UK Nurse Turned Off Quadriplegic's Life Support

Bliss · Oct 28, 2010

I can't imagine his terror...

Theunis Bates Contributor
AOL News

LONDON (Oct. 26) -- A shocking video captures the moment that an undertrained home health care nurse mistakenly turns off her quadriplegic patient's life-support machine. That disastrous action, and a succession of further medical blunders, caused 37-year-old Jamie Merrett to go without air for 21 minutes, leaving the Englishman severely brain damaged.

What makes Merrett's story all the more tragic is that until that accident in January 2009, he had succeeded in living a comparatively active life, despite being paralyzed from the neck down since a 2002 car crash. He received around-the-clock care at home, but could operate an electric wheelchair and a computer through voice-activated technology.

In 2008, though, he started to become increasingly concerned over serious errors made by nurses operating his ventilator, his sister Karren Reynolds told the BBC. He sent off several e-mails to local health bosses, and -- after his concerns weren't acted on -- asked for a camera to be installed in his bedroom so he could record any accidents.

Unfortunately, his fears were well-founded. Just a few days after the webcam was set up early last year, it filmed nurse Violetta Aylward accidentally switching off the ventilator. In the video, the life-support system can be heard emitting a long, loud beep, causing Aylward to shout for help. A care assistant rushes into the room and asks the nurse: "What have you done?" Aylward replies, "Switched this off."

Conscious of what's happening, but powerless to move, Merrett can only smack his lips together as a warning. The care worker then tells Aylward to use a resuscitation bag to keep the patient breathing. However, instead of connecting it to the hole in his neck, she places it over his mouth. She can be heard urging, "Jamie, breathe please."

After 21 minutes, paramedics arrive and restart the machine. By then, however, the damage had been done.

"His life is completely changed. He doesn't have a life now," Reynolds said. "He has an existence but it's nowhere near what it was before. He is very brain damaged compared to what he was before. He was a highly intelligent man and you could have long in-depth conversations with him and now it tends to be more simplistic."

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The grainy footage has caused outrage in the U.K. and left many Britons worried about the quality of care they might receive at the hands of the thousands of private-agency nurses hired each year by the National Health Service (NHS).

Aylward has since been suspended and placed under investigation by the nursing watchdog. Aylward will not face a criminal prosecution, The Telegraph reported today, as she did not intentionally set out to harm her patient.

The agency that employed Aylward, Ambition 24hours, told the BBC that it couldn't comment on the case while an internal investigation was ongoing. However, a report into the accident by local social services -- which was leaked to the British broadcaster -- concluded that the company was fully aware it had been required to supply a nurse with training in the use of a ventilator, but that it didn't have adequate systems to check its employees' skill levels.

And the British Patients Association has criticized the NHS for failing to institute its own safety checks and follow up on Merrett's e-mails. "The NHS has been warned repeatedly about ensuring the staff it hires, agency or otherwise, are suitably trained to look after their patients, and we have campaigned for many years for an NHS that listen to its patients' concerns," Katherine Murphy, the organization's chief executive, said in a statement. "To think that this person was so worried that they installed a camera in their own home, but that their concerns were apparently ignored [is] outrageous."

NHS officials have apologized for the accident and said safeguards are now in place to ensure that such mistakes never happen again. Merrett's family, though, is continuing its long campaign for justice. "No one has come forward to make any admission," the family's lawyer, Seamus Edney, told the BBC, "so now almost two years after the event we are trying to get someone to admit liability for what has happened."
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GFunk · Oct 28, 2010

What a fuckin' dumbass. No really, what a god damn retard. Horrible training if the nurse was that much of a dipshit. And the nurse is a god damn dumbass for putting the bag over his mouth. Did her 'tarded ass even pay attetion to what she was taught, if she was even taught shit?

Seriously, "Switched this off"? At least know what the fuck you're switching off. I swear, she reminds me of one of those dumb ass kids that goes in Guitar Center or some shit and starts pressing everything with a flashing light and LED display. Someone needs to get sued and have their bank broken. A punch to the throat will be a nice addition too. That'll learn ya. I really do hate underqualified people in a position where lives are in their hands.

Rant over. She must've gone to the Everest College of nursing out there. God damn moron.

Kushton Slater · Oct 28, 2010

She must of went to Sofa King retarded community college.

justanotherbrothalover · Oct 28, 2010

OMG that is tragic.

FRESH · Oct 28, 2010

She should be made to go without oxygen for 21 minutes & then have her recitative efforts botched.

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UK Nurse Turned Off Quadriplegic's Life Support

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