Where Was the Nurse?
Surely there had to be a nurse assigned to this patient at some point? An RN, LPN, or an aide? Surely this is not just a warehouse to toss living bodies into and watch them die…
From CNN:
A mental patient died after workers at a North Carolina hospital left him in a chair for 22 hours without feeding him or helping him use the bathroom, said federal officials who have threatened to cut off the facility’s funding.
The state sent a team Tuesday to help Cherry Hospital in Goldsboro draft new procedures to ensure patients receive proper care.
An investigator’s report released Monday found that 50-year-old Steven Sabock died in April after he choked on medication and was left sitting in a chair for close to a day at the facility about 50 miles southeast of Raleigh. Surveillance video showed hospital staff watching television and playing cards a few feet away.
The scene of the crime is Cherry Hospital, which is supposedly a JACHO accredited institution. Accreditation is supposed to mean that they meet a certain standard of care.
How can this happen, you may be wondering. Me too. I’ve worked in some pretty bad hospitals, but I couldn’t imagine anyone sitting a patient in a chair and then leaving him there for 22 hours. Four shifts came and went, and still this man sat in his chair without food or being able to use the bathroom. I mean, what did nurses say at report? Mr. Sabock is sitting in his chair and has been for the past 10 hours, and oh, I don’t think he’s hungry. Or has to go pee-pee.
And didn’t anyone stay with him when they gave him his medication, especially considering that he was a mental patient? You know, to make sure he took it? Or if they left it, to check back that he did take it instead of leaving him to choke on it?
Department of Health and Human Services spokesman Tom Lawrence said the state team also may investigate what, if any, disciplinary action should be taken after Sabock’s death.
Surely they jest? Are they questioning if any disciplinary action should be taking, or is this just a poor joke? Anyone related to this patient’s care should be fired, and have their license (if they have one) permanently terminated. And criminal negligence charges should be brought among the most guilty, like the nurse who dispensed the medication, or the workers who sat watching TV and playing cards while this poor man sat in a chair without food, and probably peeing and pooping in his pants.
The message has to be sent that no, this is not okay. And the hospital should get a stiff fine, and be investigated as to how it trains its workers. Surely there must have been a nursing supervisor walking around. Did she not say anything to the workers watching TV, like, “have you checked on all of your patients?”
Were there any nurses’ notes on this patient? Did anyone chart on him?
Did he call for help, I wonder?
Sorry, but I don’t think the hospital can blame this one on the nursing shortage.