DAWES: BUNGLING NURSE SAID ‘I’M NOT WITH IT TODAY’ AS PATIENT DIED

A patient died after a nurse gave her unprescribed heart medication and failed to raise the alarm when her condition deteriorated, a hearing was told.

Natalie Dawes, 29, allegedly replied ‘I’m not with it today’ when she was challenged about her mistakes at Chesterfield Royal Hospital.

Dawes is said to have given the female patient an anti-angina drug which would have made her condition worse, the Nursing and Midwifery Council heard.

Despite the patient’s low blood pressure and oxygen levels, Dawes did not call for assistance from doctors or senior nurses.

She repeatedly miscalculated the woman’s early warning score, which determine’s a patient’s risk of death using data such as temperature and heart rate, it was said.

By the time staff realised how critically ill she was and secured a place on the high dependency ward the patient died.

Dawes was responsible for the care of the woman, referred to as Patient A, during a shift on Murphy Ward on June 3, 2009.

Patient A had been admitted with a broken hip and had been treated for low blood pressure during her stay, the panel was told.

Giving evidence, outreach nurse Emma Barnes said she had been alarmed when she checked on the woman at around 11.40am.

‘I noted that at 10.45am Natalie Dawes had recorded the patient’s early warning score as four out of ten,’ she told the panel.

‘This shocked me, as judging by the blood pressure, temperature and oxygen saturation, it should have been much higher.

‘When I recalculated it, it was actually eight. If the score is three or higher, a doctor or the outreach team must be called.

‘She did not act on the things she had documented and she had also calculated the early warning score incorrectly.’

She later overheard Dawes telling doctors the early warning score had decreased to one out of 10,, when it should have been recorded as five out of ten, she added.

Miss Barnes told the panel: ‘Her reply was words to the effect of “I’m not with it today”.

‘She said she was not used to treating trauma patients.’

Miss Barnes said she had gone to arrange a bed for Patient A in the high dependency ward when her condition continued to deteriorate.

‘Whilst I was there, Patient A continued to deteriorate and passed away,’ she said.

It was later found that Dawes had given the patient a dose of the anti-angina drug atenelol, which was not supposed to be administered that day, Miss Barnes added.

‘It was very difficult to establish what she had actually given her,’ she said. ‘I got the impression she didn’t really knew.

‘But she was sure she had given her atenelol because it was the orange-coloured drug.

‘With low blood pressure that sort of cardiac medication would have made things worse.’

Dawes, who is not attending a misconduct hearing in central London, denies all the charges against her.

She was sacked from the hospital following and internal investigation and could be struck off the nursing register if found guilty of misconduct.

The hearing continues.

ends