MEAL: NURSE MANHANDLED 100-YEAR-OLD WOMAN WHEN SHE ASKED TO USE THE TOILET

A nurse left a 100-year-old patient with blood spilling from her legs after ‘roughly manhandling’ her on to a commode, a hearing was told today (Thurs).

Andrea Meal lost her temper with the woman after she asked to use the toilet during a night shift at Woking Community Hospital in Surrey, it was said.

She dressed the wounds with a treatment normally used for ulcers, causing further bleeding when it was removed, the Nursing and Midwifery Council heard.

Meal then used only a paper towel to clean the spilt blood from the floor of Victoria Ward, it is claimed.

She is also accused of failing to drain and wrap a dead body during an earlier shift, leaving bodily fluids to drip out onto the bed and the floor, and leaving two patients to sleep on the floor.

Ian Brown, for the NMC, said Meal had been coming to the end of her night shift on June 20, 2008, when the woman, referred to only asPatient D, asked to use the toilet.

‘This patient was, at this point, aged 100, though she was competent and in possession of all her faculties,’ he said.

‘Yet this registrant was rushed at the end of her shift and decided not to assist Patient D. Instead, she brought a commode.

‘Patient D didn’t like using a commode and wanted to use the toilet.

‘What makes this so serious is that in getting Patient D onto the commode, Patient D’s legs were injured.

‘She was handled in such a way that there was a laceration on her calf, which meant there was blood spilling onto the floor.

‘One could not think how this incident could get much worse, but the NMC will say that it did.

‘She did not carry out a wound assessment like she should have done and she did not use the appropriate dressing.

‘The dressing she used actually caused more injury when removed. It was wholly unsuitable.’

He added: ‘Finally, just to round off this terrible incident, there was blood all over the floor from the patient’s legs.

‘You would expect a registered nurse to follow hospital policy, be aware of the risk of infection and use an appropriate disinfectant.

‘But she didn’t do this. The NMC will say she wiped the blood up with a paper towel and that was that.’

Patient D did not make a formal statement about the incident, but is said to have told another staff member: ‘She was roughly manhandling me, knocking both my legs against a metal object.’

In a written statement, matron Susan Smith added: ‘She spoke about the incident and said that Andrew Meal was in a temper with her.

‘She dragged her across the bed and banged her against the commode.’

Care assisant Erminia Polessi(corr), who was on duty with Meal, said in her statement: ‘When I arrived Patient D was sitting on the commode and there was a big patch of blood on the floor.

‘I started to clean Patient D’s legs and when I took one of her slippers off there was a big piece of congealed blood in it and I had to go to the toilet to vomit.’

Meal is also accused of failing to drain and wrap the body of another patient, referred to as Patient C, following her death on January 23, 2007.

‘She had left the body in what can only be described as an undignified state,’ said Mr Brown.

‘This patient was a patient who took her appearance very seriously and she was described as being immaculate.

‘Not only that, but the registrant put the health of other patients on the ward at risk.

‘The fact the body hadn’t been drained meant there was bodily fluid all over the bed and all over the floor.’

Meal also left two elderly patients to sleep on the floor during a night shift on December 11, 2001, it is alleged.

‘Both of these patients were quite shaken up,’ said Mr Borwn.

‘One of them found it difficult to walk the next day.’

Meal was dismissed from her post with Surrey Primary Care Trust following a probe into the allegations surrounding Patient D and is not attending the misconduct hearing in central London.

She admits causing injuries to Patient D, failing to carry out an adequate wound assessment or use the correct dressing, failing to document the injuries and failing to clean up the blood spillage with an appropriate disinfectant.

But she denies failing to follow Patient D’s care plan, failing to drain and wrap the body of Patient C and failing to prevent two other patients from sleeping on the floor.

If found guilty of misconduct she could be struck of the nursing register.

The hearing continues.
ends