Paralysed man left brain damaged after nursing blunder

A tetraplegic man has been left severely brain damaged after his life-support machine was turned off by an agency nurse from Reading, it has been revealed.

Jamie Merrett, 37, had a camera fitted at his home after he alerted Wiltshire NHS to fears he had over the care he was receiving.

Days after the camera was installed, Mr Merrett, from Devizes, Wiltshire, was left close to death after Violetta Aylward turned off his life support and struggled to resuscitate him in January 2009.

An investigation into the incident found that the agency which hired the nurse did not have adequate systems in place to check the training given to staff.

Mr Merrett, who had been nursed at home since a road accident left him paralysed from the neck down in 2002, was aware of the life support mistake before he lost consciousness.

On the film he can be heard urgently clicking his tongue as a warning, before Nurse Aylward tried to resuscitate him. It took paramedics 21 minutes to restart the machine, but Mr Merrett was left with serious brain damage.

Ambition 24hours, which supplied Nurse Aylward, said it could not comment as an internal investigation was being held.

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