SCOTLAND'S top public services watchdog has uncovered "systemic failures" at a health board after a patient who went under the knife at one of the country's largest hospitals was left paraplegic following a series of blunders.
The operation to repair an aneurism in an 82-year-old man at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh was prolonged by four hours after surgeons realised that a piece of surgical equipment, needed to deal with an unexpected blood leak, was missing. Instead, one had to be rushed 55 miles from a hospital in Dundee and experts said the delay had a "negative impact" on the final outcome.
The fact that the patient was unable to move his legs following the eight-and-a-half hour operation was then not reported to medical staff by a nurse until the next morning, delaying the identification and treatment of a epidural haematoma - a collection of blood pressing on the spinal cord - which the patient had developed. An operation to repair the haematoma was then unsuccessful, leaving him paralysed from the waist down until he died 20 months later.
Jim Martin, the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman, said there had been "several very serious failings" and that "extreme distress" had been caused to the patient and his family.
Sarah Ballard-Smith, NHS Lothian's nurse director, expressed"sincere condolences" to the daughter-in-law of the patient and said the trust had accepted the Ombudsman's recommendations, "which include reinforcing the effectiveness of the surgical safety check list, re-emphasising the escalation and consent process and ensuring that relevant staff are aware of the vital importance of good record-keeping.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article