Family criticise staff at hospital where patient was left to die in a corridor

Coroner says neglect contributed to the death of Peter Thompson, who was left without checks for 10 hours The parents of a man who was left to die in a hospital corridor after staff presumed he was drunk have criticised staff for stepping over his corpse and not checking on him for more than 10 hours. CCTV cameras at the Edale House unit of Manchester Royal Infirmary captured staff pulling the lifeless body of Peter Thompson along the floor as though they were “dragging the body of a dead animal”, according to his father, Alan Thompson. The jury at Manchester crown court returned a misadventure verdict contributed to by neglect. The Manchester coroner, Nigel Meadows, said Thompson’s death was “wholly preventable” and he could have survived but for the neglect of nursing staff, three of whom faced disciplinary proceedings. Meadows is writing to Manchester Mental Health and Social Care Trust, which is responsible for Edale House, laying out his recommendations, and will also inform the Nursing and Midwifery Council, calling for an investigation into three of the nurses involved. Two members of staff have been sacked over the incident and a third has been disciplined. Peter Thompson, 41, from Gorton, was drunk and had taken anti-psychotic drugs, but instead of taking him to the accident and emergency department, staff at the unit left him sprawled on the floor, where he eventually died. He entered the hospital at 7.45pm on 3 April last year, not long before he collapsed and died. He was pronounced dead the following morning, more than 10 hours after he arrived at the unit, when a nurse noticed he was not breathing. His father Alan said: “Seeing your own flesh and blood being dragged across the floor like a dead animal is heartbreaking. “It was just inhumane what they did to our Peter and I just cannot understand how in this day and age this can be allowed to happen on a hospital corridor. “I can never, ever forgive these people for what little they did … I feel as if people will be awakened by what the verdict was and hopefully it will do a bit of good for other families who go through what we have been through.” Thompson’s daughter Carly, 23, said: “I just didn’t realise the extent of the neglect they had shown to my dad until this week. “He went to them for help and they left him out in the corridor to die cold, wet and lonely with nothing. I’m disgusted at their treatment of him.” The incident occurred after Thompson – a voluntary inpatient with a long history of alcohol abuse and addictions to heroin and crack cocaine – was prevented from entering his ward after he turned up with a bottle of vodka that he refused to hand over. He then fell asleep in the corridor at around 8.10pm after nurses decided to let him “sleep off” the effects of the alcohol. The unit has a policy of not allowing alcohol or drugs on its wards. But rather than wake him up or move him, a member of staff placed a towel next to the patient and he was not given a blanket or a pillow. Nurses and managers were forced to step over his body to get into the Grafton ward. Senior nurse Helen De Lacy-Leacey said she alerted night staff that the patient was outside the doors of the ward and asked them to “keep an eye on him and make sure he is OK”. But she ended her shift at 9.15pm and did not try to wake him or carry out a risk assessment of his condition. Night manager Steve Soobhug said leaving him to sleep outside was “the appropriate method of handling the situation at the time”. Fellow senior staff nurse Dini Oyebadejo said she checked on the patient several more times overnight but discovered him “stiff” at 6.15am and raised the alarm. When asked if she believed it was dangerous to leave Thompson in that condition, she replied: “It could have been dangerous, yes. I was concerned about the patient but I felt he needed to sleep. I didn’t want him to leave the ward.” Dr Alan Fletcher, a consultant in emergency medicine, concluded the victim would have lived had he been taken to an A&E unit during the night. A pathologist report concluded Thompson died from fatal levels of alcohol and anti-psychotic drugs, with liver cirrhosis as a contributing factor. He was four times over the drink-drive limit. Nadia Kerr, of Pannone solicitors, who represented the family, said: “This is a shocking indictment of the care standards provided by the Manchester Mental Health and Social Care Trust. “Peter Thompson was a voluntary patient who was aware he had problems but was trying to address them. The apology given during this inquest and the written apology from the trust go some way to acknowledging that Mr Thompson could and should have been treated more appropriately and with the dignity that was sadly lacking throughout this whole episode.” A Manchester Mental Health and Social Care Trust spokesman said: “We would like to apologise to Peter Thompson’s family and friends and express our deep regret about the circumstances of his death. “This was an isolated incident and does not reflect the high levels of care and dignity with which we treat our service users. On this occasion we fell short of our usual high standard and we are very sorry about this.” Health Helen Carter guardian.co.uk

Posted by on June 8, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.