But it was free!
James Dwerryhouse went to a London hospital last year for a routine operation to get a colostomy bag—and, though the operation went well, the 7-year-old died after the equipment monitoring his breathing was shut off in the middle of the night, an investigation has concluded. Though James had a number of health issues, including sleep apnea, his parents say he was “full of life” and “wasn’t a fragile boy.” But he did need his breathing monitored due to the sleep apnea, which can cause life-threatening breaks in breathing, the Guardian reports. After the operation, James was conscious and was able to talk his siblings on FaceTime. His father left his room in the pediatric intensive care unit in the wee hours of the morning, and at 1:15am, the equipment monitoring his vital signs was turned off. It’s not clear why.
James was found to be unresponsive at 3:58am and died the next day; the report concludes that he ultimately died of brain damage and cardiac arrest as a result of the equipment being turned off. A lawyer calls it a “huge, unforgivable error”—and adds that it’s also not clear how long it took hospital staff to call for a resuscitation “crash” team after discovering James, at which point they reconnected his monitoring equipment but turned off all audible alarms; it could have been as long as 20 minutes before a crash team was called.
Seven years old with lots of health issues? Seems likely the health system decided his life wasn’t worth living.
What can you expect from an organization that directs patient sheets not be changed every day as a cost-reduction effort?
Hospitals already are the worst places for sick people to be; adding the incompetent hand of government into the mix just makes it worse, and the NHS has no shortage of horror stories to indict the model.
And imagine the outcome of sacrificing sterility to political correctness–an ongoing controversy re female OR staff who refuse to wear short sleeves. NHS seems determined to find multiple ways to f*** up.
Manbearpig, if I’m not mistaken, the “movement” that decided giving birth to a Downs baby is selfish and immoral originated there, so yeah, I wouldn’t be surprised.
@Manbearpig: You may be right. Disturbingly, it’s easier for the health system to ask forgiveness for losing a life than permission to take it.
When you are a “subject” of the gov’t, you really should expect this sort of thing. It’s a good rule of thumb to NEVER put yourself wholly under the power of others. This is particularly true with the weakest and most vulnerable – they always seem the first to suffer.
One would think, after the lessons of the past century, the UK would have learned SOMETHING, but one would be mistaken.
People seem to focus on the (expressed) dream of the ideology, rather than the reality.
So sad.
izlamo delenda est …
You can hear them now: “Oops, oh well time for a coffee break”!
Socialized medicine.