Medical negligence surrounding the death of a seven-year-old girl has been kept secret from her family by the NHS for more than three years.
When Izabelle Easen's heart stopped beating at her home in Thorne, near Doncaster, during an asthma attack in April 2008, her mother began resuscitation with help from a 999 operator.
Izabelle was declared dead at the scene by paramedic James McKenna, but her family was not told he should have given her continuous resuscitation which might have saved her.
Sky News contacted Izabelle's family after investigating anonymous transcripts of Heath Professions Council (HPC) misconduct hearings released under the Freedom of Information Act.
Izabelle's mother, Lorna Easen, 29, learned about the secrecy a week before what would have been her daughter's eleventh birthday.
"It's morally wrong, if nothing else. They should have informed me. They should have informed the police as far as I'm concerned," she said.
Izabelle's family say they were not contacted by the Yorkshire Ambulance Service (YAS), which initially decided McKenna should not be disciplined, nor by the HPC which later ruled he was guilty of misconduct and struck him off.
An online message posted by Mrs Easen a few months after her daughter's death shows she wrongly blamed herself for not knowing how to perform emergency first aid.
She wrote on the Gone Too Soon website: "If I did, maybe things would have been different? She would be stood at the side of me instead of looking down."
Dr Bob Bingham from the UK Resuscitation Council told Sky News that children whose hearts stop beating completely when they are not in a hospital have approximately a one in 50 chance of survival if resuscitation is continued.
While making it clear he cannot comment on Izabelle's case, Dr Bingham said continuous resuscitation on a child can make the difference between life and death.
He pointed to studies including one in America that showed that out of 277 children whose hearts had stopped moving, as Izabelle's had, 14 made a good enough recovery to leave hospital.
Mrs Easen says Izabelle should have been given that chance: "Any chance is a chance, it's always worth having a go, it's always worth it.
"I would like a full apology from them for hiding everything from me. I think a full apology is the least that any family could expect."
The secrecy was revealed after Sky News requested full transcripts of a handful of paramedic misconduct cases selected at random from the HPC website where the patient had subsequently died.
The investigation established that following at least four of the deaths the patient's family had not been informed by the ambulance service or the HPC that disciplinary procedures were under way.
The secrecy has led to coroners not being informed that negligence has been identified in instances where an inquest may be required by law.
Official enquiries are now being made into all four cases, with the Doncaster coroner investigating Izabelle's death, an inquest under way in Northumberland and a police investigation being launched in Strathclyde.
The Department of Health criticised the secrecy when the first case, involving the death of 61-year-old Graeme Giles in Northumberland, was revealed in July.
In a statement they said: "It is completely unacceptable for relatives not to be informed when a mistake, error or unprofessional behaviour has caused serious harm to a loved one.
"We expect the NHS to be open about mistakes, apologise to those affected and ensure that lessons are learned to prevent them from being repeated."
Yorkshire Ambulance Service refused to discuss the case of Izabelle Easen until she was identified by Sky News.
Last week, a spokeswoman for the Wakefield-based NHS Trust said it "will not be able to help" when asked to pass a message to her then-anonymous family.
After we identified Izabelle they issued a statement saying: "The Trust is committed to being open and is it is our practice to communicate with and involve patients and relatives, wherever possible, if a serious or untoward incident occurs and is being investigated.
"There has been no policy of keeping information from the family and we would be willing to meet with them to discuss any concerns they may have."
The Scottish Ambulance Service, which admitted to the HPC that it had deliberately hidden misconduct from the family of a 72-year-old woman who died in Greenock in 2006, has also repeatedly refused to discuss that case.
When Sky News identified her as former nurse Margaret McKay and established that neither her family nor the procurator fiscal had been informed of the negligence, a spokesman said they could not comment because the authorities were now involved.
The procurator fiscal's office told Sky News they would be requesting an investigation by Strathclyde Police before deciding whether to hold a fatal accident inquiry.
Mrs McKay's daughter, Brenda McKay, a former senior nurse, told Sky News that her mother, who had been a hospital operating theatre manager, would not have wanted negligence to be kept secret.
"She would want it followed through and lessons learned to avoid it happening to someone else," she said.
According to the HPC at least 95 paramedics have been struck off the register since 2005, but it is not known how many other families have not been told about medical negligence.
No comments:
Post a Comment