Somerset mother barred from review into son's death

A mother is demanding the right to know exactly how her teenage son died, after she was barred from a "lessons learned" review by professionals.

Lynn Cox, 42, from Bridgwater in Somerset, says she feels she was "being judged" by not being allowed to attend the Child Death Review.

Joshua Cox, 13, suffered a fatal asthma attack in October 2009, after his new GP increased his medication dose.

Somerset Primary Care Trust said it could not comment on individual cases.

But it would say that having families present at a Child Death Review could inhibit professional discussion about what lessons could be learnt.

Mrs Cox is calling for a coroner's inquest to explain why his GP increased his medication dose without apparently consulting his specialist.

Source: news.bbc.co.uk

Cancer patient forced by judge to have surgery

A cancer patient is to be forced to undergo life-saving treatment against her wishes after a landmark ruling by a judge.

Doctors will be allowed forcibly to sedate the 55-year-old woman in her home and take her to hospital for surgery. She could be forced to remain on a ward afterwards.

The case has sparked an intense ethical and legal debate. Experts questioned whether lawyers and doctors should be able to override the wishes of patients and whether force was ever justified in providing medical care.


Treatment was ordered by Sir Nicholas Wall, the President of the Family Division, in the Court of Protection, after surgeons at the woman's local hospital applied for permission to force the surgery on her. They argued that without it, advanced cancer of the uterus would kill her.

Sir Nicholas agreed because the woman, who has learning difficulties, was deemed incapable of making a rational decision about the operation.

She had previously agreed to surgery, only to change her mind and repeatedly refuse to turn up for medical appointments, claiming a phobia of hospitals and needles.

Source: Daily Telegraph

Midwife sliced off newborn baby's FINGER as she tried to cut the umbilical cord

A new mother was left ‘hysterical’ when a midwife sliced off her baby girl’s finger as she cut her umbilical cord.

Horrified Jasvir Kainth said she didn’t know if little Ishika would survive as there was ‘blood everywhere’ following the incident at Wolverhampton's New Cross Hospital.

The newborn had to be rushed 17 miles from the delivery room to another hospital to have the left digit sewn back on.
Bandaged: Ishika Kainth is now recovering at home after a midwife sliced off her finger while cutting her umbilical cord at Wolverhampton's New Cross Hospital

Ishika, who was born last Friday, will now be heavily bandaged for the first few weeks of her life until she recovers.

Jasvir, 28, of Wolverhampton, who had already been through a four-hour labour said: ‘The midwife was using really sharp scissors to cut the cord from the maternity pack, which we think were the wrong equipment.

‘When she cut the eight-inch cord she cut through the finger as well, but didn't even notice at first.

'My husband told her she'd cut the finger off and she replied, “No I haven't”, so I had to say to her, “Look at all the blood”.

'We were hysterical - we weren't even sure Ishika would make it through because there was blood everywhere.

'It has caused so much stress to both of us, because when the birth is normal otherwise like ours was then you just don't expect these things to happen.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1280819/Midwife-cutting-umbilical-cord-slices-newborn-babys-FINGER.html#ixzz0orME6VDZ

Source: Daily Mail

Woman died after doctors failed to spot toilet brush in her buttocks

A mother died after doctors repeatedly failed to spot a toilet brush handle embedded in her buttock.

Cindy Corton, 35, was left with the bizarre injury after a drunken fall in a friend's bathroom in 2005.

She was twice seen by hospital staff in the aftermath of the incident and an X-ray was carried out.

But an inquest heard it took Mrs Corton, of Sleaford, Lincolnshire, two years to convince doctors that the handle was lodged in flesh of her bottom.

By then what should have been a routine procedure to remove it had become much more dangerous.

After two unsuccessful operations in 2007, Mrs Corton underwent further, much riskier surgery and died from massive blood loss at Nottingham's Queen's Medical Centre in June last year.

Recording a narrative verdict, coroner Stuart Fisher criticised Dr Killian Mbewe, who first examined Mrs Corton at Grantham hospital.

After the inquest, husband Peter Corton said: "Cindy got a very poor service from the NHS. I'm sure she would have got better treatment in foreign countries."

You know, I think he's got a point.

Source: Telegraph

Mum's death costs hospital £100,000

A hospital trust has been ordered to pay £100,000 after a mother who had just given birth died due to a mix-up between "identical-looking" drugs.

 

A nurse wrongly attached the epidural anaesthetic Bupivacaine to an intravenous drip attached to her arm instead of saline solution which she needed to help bring her blood pressure back up. Mrs Cabrera - who was a nurse at the same hospital - died within minutes from a heart attack caused by the toxic effects of Bupivacaine. The two drugs had "almost identical packaging" and her life could have been saved if the bags were kept in separate cupboards, the Health and Safety Executive said.

 

The Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust was ordered to pay £75,000 in fines and £25,000 in costs by a judge at Bristol Crown Court. The Trust had pleaded guilty to an offence under the Health and Safety at Work Act. Passing sentence, Mr Justice Clarke said: "No one could be unmoved by this tragedy. No one who knew what lay behind it could be untroubled at the systematic and individual fault which this inquiry revealed."

 

The midwife, who was suspended and is now retired, "could not have read the label carefully or possibly at all", he added, also citing the inadequate drugs storage as a factor in Mrs Cabrera's 2004 death. An inquest at Trowbridge, Wiltshire, two years ago ruled that Mrs Cabrera was unlawfully killed, also citing the "chaotic" drug storage.

 

Mrs Cabrera gave birth to son Zac at 8.14am on May 11 2004. She began to suffer a fit and at 10.27am she was certified dead.

 

Source: The Metro

Hospital Fined £100K Over Fatal Drugs Mix-Up

A hospital trust has been ordered to pay £100,000 after a mother who had just given birth died due to a mix-up with "identical-looking" drugs.

Mayra Cabrera, 30, died hours after giving birth to son Zac, who survived, at Great Western Hospital in Swindon, Wiltshire, in May 2004.

A nurse wrongly attached the epidural anaesthetic Bupivacaine to an intravenous drip attached to her arm instead of saline solution needed to bring her blood pressure back up.

Mrs Cabrera - who was a nurse at the same hospital - died within minutes from a heart attack caused by the toxic effects of Bupivacaine.

The two drugs had "almost identical packaging" and her life could have been saved if the bags were kept in separate cupboards, the Health and Safety Executive said.

The Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust was ordered to pay £75,000 in fines and £25,000 in costs by a judge at Bristol Crown Court.

The Trust had pleaded guilty to an offence under the Health and Safety at Work Act.

Passing sentence, Mr Justice Clarke said: "No one could be unmoved by this tragedy... (or) be untroubled at the systematic and individual fault which this inquiry revealed."

The midwife, who was suspended and is now retired, "could not have read the label carefully or possibly at all," he added.

He also cited the inadequate drugs storage as a factor in Mrs Cabrera's death.

An inquest at Trowbridge, Wiltshire, two years ago, ruled that Mrs Cabrera was unlawfully killed, also citing the "chaotic" drug storage.

Source: Sky News

West Midlands Health trust criticised over baby care

Emergency and neonatal intensive care at a West Midlands NHS trust has been criticised by the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health.

An investigation began after the death of Sian Jones, 15, who died of peritonitis after staff at Birmingham's Heartlands Hospital failed to spot it.

There were two other unexplained deaths and a number of serious incidents involving children from 2007 to 2009.

Source: BBC

More than 200 patients sue Liverpool Women's Hospital

More than 200 patients are preparing to sue Liverpool Women's Hospital over the poor treatment they allege they received from a doctor.

Consultant urogynaecologist George Rowland is accused of performing inappropriate surgery for incontinence problems on hundreds of women.

Ian Cohen, of Goodman's solicitors, said the condition of many of the women became worse under Mr Rowlands' care.

Source: BBC

A Fellow Blogger has "fun" with the NHS bureaucrazy.

click the title

NHS Apology For £10,000 Hitler Questionnaire

An ambulance service has apologised for a survey asking staff to rate how "cool" Hitler was.

The survey was sent out to 4,000 employees at West Midlands Ambulance Service

West Midlands Ambulance Service (WMAS) apologised for the survey, saying: "At the end of the day, Hitler galvanised a nation into doing something quite unusual."

"Dreadful atrocities took place off the back of that… the staff involved were not trying to cause any offence to anybody…with hindsight, it would have been better to have used a different example..."

In the NHS questionnaire staff were asked to rate how "cool" Hitler was

WMAS sent the questionnaire to 4,000 employees as part of a £10,000 study to identify good leadership.

Respondents were asked to rate how "cool" 10 famous leaders were on a scale of one to five.

Besides Hitler, the list included Gordon Brown, Richard Branson, Winston Churchill and Fabio Capello.

But health campaigner and former WMAS worker, Steve Jetley, was so incensed by the survey that he set up a website, www.howcoolishitler.net, condemning it.

On the site he says: "You may feel like many emergency ambulance crew members in the WMAS that the money would have been far better spent providing improved and more modern equipment (like pelvic splints instead of triangular bandages!), improved training or even replacing ageing ambulances with over 250,000 miles on the clock that are slow and unreliable."

Steve Jetley's website parodying the West Midlands Ambulance Service 'cool' survey

Incensed former employee Steve Jetley created a spoof NHS website

The project, called Making Leadership Cool: How Emerging Leaders Wish To Be Managed And Supported, is a year-long study being conducted by two members of staff at the ambulance service.

The aim was to identify the key characteristics of good leadership, to allow the organisation and the wider NHS to be more efficient and effective which, in turn, would have a direct and positive impact on improving patient care, WMAS said.

The questionnaire, sent out last month, had so far been completed by "several dozen" members of staff, the spokesman said. The funding for the project was provided by the West Midlands Strategic Health Authority, he added.

Source: Sky News

The patients 'bullied' into joining NHS database

The NHS is scaring patients into signing up to its controversial database - by claiming that those who refuse run the risk of receiving the wrong test results or the wrong drugs.

Dire warnings have been placed on the website of the agency in charge of the new IT system, saying that failure to sign up could lead to lost records and prescribing errors.

Patients are allowed to opt out of having their information stored on the database, which is designed to be accessible to all GPs, hospital consultants, nurses and other NHS staff.

It is intended to replace the current system, under which health records are written on paper files in GPs' offices and cannot easily be accessed by hospital staff.

But doctors' leaders have complained that the database makes it too hard to opt out, prompting the government to suspend the roll-out of the programme in some areas.

Now it has emerged the NHS is trying a different tactic to persuade patients to sign up - scaremongering.

On the website for the NHS Connecting for Health agency, visitors are warned that if they opt out of the computerised 'summary care record' scheme, they could suffer 'adverse consequences', including 'a delay or missed opportunity for correct treatment'.

It says: 'The NHS has significant problems now with lost records and test results and treatment and prescribing errors.'

Connecting for Health's strategy is controversial because it highlights the safety risks inherent in the current paper-based records system.

But critics argue that the dangers are not as high as the agency is suggesting.

On Sunday night, a Department of Health spokesman said the problem of lost records or mistreatment was not a major concern, prompting speculation that the Government was making the claim to frighten patients into joining the database.

Asked if there were 'significant problems' under the current system, the spokesman said: 'One misplaced record is one too many.'

Asked if there was a 'major problem' under the current system, he said: 'No'.

Dylan Sharpe, campaign director of Big Brother Watch, said: 'The whole handling of the summary care record system has been sneaky and underhand, with the government doing anything to prevent people from opting out of the system.

'If you value your privacy, ignore these false and misleading warnings and opt out.' More than 1.25million patients' records have already gone on to the database.

But fears about the security of highly personal health details, including sexual history, drug use, HIV status and mental illness, are driving a backlash.

A spokesman for the British Medical Association said: 'There are advantages to having a computerised records system because paper records can get lost.

'But other IT Government projects have been subject to problems so people are very worried about the way their data is used and who has access to it.'

Source: Daily Mail

Mother stabbed by crazed neighbour loses fight for life as attacker’s family tell how he pleaded to stay in hospital

Mr London had been referred by his GP to Watford General Hospital’s Acute Admissions Unit on April 29 after his mother became concerned when he repeatedly and inexplicably went missing over several weeks.
His family revealed that, in the hospital, he became fearful of an attempt to take a blood sample and struggled to stay when he was told he could leave the hospital.
Despite his pleas for medical assistance, Mr London was discharged – with an appointment to be assessed by a psychiatric team the following day.


Source Daily Mail

Man died after medics missed disease six times, inquest hears

A young father died in agony on Christmas Day after medics repeatedly mistook a fatal bowel infection for a groin strain, an inquest has heard.

Malcolm Drake, 23, died from Crohn's Disease and spent his final hours unable to move or eat. He had sought help six times in the days before he died, but GPs and two Accident and Emergency doctors had missed his condition. He was even refused an MRI scan three days before he died that would have shown up the condition, the hearing was told...

Mr Drake had first complained of abdominal pain in mid-November before the first of six visits to medics and physiotherapists in the 15 days before he died, during which time his right leg had swollen considerably and he was in such pain he couldn’t eat.

He saw a GP on December 10th, went to A&E on the 13th, another GP on the 17th and finally A&E again on the 22nd. In between, he had two bouts of physiotherapy.

The hearing was told that Dr Richard Aw, a junior doctor who saw him at the University Hospital of North Staffordshire’s Accident and Emergency department on December 22nd, did not refer to his previous recent visits which were on his medical records, nor make a written record of them when Mr Drake explained who he had seen.

Dr Aw had been employed as a GP locum and had only one year’s experience. He diagnosed Mr Drake as suffering from a groin strain “consistent with previous findings” and sent him home with a dose of painkillers. Dr Aw also claimed that despite ambulance staff apparently noting a 'palpable mass' in Mr Drake's right thigh on the way to A&E, he did not find any lump in the leg himself.

It emerged that Dr Aw had advised him against having an MRI. Giving evidence, he admitted that an MRI would have shown up the Crohn’s disease. Simon Fox, representing Miss Lindop and Mr Drake's family, told Dr Aw: "Had Mr Drake had the scan, it would've led to the diagnosis - Mr Drake had it exactly right didn't he?"

Dr Aw replied: "Yes."

The hearing continues.

Source: The Telegraph

Hampshire swine flu girl 'not given Tamiflu'

A teenager who died after contracting swine flu was not given the drug Tamiflu when she was admitted to hospital, an inquest has heard.

Madelynne Butcher, 18, of Southampton, Hampshire, was admitted to Southampton General Hospital on 2 July 2009. But it was 36 hours before tests revealed she had the H1N1 virus and she was given Tamiflu.

Coroner Catherine Mason at Leicester Town Hall recorded a verdict that Miss Butcher died from natural causes...

Source: BBC

Surgeon cut off testicle 'by mistake' at Bury hospital

A patient lost a testicle during an operation because the surgeon cut it off by mistake, a General Medical Council (GMC) hearing has been told.

Dr Sulieman Al Hourani was only supposed to cut out a cyst, but removed the whole right testicle instead. Dr Al Hourani was a locum surgeon at Fairfield General Hospital in Bury, Greater Manchester, at the time of the surgery in September 2007.

He is accused of misconduct and also of stealing medication. It is alleged the doctor, who is now practising in Jordan and was not present at the hearing, also injected himself with a drug meant for a patient.

Sarah Prichard, counsel for the GMC, said the mistake was made as a nurse helping the surgeon turned her back to get a stitch. When she turned around the testicle had been removed...

Source: BBC

NHS bars woman after she saw private doctor

A WOMAN has been denied an operation on the NHS after paying for a private consultation to deal with her severe back pain.

Jenny Whitehead, a breast cancer survivor, paid £250 for an appointment with the orthopaedic surgeon after being told she would have to wait five months to see him on the NHS. He told her he would add her to his NHS waiting list for surgery.

She was barred from the list, however, and sent back to her GP. She must now find at least £10,000 for private surgery, or wait until the autumn for the NHS operation to remove a cyst on her spine.

“When I paid £250 to see the specialist privately I had no idea I would be sacrificing my right to surgery on the NHS. I feel victimised,” she said.

The case will reopen the debate over NHS policy towards patients who pay for some of their care privately. Following a Sunday Times campaign in 2008, the government ordered the NHS to stop withdrawing care from patients who received additional private treatment or drugs. Cancer sufferers were being barred from further NHS treatment after buying potentially life-saving medicines not offered by the health service.

Whitehead’s case, which has shocked her local Labour MP, reveals that patients who go private in despair at long waiting lists still risk jeopardising their NHS treatment. Department of Health officials admit it remains official policy.

Whitehead, 64, a former museum assistant from Yorkshire who works as a volunteer at a hospice, went to her GP in December for back pain. Because of her breast cancer history, she was immediately offered an MRI scan to check the disease had not returned. It revealed a cyst on her spine, pressing against her sciatic nerve. Her GP referred her to a consultant at Airedale NHS hospital.

She was told the next available NHS appointment was in May, so she accepted the offer of a private slot to see him the following week.

“My husband and I are retired and don’t have a lot of money, but I am in intense pain and couldn’t face the thought of waiting months just for an initial consultation,” she said.

The specialist promised to add her to his NHS waiting list for surgery. After two months, however, hospital managers told her she had been barred from the waiting list because she had seen the surgeon privately. Now her only alternative to paying £10,000 privately is to go back to her GP, seek another referral to the same specialist, this time on the NHS, and face another 18-week wait.

“We will scratch together the money if we absolutely have to, but I feel it’s incredibly unfair,” said Whitehead. “I’ve paid full National Insurance contributions all my working life and feel I should get this operation on the NHS.”

Ann Cryer, who is standing down as Labour MP for Keighley, has written to the hospital urging it to reconsider. She told Whitehead that she had been “badly let down and ill advised”.

Bradford and Airedale NHS trust said it was looking into the case “as a matter of urgency” but added: “Anyone who chooses to pay for a private outpatient consultation cannot receive NHS treatment unless they are then referred on to an NHS pathway by their consultant.”


Source :Times Online

Girl’s cancer was wind, said doctor

A little girl’s leukaemia was misdiagnosed as trapped wind by a GP at a scandal-hit out-of-hours surgery, it emerged today.

Three-year-old Taylor Codling was taken to the weekend clinic by her father James when she turned yellow and her temperature hit 40ËšC (104ËšF). But after a two-minute check-up the doctor sent them to pick up a bottle of gripe water to ease her condition.

Taylor was no better two days later so she was taken to Ipswich Hospital where doctors diagnosed leukaemia. Mr Codling, from Hasketon, Suffolk, has now threatened to launch legal action against the service.

‘This mistake could have cost her her life,’ said the 32-year-old. ‘There is a big difference between having trapped wind and having leukaemia.’

The misdiagnosis was made by a foreign doctor working for Take Care Now – the same company which employed 67-year-old German locum Daniel Ubani. He accidentally killed 70-year-old patient David Gray, of Cambridgeshire, by giving him a lethal overdose of painkillers.

Last year TCN was stripped of its out-of-hours contract but the decision only came into effect from April 1 – a week after Taylor went to the surgery. Harmoni HS Ltd, which now runs the locum service for Suffolk, said the doctor in question had not worked for them since April 1.

Source: The Metro

NHS chiefs' pay rises 'double those of nurses'

Top managers in England's NHS trusts received average pay rises of nearly 7% in 2008-09, compared with less than 3% granted to nurses, a report says.

An Incomes Data Services report into boardroom pay at more than 380 trusts found chief executives earned seven times more than the average nurse. Senior managers in NHS trusts typically earned £147,500, the report said. The NHS Confederation said trusts needed top managers to help them through financial challenges...

Source: BBC

A Special Interview with Dr. Andrew Wakefield

Click post title to follow link to a transcript of a lengthy interview with Dr Andrew Wakefield, who was the one who claimed that letting your children have the MMR jab could cause autism.

'Pinkie' operation death 'could have been prevented'

The death of a man during a routine hospital operation on his little finger could have been avoided, according to an inquiry.

Gordon Ewing, 44, from Cambuslang, died while being treated at the Victoria Infirmary in Glasgow in May 2006. A fatal accident inquiry heard how he swelled up and turned bright red after being given too much oxygen. Sheriff Linda Ruxton said his death could have been prevented if anaesthetists had simply woken him up...

Source: BBC