Darwen care home nurse 'failed to phone 999'

9:01am Thursday 2nd October 2008

TWO care home residents died after a nurse delayed calling for an ambulance on consecutive nights, a hearing was told.

Gemma Aquino, 39, failed to call in urgent medical help as the patients' health worsened at the Birch Hall Care Centre in Darwen, the Nursing and Midwifery Council heard.

Aquino, from Blackburn, waited an hour before calling in emergency assistance for a man with a chest infection who had been vomiting all night, it is claimed.

The following night another nurse had to dial 999 after Aquino refused - despite the patient shouting screaming out in pain for three hours, the hearing was told.

Aquino is not attending the hearing in central London.

She has entered no plea to charges of failing to assess and respond to the deterioration of both patients.

If the NMC panel finds the charges against her proved, she could be struck off the nursing register.

Aquino had been working at the home with care assistant Sandra Riding on September 20, 2006.

Ms Riding told the hearing 'patient x' was a disabled man in his 40s, who had been taken to hospital after suffering the same symptoms.

She said: “The nurse would normally send him in to hospital if he didn't stop vomiting after he had had his injections.

“He had been to hospital probably three or four times.”

Ms Riding said the nurse in charge would normally ring for an ambulance before 5am if ‘patient x’ did not stop vomiting, but that Aquino waited until 6.30am before making the call.

Another care assistant, Marie Alderson, who was working at the home on both nights in question, said she asked Aquino to call an ambulance for patient x.

She said: “He was quite grey, very clammy, obviously struggling with his breathing.

“I actually said to her after I went to see him: "Gemma, why don't you call an ambulance?"

“She told me that she didn't need me any longer and I could go back upstairs.”

An ambulance eventually arrived, shortly after 6.30am, but the patient died after being taken to hospital.

The following night, Aquino failed to act when 'patient y' a 66-year-old woman who suffered from multiple sclerosis and Crohn's disease, suddenly deteriorated, the hearing was told.

Miss Alderson said: “I kept going to see the patient regularly, I would say half hourly.

“She was very thirsty and said she wanted to drink a lot. She seemed confused.

“At around 10pm she seemed to be getting worse, and I noticed she had not passed any urine.”

The hearing was told that patient y's condition deteriorated throughout the night, and that by 2am she was shouting constantly, and it was impossible for the staff to make her comfortable.

Miss Alderson said she asked Aquino to call a doctor or get a second opinion from another nurse, but she refused.

She said that eventually, at around 5am the nurse in charge of the floor below, Elaine Etheridge, came upstairs, and took patient y's pulse.

She said: “Straight away she said we needed an ambulance.

“Elaine went and found Gemma, came back and said: ‘I've told her to ring the ambulance’.”

But even then, the hearing was told, Aquino delayed calling for help, instead deciding to check patient y's blood pressure.

Miss Alderson said: “Elaine came back into the room and asked where Gemma had gone - and I said she had gone to get the blood pressure machine.

“She wasn't very happy, she said: ‘We need the ambulance now.’ “I think it was Elaine who actually rang the ambulance.

“I went to the Royal Blackburn Hospital with her, and she never came round.

“She was in intensive care for about a week, and then they switched off her machine.”

The care home is run by Southern Cross Healthcare and has 81 residents who are either elderly or have physical disability.

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