Aug 02 2010

Take your cellphone to the hospital with you in Britain

Category: Uncategorizedharmonicminer @ 8:35 am

You’ll need your cellphone to take and send pictures of yourself as you lay neglected, like this young woman who texted pics of herself dying to her family.  NHS is Britain’s National Health Service:

A DESPERATE woman texted photos of herself slowly DYING to her mum as she lay suffering on a hospital bed – being ignored by NHS doctors.

Tragic Jo Dowling, 25, sent over forty messages to her mother and best friend including pictures of a deadly rash spreading across her body as her life ebbed away.

The pretty youngster was diagnosed by her family GP with suspected Meningococcal Septicaemia after developing a purple skin rash and low blood pressure last November.

She was rushed to Milton Keynes Hospital where A&E doctors rejected the diagnosis believing instead her illness was a mild infection caused by her Cystic Fibrosis.

Doctors abandoned Jo on a observation ward and gave her headache tablets and fluids as they failed to spot the purple rash spread over her arms, hands and legs.

As the hours passed terrified Jo took photos of her rash on her mobile phone and sent them to her mum and best friend describing her condition as “getting worse”.

The meningitis bug left her in septic shock choking and coughing as fluid filled her lungs and she died four hours after her last text message – just 14 hours after arriving at hospital.

It seems that the hospital was understaffed AND incompetent:

The inquest heard there were only two doctors on duty to cover the entire hospital the night Jo died.

Devastated mum Sue Christie, 48, of Milton Keynes, a distribution worker, said: “Our doctor knew it was meningitis but when we got to hospital all the care seemed to stop.

“They didn’t seem to know what they were meant to do or what meningococcal septicaemia was.

“The hospital was saying it was just an infection. She had a lot of infections with Cystic Fibrosis but never a rash like this.

“I saw her picture messages and the rash was really bad. You couldn’t miss them but the nurses did. I thought she was in hospital and with the best people.

“She wasn’t given a chance and was left to die without being given any treatment.

“It is so sad as Jo had got through everything with her Cystic Fibrosis and was such a strong girl.”

I give blood regularly, and the donor center always asks me if I’ve been to Britain lately.  I suspect that if I said yes, the next question would be, “Did you have any medical care in Britain?”

Word gets around.

h/t: Powerline