British National Health Service Outrage
A vulnerable patient starved to death in an NHS hospital after 26 days without proper nourishment.
Martin Ryan, 43, had suffered a stroke which left him unable to swallow.
But a 'total breakdown in communication' meant he was never fitted with a feeding tube. It was one of a number of horrific cases where the NHS fatally failed patients with learning difficulties, a health watchdog is expected to rule later this month.
Emma Kemp, 26, was denied cancer treatment that could have saved her life, while 30-year-old Mark Cannon died two months after being admitted to hospital with a broken leg.
Three other cases followed similar patterns, with warnings ignored or problems missed until it was too late, often because the patients had difficulty communicating.
Ann Abraham, the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman, is expected to deliver a withering verdict in her report.
Sources said the overall picture of neglect that it paints is devastating.
Campaigners will seize on the findings as evidence of a wider problem of institutional discrimination in the health service.
The father of one man who died, who was just 20, said: 'People like my son are treated as less than human'.
The six cases were first highlighted by the disability charity Mencap in a report entitled Death By Indifference. . . . .
Tory spokesman Anne Milton said: 'Unfortunately we are still seeing some pretty shocking cases where people's needs have been neglected and they are not gaining equal access to the NHS.
'Although these might be isolated incidents, every case like this is one too many.
'This is another deeply worrying example of how the Government has yet to get to grips with providing first-class care for everyone, including people with disabilities.'
Mr Ryan, who had Down's syndrome, died in hospital in Kingston-upon-Thames.
An internal inquiry by the hospital found that doctors had thought nurses were feeding him through a tube in his nose.
By the time they found out this was not happening, he was too weak for an operation to insert a tube into his stomach.
He died in agony five days later.
Mr Ryan's distraught family, from Richmond, South-west London, are convinced he could have been saved by the correct treatment.
One relative said of him: 'Martin will always be the light of my life. He had a quirky sense of humour and oodles of charm. He was often smiling - he loved to go out, liked the movement of the coach and listening to the music.'
Death by Indifference was published in 2007 as part of Mencap's long-running Treat Me Right! campaign for better healthcare for people with learning disabilities. . . .
Thanks very much to Ed Kardauskas for this link.