THOMPSON: NURSE STRUCK OFF FOR FAILING TO RESUSCITATE STROKE PATIENT

A senior nurse who failed to resuscitate a stroke patient when she stopped breathing during a night shift has been kicked out of the profession.

Christine Thompson went in search of the woman’s medical records instead of starting CPR or raising the alarm.

She also falsely claimed in paperwork that she had asked another nurse to help.

The patient, who had been admitted to the Carter Bequest Hospital in Middlesbrough for rehabilitation following a stroke, was pronounced dead shortly afterwards.

Thompson had been given a final warning and demoted following a similar incident five years previously, the Nursing and Midwifery Council heard.

A misconduct hearing in central London found she had acted dishonestly and ordered her name be struck off the nursing register.

Panel chair Jillian Alderwick said: ‘This misconduct was a serious departure from the relevant standards.

‘This was not an isolated incident and was compounded by an act of dishonesty.

‘We have concluded that the only proportionate and appropriate sanction in this case is a striking off order, on patient protection and public interest grounds.’

Thompson was the nurse in charge during a night shift on the Oxford Ward at  at the time of the incident.

The Nursing and Midwifery Council heard Thompson had checked on the woman, referred to only as Patient A, shortly before she was due to finish her shift at around 7.15am on February 7, 2008.

Shelley Brownlee, for the NMC, said: ‘It would seem that she found the patient in an unresponsive state. Patient A was not breathing and had no pulse.

‘She was unsure whether there was a ‘Do Not Resuscitate’ (DNR) status in place or not, so she left Patient A and went to the nursing office in order to consider the position.

‘The reality is that she had failed to initiate resuscitation at this stage in accordance with trust procedures, and also to press the emergency buzzer.’

Patient A was not on the DNR list and should have been tended to immediately.

Clinical leader Beverley Dredge, who led the internal investigation, said Thompson had been on life support training seven months earlier.

Giving evidence, she said: ‘Even though she was aware of the procedure it seemed as though she had taken more consideration to look for a list to see whether it was documented whether the patient was a DNR.

‘I would have expected her to have stayed with Patient A and pulled the emergency buzzer or shouted for help and to have initiated some form of CPR, or at least get her flat in bed so that could be started.

‘Instead she left the patient and went out into the corridor, but if she had followed policy she would never have been in the corridor in the first place.’

Thomspon did not attend the misconduct hearing, but during an internal trust investigation claimed another staff nurse had told her not to resuscitate the patient because she had been dead for some time.

The panel found her guilty of failing to start resuscitation, activate the emergency buzzer and dishonestly recording that she had called for the resuscitation trolley in Patient A’s notes.

She was cleared of dishonestly recording that she had contacted the emergency services.

ends