Trust apologises for Enniskillen man’s ‘four days of hell’ in SWAH

“Four days from hell” is how the mother of the man described her son’s recent stay.

Lee Martin, from Enniskillen, is one of the few people in the world diagnosed with a rare genetic disorder, diploid triploid mosaicism (DSM) – a condition where a person has two different types of cells, with different numbers of chromosomes.

As a result, he requires round-the-clock care due to his condition.

In April his mother, Caroline Wheeler, took him to SWAH after his health deteriorated due to suffering from Covid-19.

However, the treatment from some of the staff during Lee’s four-day stay in A&E prompted Caroline to complain to the Western Trust.

Last week she received an apology from Mr Guckian in which it was accepted the “attitude of the Support Service Assistant based in the Emergency Department in the South West Acute Hospital was unacceptable to a member of the public”.

He said the incident “sadly fell below the standards expected as a member of staff within the Western Health and Social Care Trust, for which I apologise sincerely”.

The staff member was reminded of the Code of Conduct for Health and Social Care employees.

Lee at SWAH.

“Lee couldn’t breathe, his heart rate was 145, and we couldn’t get him stabilised at all at home, and he went in to hospital,” explained Caroline, “And he never moved from A&E the whole time he was there.”

After being stabilised, Lee was taken to a room that had no toilet, and he had to use a commode instead.

Distressing time

“Lee has been through so much, and [we thought], ‘Here it goes again’. On that merry-go-round again, and it [illness] can happen at any minute and time with him.”

However, one day he had severe diarrhoea, and Caroline took him to a toilet.

“He had severe diarrhoea and said, ‘Mummy, I want to go to the toilet’, so I put him in the chair and took him down to the toilet.”

She says it was at this point she was told by a staff member that they were not meant to leave the room they were in.

“I said, ‘Lee needed to go to the toilet; he can’t use the commode because he has severe diarrhoea’, and she [SWAH staff member] just walked off.”

“We came out of the toilet and the staff member was standing there. I said, ‘I’m sorry, it probably needs cleaned after Lee having Covid’, and that, and she just stood and lifted the apron and said, ‘What do you think I am standing in PPE for?’

“She was like a bear. I was taken aback. She roared at me,” claimed Caroline.

Throughout this whole ordeal, Lee was “never seen by a Learning Disability Nurse”, according to Caroline.

She feels a Learning Disability Nurse is needed on every shift. “There was no communication at all, which was strange. And Lee is not the only [person with a] learning disability going through that door.”

The letter from the Western Trust states that staff were offered training in Learning Disability Awareness, which began in June and runs until October.

Contact details for the Learning Disability Liaison Service have been provided in the Emergency Department, while all wards and departments have been provided with a Learning Disability Resource File, with contact details and relevant information.

Caroline said she is hopeful there will be “improvements” but points back to what she described as “a catalogue of apologies” she has received from the Trust concerning her son.

“It just falls on deaf ears. They just write the letters. You’d hope they would learn,” she added.