Posted on 10/27/2010 11:16:11 AM PDT by BykrBayb
This is the moment a nurse accidentally turned off a man’s life support machine leaving him severely brain damaged.
NHS agency nurse Violetta Aylward, of Silverthorne Drive in Caversham, is filmed switching off a ventilator keeping alive 37-year-old tetraplegic Jamie Merrett who was left paralysed from the waist down after a road accident in 2002.
An alarm sounds and she calls for help from a carer who asks, “What’ve you done?” and the nurse replies, “Switched this off,” and panics, unsure of what to do next, leaving her patient perilously close to death.
Mr Merrett, who set up a camera at his home after he had concerns about his care, is aware something is wrong but unable to communicate and urgently clicks his tongue for attention.
The nurse is then given a resuscitation mask by the carer who says, “Well get this, quickly, quickly,” as she struggles with the equipment and places it in the wrong position.
It is 14 minutes before paramedics arrive and fit the Ambu bag (mask) correctly to the whole in his neck and the machine is then restarted seven minutes later.
Mr Merrett was being nursed at his home in Devizes, Wiltshire, and used a wheelchair and a voice-activated computer to give him limited independence.
In January 2009 he was so concerned about the care he was receiving and mistakes that had already been made that he set up a camera to watch over him.
His sister Karren Reynolds, from Purton, near Swindon, who is considering legal action, told the BBC’s Inside Out programme, which was aired on Monday: “His life has completely changed. He doesn’t have a life now.
“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.”
Ms Aylward was contracted through Sutton-based agency Ambition 24hours, which confirmed she had been suspended while an internal investigation was under way.
The Nursing and Midwifery Council is also carrying out a separate investigation.
NHS Wiltshire Primary Care Trust said it was restricted on what it could say due to likely litigation but admitted it was responsible for purchasing health services for Mr Merrett.
Head of communications Sarah MacLennan said: “We are currently working with the patient, his family and the clinical team to establish whether it would be safe, in the future, to care for him at home.
“We have apologised to the patient and his family for this, and have put in place a series of actions to ensure such an event will not occur again, for this patient or others.”
The Post was unable to contact Nurse Aylward at the time of going to press.
paulcassell@trinitysouth.co.uk
How soon do we get to sign up for Obamacare?
Was she practicing for 0bummer care?
Now that he is brain damaged, it becomes even more likely that the death panels will order NHS to “pull the plug”.
Third world health care imported into the former first world thanks to open-borders and PC.
Behold! The future of medical care. “Our Diversity Is Our Strength!”
Some candidate here should honor this man by letting him be in a campaign ad saying, “I’m you now, Anerica. Welcome to my world.” Then a voice over says as the camera fades from his face and surroundings, “Obamacare? Vote the Democrats out.”
Freepmail wagglebee to subscribe or unsubscribe from the moral absolutes ping list.
FreeRepublic moral absolutes keyword search
Wordless.
She should be severely punished and I am totally in favor of corporal punishemnt again and I’ll leave it at that.
I’m not convinced it was an accident.
Yep. What nurse of any level of training goes up to a piece of equipment - any piece of equipment, let alone life support equipment currently keeping someone alive, and starts to push buttons without knowing EXACTLY what she's doing?
Accident? Why, because she simply says so? I think not.
No way was it an accident. If it was an accident, she would have seen it instantly and clicked the right one.
BS it’s an accident. Unless she was drunk or on drugs.
I say beat her within an inch of her life.
I wouldn’t be against a life sentence without the possibility of parole. This was attempted murder, imho. Who knows if or how many others she has harmed?
Clearly this “nurse” was incompetent. However, I am surprised that the victim, who was a teraplegic, was being given care at all. Wouldn’t the NHS “nice” panel have determined that this guy was not worthy of life and would be a burden on society?
OK. I'm confused here about a couple things......
What's "tetraplegic"? Is that bloke for quadriplegic? Or is it a different level of quadriplegia?
If he was paralyzed from the waist down, why was he on life support? Or are we looking at poor journalism?
I’ve never heard of that either.
It’s the same thing. I just looked it up on Wikipedia.
I am confused about the life support thing too.
More and more in health care are 3rd worlders with limited English skills and IQs of 80. That’s the real death panel....ignorance.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.