he should have emptied it himself (contrary to what he had been told by the surgeon).

He felt too weak to remonstrate but I would have had something to say if I'd witnessed it. It's despicable to take out your general dissatisfaction on patients in a vulnerable position.

I wanted to complain officially - she was a right arsey cow - but he just wanted to forget about it so I let it go.

So if you're thinking of having a private op don't take it as a given that the nursing staff will be all sweetness and light like in the ads. The consultants, on the other hand, are all over you.

I wanted to complain officially - she was a right arsey cow - but he just wanted to forget about it so I let it go.

That's the crux of it. As patients or relatives of patients we're so vulnerable and so relieved when it's over, it's really hard to stay with those feelings and pursue those who've treated us badly.

My 2 experiences are so minor that I'm embarrassed to mention them- I'm not suggesting that our treatment was on a par with those mentioned up thread, but they illustrate how difficult it is to ask for adequate care.

DD2 was admitted as an inpatient with suspected meningitis when she was a few days old. Because of infection risk we were put on a chilrdens' ward, but in a private room. It was filthy, I was not really up to a deep clean, and worried about touching grubby stuff myself as I was days post partum and also caring for DD. When the cleaner came in I just couldn't say anything. She was sweet and incompetant, said lovely baby and I just didn't have the energy for confrontation, or even to point out the grime.

Same DD had to do a 24 hour fast to test for blood sugar levels when she was 4. When the last cannula was taken out she could eat; I didn't want to prepare anything before (she was famished and it seemed mean to prepare something she couldn't eat yet) and I certainly didn't want to leave her while the canula was removed. I asked if someone else could bring her some toast. You'd think I'd spat in the tea, the way the nurse reacted. It was extremely uncomfortable.

That is a shocking story and the staf involved should be disciplined accordingly.

It makes me feel ashamed to admit I'm a nurse. But we're not all power-crazied bullies who get off on treating patients appallingly; the vast majority of us chose nursing as a career because we do care and want to make a difference. But I wouldn't work in a hospital now for all the money in the world - I don't want to be 1 of 2 registered nurses responsible for up to 40 increasingly sick, elderly, complex patients. There is no way on this earth I could give the care I want to, or to do well the job that I have studied and trained so long for.

IME it helped that my mum is a healthcare professional and knew the system so couldn't be fobbed off, especially when the true story of my dad's neglect became apparent.

We pushed and pushed for an inquiry into the complaint as we felt so strongly about it and before the NMC hearing, the Trust concerned offered us an "full and unreserved apology".

As others have said, when you or loved ones are ill/unwell, you don't want to 'rock the boat' but unfortunately if everyone feels like that, the nurses that don't care, continue to get away with it!!

My dad was 60, an intelligent and articulate man, very poorly and fragile (24hr oxygen etc) and was basically intimidated and threatened by the nurse. These nurses may be in the minority but they need to be aware that they cannot get away with this sort of behaviour. It could be one of their loved ones on the receiving end one day!

My dad was admitted after a stroke, couldn't use his arm and his mouth was numb. He also had Parkinsons, which didn't help. Initially he couldn't eat or drink unaided.

No one helped him, his food was put on his tray and left, he couldn't get to it, his water by the bed, he couldn't reach it. Each day my mum struggled in on two buses to ensure he ate at least once a day, but watched him fade away. He used to cry with frustration, this is a man who was brave and won medals in the war, but still my mum didn't complain, I did and was always told that they would ensure he had help and things were put within reach, each day the water was by the side of the bed, the patient next to him told us no one had helped him eat that day.

My dad died, with a thin curtain separating him for six other elderly men on that same ward. The staff knew he didn't have long, but said there was no where else for him to go, so we sat with him for several hours on the public ward, watching every breath and waiting..... Even in his death there was no dignity.

I felt for those patients adjacent who could hear every moment of our pain.

I was disgusted when DD was left without food or drink for 24 hours due to us "having to wait for the consultant - he's a very busy man you know" DD was 5 and by the time I blew my top (and took her off the ward) she crying with headache pain - dehydration - and was feeling horribly sick.

I made a formal complaint, through PALS but never even got a reply.

I am shocked at some of these stories, puts the anger I felt for DD way, way in the shade. Some of these experiences are heartbreaking guys, I really feel for you.

RoxyRobin
It wouldn't make any difference whether the consultant knew what was going on with the nursing care. The days when consultants had any say in anything anyone else does are long gone.

If a consultant dared criticize a nurse, they would be on "gardening leave" like a shot.

I don't doubt it.

Not nursing failure this time, but when my octogenarian mother had a hip replacement the consultant told her she would be getting physiotherapy every day.

When she informed him near the end of her week's stay that she hadn't seen hide nor hair of a physiotherapist he just looked at the floor and shook his head. He apologised to her and said, "You see, I can only do my job ... I have no control over the rest."

Yet the public still has an image of consultants being like James Robertson Justice, with Hattie Jacques in tow - no wonder we get such a shock when we come up against the reality.

I honestly considered phoning 999 whilst having an asthma attack on a ward last March.
I asked for the Doctor at 6.30am, really couldn't breathe, and it took an MNetter, coming in and demanding I saw a doctor that got me one, at 3pm.
Once the doctor saw me, she was horrified, said I should never have been moved to that ward from high dependency where I had been, and had me moved to another ward with much more monitoring.
I do love that we have the NHS, I'd be dead without it, but that doesn't mean you always get great treatment in hospital either.

I thought we would get a run of horror stories...I could add a few of my own with family and friends in local hospital, just one example..

Night nurse comes onto ward at start of shift, says loudly '' we don't believe in giving pain relief too readily as it promoted dependency and we don't want that''... utter crap, and delivered to a room full of post-op women , stomach surgery, hip replacements, cancers, all terrified. My friend was in for gall bladder removal and exploratory surgery, absolutely terrified of this bloody nurse who was a prize cow in many other ways too.

I urged her to complain but she was too scared and just wanted out when it was all over, That's how so many get away with it.

This is not the first time someone has felt the need to ring 999 and then the police have been sent away without seeing the patient or finding out exactly what has gone on. The staff should be ashamed of themselves.

Completely agree with Callisto. Remember this thread next time someone is getting a flaming for dating the nhs needs reforming.

I spent three weeks in hospital immobile with a broken spine when I was 24. My Dh spent every moment with me he could but he had to work too. They regularly forgot to bring me food or water or empty my catheter bag, and when I buzzed to complain they moved the buzzer out of my reach. Fucking bitches.

Yes Tough, there was a thread.
I'm back on high alert atm, bag packed and 3G bill paid, but just hoping I'll be OK.
I'm terrified of hospital, as if you get the wrong nurse, or the wrong ward, you're fucked.
I learn more and more with every admission, and often have to tell them what I need, and what to do, as they are clueless.

When I was in hospital and seriously ill with pneumonia, I was having to disconnect my oxygen pipes, and crawl across the ward in order to feed two old ladies that had given up on pressing their buzzers for assistance. And these were old ladies who had wasted away to skin and bones in just a week or two in the hospital.

My bed was covered in blood from the previous occupant (at least, I hope it was only one previous to me...), and the nurse told me to just ignore it.

I was told by the resp consultant not to go to the toilet myself, and to buss for a commode. I'd have pissed the bed and sat in it if I had waited. Much like the old ladies on the acute resp ward did.

I wrote the whole lot up as it was happening, on MN, it was a lot worse tbh, but it's not in my current name, would have to advanced search to link as it was a few years ago.

I have no words the NHS is severely underfunded there are simply not enough nurses to do the job. Maybe the bankers could donate some funds ha ha ha...

I have had the misfortune of spending a few weeks in total in hospital for different things over the last 5 years, some in Obs& gyne, some in orthopaedics and have also visited various people in hospital. My experience of the nursing is that where older, more frail people predominate the nursing staff are at their least caring. How fucked up is that?

In the orthopaedic ward I was unable to get anyone to help me to the loo at 2am (I'd had surgery under GA at 7pm the previous evening). I was still really wobbly from the GA and unable to manage the crutches all that well yet. I buzzed and it took 1 hour and 3 button pressed before anyone turned up, and she was not sympathetic in the slightest. A raving man who was clearly dementing was simply parked near the central nurses' station, thereby neatly keeping the entire ward awake through the night. No specialist was called to assess him. A stupidbitch nurse told me in the morning that he was "just a bit of a rogue". The only nurse who appeared to do any work on the ward (and it was remarkable quite how much harder she was working than any of the others) was a gorgeous lady from Trinidad (Thank you Deanna from orthopaedics at the RD&E for enabling my shower the next morning and for all your care). The others were on the whole a dead-eyed bunch more intent on gossiping at the nurses' station than helping people who needed help.

DD's arm was nearly re-broken by some mad cow nurse in the paed ward who for no reason at all decided she was a bed-blocker and needed moving even though her fracture was not yet stabilised and her pain not under control. DD's arm was held up in a sling separate from the bed to keep the swelling down, mad cow was about to swing her bed across without moving the sling holder thing. I yelled at her to stop. She claimed she was not about to move the bed . I tell, you if she'd rebroken the bloody arm there would have been a bit more than a scene.

Yet all the staff in the obs, maternity and NICU wards were lovely. Completely different culture.

I'm not going to be an apologist for the nurses in the other wards- most of em just didn't seem to give a shit and were utterly in the wrong job imo.