I feel I need to tell my story of the death of my sister while receiving home care that was commissioned by SLC health and social care partnership.
A private company was commissioned as there was no capacity within social work to provide this care to my severely disabled sister who suffered from myotonic dystrophy.
The reason I feel the need to share this story is so that the same thing does not happen to another family.
My sister was being fed by the carer ( company had been advised she had a problem with choking and swallowing due to the condition). She choked and carer ran next door to elderly neighbour for help but by this time she had suffered cardiac arrest.
The neighbour did CPR as carers from this company appear not to be trained in CPR which I find not acceptable in this kind of job.
The neighbour managed to get her breathing until ambulance arrived where she was taken to Wishaw General Hospital where I was informed it was end of life care as she was brain damaged due to the fact she had been starved of oxygen due to fact of time taken to give her help.
I have to say that the care she received at Wishaw General from all the staff was very good and the consultant who gave me the sad news did it in a very professional and caring manner. My sister's carers were cut to one at the main meal time due to fact her meal times could not have been at the same time each day had she still had two attending hence I think the carer feeding her panicked as she was alone. I feel when social work commission private companies these companies should have staff fully trained for emergencies like this as the people they care for are usually very vulnerable adults.
I contacted social work who have informed me they would have done an AP1 had she survived.
This has left me devastated in the way my sister died as no one has ever attempted to contact me regarding discussing the incident.
"Death of sister with home care"
About: South Lanarkshire University Health and Social Care Partnership South Lanarkshire University Health and Social Care Partnership
Posted by Lorni (as ),
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Responses
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Update posted by Lorni (a relative) 9 months ago
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