Following frightening reports that a patient was still alive when nurses transported him to the morgue in a corpse bag, an Australian hospital is being investigated.
Kevin Reid, a patient receiving palliative care, passed away at Rockingham General Hospital, south of Perth; however, it is unclear whether this occurred on the evening of September 5 or the next day, September 6.
On September 5, nurses reportedly declared him dead and put him in a corpse bag.
However, the patient’s hospital gown had new blood on it the next day, two of his limbs had moved, and his eyes were open. This raised questions about whether the patient had been still alive when placed in the bag.
According to WA Business News, the doctor contacted the state coroner to look into the event after being reportedly urged by senior hospital personnel to backdate the man’s death certificate.
Following a request from a hospital doctor, Western Australia’s Coroner’s Court announced an inquiry into the man’s death was started.
Nurses notified the family that they thought the guy had passed on that evening, September 5, and then moved him to the morgue without registering his death.
The hospital has blamed a lack of personnel and misunderstanding caused by the fact that two patients had passed away only seconds apart for the fact that nurses thought he had died but no doctor showed up to validate this.
Mr. Reid was sent to the morgue since the doctor visited the other patient’s ward but not his.
A doctor wasn’t asked to confirm the man’s death until the next day, when an organ donation organization phoned the hospital to ask for permission to remove the man’s organs.
According to a Business News article, the doctor reportedly saw something horrifying when he opened the corpse bag and wrote a report to the coroner.
Two of the patient’s limbs had moved from their original positions, his eyes were open, and the doctor claimed he found new blood from an arm wound on the patient’s hospital gown.
According to the doctor’s report to the coroner, which was originally published by Business News, “I feel the frank blood from a fresh skin rip, arm posture, and ocular indications were incongruous with a person who was post-mortem on arrival at the mortuary.”
The doctor entered the death as occurring on September 6 after other staff members allegedly verified the man’s eyes had been closed and he had been wrapped in a clean gown before being taken from a ward to the morgue.
After a funeral director raised concerns about the gap between the date on the death certificate and the one provided to them by the family, the doctor alleges he was under pressure from top medical employees to backdate the man’s death.
In lieu of notifying the man’s head of department, the doctor declined to retroactively date the man’s death.
The executive team would guarantee that this happened if it was judged essential, the doctor said. “I also particularly requested for open disclosure and coronial conversations,” the doctor said.
Libby Mettam, the deputy leader of the WA Liberal Party, termed the medical error “absolutely unforgivable and horrible” and demanded that the Crime and Corruption Commission and a Royal Commission look into the state’s healthcare system.
According to MP Mettam, “We are seeing a health system that lurches from crisis to crisis.”
What we really need to hear from the McGowan administration is a statement assuring us that every effort will be taken to guarantee a full and transparent inquiry into these horrifying and extremely upsetting accusations.
Our thoughts are with the 55-year-old family, olds who are mentioned in these publications.
Paul Forden, CEO of South Metropolitan Health Service, vehemently denied that assertion to reporters on Thursday, stating a skilled nurse had examined Mr. Reid and discovered no indications of life.
Approximately five hours elapsed between the nurse’s evaluation and the corpse being transported, according to Mr. Forden, and during part of that time the man’s family was at his bedside after being alerted and racing to the hospital.
He stated that the timing of the man’s death was not being investigated by health authorities.
“Please allow me to be very clear… According to him, the inquiry is on the procedures followed after a patient dies, not if the patient really passed away.