Care Home Nurse Made ‘No Attempt To Save Dying Patient’
A nurse at a Southmead care home let a patient die because she was on her ‘last gasp’, a misconduct hearing was told.
Jansamma Puthenpurayil did not try to resuscitate the 84-year-old woman or dial 999, the Nursing and Midwifery Council heard – even though she had been on a basic life support training course just weeks before.
Paramedics arrived at Poplar Ward at the Westbrook Care Centre, which houses elderly patients with dementia, 30 minutes later to find the woman was dead.
Clare Strickland, for the NMC, said the nurse saw the patient, who was not named at the hearing, fighting for breath when she entered her room at 6.30am on February 26, 2005.
Miss Strickland said Puthenpura-yil, 44, had recorded that she found the woman “gasping at the very last stage with no vital signs” and shouted for a care assistant to come and help her.
She allegedly told her colleague: “She is gasping her last breath.”
Miss Strickland said: “No attempt at resuscitation was being made and she gave no further instructions to the care assistant.”
Puthenpurayil tried to phone the patient’s GP but the surgery was closed so her call was transferred to NHS Direct and on to an emergency despatch centre.
There, Puthenpurayil allegedly told the call handler no attempt had been made to resuscitate the resident and she was already ‘on her last gasp’.
Miss Strickland said Puthenpur-ayil had breached the home’s policy for dealing with collapsed patients.
She said: “It directs that staff should call for assistance, ensure paramedics are called and CPR is commenced.
“As the nurse in charge she would have been expected to take control of the situation both by attempting to resuscitate the resident and instructing colleagues to help.”
Puthenpurayil later told bosses that she had called for help and checked the patient’s pulse but found none.
The nurse, now living in Morpeth, Northumberland, denies failing to take action when she found the woman in respiratory distress.
She could be struck off or suspended from the nursing register if the committee decides her fitness to practise is impaired.
The hearing continues.
