I know this is old news but I don't think it has been posted about here and it needs discussing.
TWO Gold Coast nurses will stand trial on manslaughter charges more than a year after a "fit and healthy" father of three fell critically ill on their watch.
Michael Gibbons, 50, and Jennifer Valentine, 46, were on night shift at Southport's Pacific Private Hospital in April last year when physical education teacher Christopher Hammett became unconscious.
I have been trying to follow this and it seems that the charges were brought on behalf of the family. It seems odd that the hospital has not been investigated because I would question why there was only an RN and an EEN staffing the ward (which from what I gather was the ward staff)
Prosecutor Peter Feeney said Mr Gibbons had taken a break between 1am and 2am, after "the condition of the patient had deteriorated to the extent that by 1am he required urgent medical treatment".
Mr Feeney also told the court that Mr Gibbons and Ms Valentine were negligent in failing to shake or wake up Mr Hammett and for failing to phone a surgeon to report his poor condition.
"They weren't in the middle of the Sahara Desert," he said.
"They had a telephone to call the doctor on shift."
The two news articles I have posted containt the gist of the story as I have been able to determine. I think we, as nurses, need to watch the development of this case very carefully because there are implications here that go way, way beyond what happened.
I am puzzled too as to why a 46 year old would have aspirated post-op - why was his consciousness so impaired? I am NOT blaming the patient here - there is obviously a LOT of questions to be asked as to why his deteriorating condition was not detected earlier but there are also a lot more questions about how he got into that state in the first place.
