Father died on hospital bathroom floor ......

Father died on hospital bathroom floor after junior doctor failed to give him life-saving drugs

• Edward McKean, 52, had undergone surgery to remove benign brain tumour
• Died of a blood clot in the pulmonary artery at University Hospital Coventry
• Had not received vital blood-thinning drugs which could have saved him
• Inquest heard junior doctor missed the drugs off his medication chart
• 'Neglect' contributed to death and doctors missed opportunities to save him

By Emma Innes
PUBLISHED:09:40 GMT, 2 April 2013| UPDATED:13:10 GMT, 2 April 2013

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Edward McKean, 52, died after doctors failed to notice he was not receiving vital drugs

 

A father-of-three died on the bathroom floor of a hospital after a junior doctor left life-saving drugs off his medication chart, an inquest has heard.

Medics failed to realise Edward McKean, 52, was not receiving vital blood-thinning drugs for six days after he underwent brain surgery to remove a benign tumour.

Mr McKean did not receive the drugs - designed to reduce the risk of blood clots - because a junior doctor missed them off his treatment chart when she copied it up.

As a result, a clot formed in Mr McKean’s leg, broke free, and blocked an artery, causing a fatal pulmonary embolism - a blood clot in the pulmonary artery - as he walked to the bathroom.

A post-mortem examination found he had already suffered a smaller embolism which could have alerted doctors to their mistake and saved his life.

A coroner ruled that doctors and nurses missed numerous opportunities to spot their mistake and said ‘neglect’ had been a contributing factor to his death.

An inquest at Coventry Magistrates Court on Friday heard that the keen walker’s life could probably have been saved if the mistake had been picked up.

Mr McKean had surgery to correct a rare tumour in his nasal cavity and skull at University Hospital Coventry, in Walsgrave, on April 3 last year.

He initially received the anti-coagulant medication after the opeation but stopped receiving it following the error.

The contracts manager, from Solihull, West Midlands, died as he walked to the bathroom on April 22, almost three weeks after his operation.

Mr McKean’s partner, Susan Rickards, told the inquest she had ‘fought for a year’ to stop the tragedy being ‘swept under the carpet’.

Describing the moment she learned of his death, she told the inquest: ‘The hospital rang me at five in the morning and told me there was an emergency, so I shot up there.

‘I thought if he saw I was calm it would help him to keep calm.

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‘I thought he might have broken his arm or leg, but when I got to the ward they told me he was gone.’

Consultant neurosurgeon Hussien El-Maghraby admitted the mistake should have been detected sooner.

He said: ‘What is serious is that it was not picked up for six days.’

Mr El-Maghraby added that when he learned what had happened, he sent an email to the hospital’s chief executive.

A junior doctor at University Hospital Coventry missed vital blood-thinning drugs off Mr McKean's medication chart and as a result he went without them for six days and died of a blood clot in the pulmonary artery

 

 

Deputy coroner Louise Hunt asked him: ‘On a scale of one to ten, how serious would you say these collective failings were?’

He replied: ‘Very serious, ten out of ten.

‘That’s what made me send an email.’

The inquest heard the hospital had since improved ward rounds and made other changes to minimise the risk of a similar tragedy.

Ruling that neglect had contributed to Mr McKean’s death, Ms Hunt asked the hospital to send her written confirmation that it had implemented measures to prevent similar mistakes occurring again.

Dr Mike Iredale, deputy medical director, apologised to the family for the ‘unimaginable distress and grief’ the hospital had caused them.

He accepted serious mistakes were made and promised the hospital would continue to improve its procedures.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2302728/Father-died-hospital-bathroom-floor-doctors-failed-life-saving-drugs.html#ixzz2Pn0YC3Zm
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Energy drinks may cause high blood pressure and fatal heart problems

Energy drinks can cause high blood pressure and fatal heart problems

• Study of young people found the drinks may increase blood pressure and disturb the heart's natural rhythm
• People who already have high blood pressure or heart problems should 'use caution' before consuming them

By Anna Hodgekiss
PUBLISHED:20:27 GMT, 21 March 2013| UPDATED:20:27 GMT, 21 March 2013

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Energy drinks may cause high blood pressure and potentially lethal heart problems, new research has found.
Doctors are warning people with high blood pressure to 'use caution and judgment' before downing the drinks, after finding they may increase blood pressure and disturb the heart's natural rhythm.

American researchers analysed data from seven previously published studies to determine how consuming energy drinks might impact heart health.

The pooled studies included healthy patients, aged 18 to 45.

In the first part of the pooled analysis, the researchers examine
d the QT interval - a segment of the heart's rhythm - of 93 people who had just consumed one to three cans of energy drinks.

They found that the QT interval was 10 milliseconds longer for those who had consumed the energy drinks.
The QT interval describes a segment of the heart's rhythm on an electrocardiogram; when prolonged, it can cause serious irregular heartbeats or sudden cardiac death.

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Lead author Doctor Sachin Shah, assistant professor at University of the Pacific in the United States, said: 'Doctors are generally concerned if patients experience an additional 30 milliseconds in their QT interval from baseline.

'QT prolongation is associated with life-threatening arrhythmias. The finding that energy drinks could prolong the QT, in light of the reports of sudden cardiac death, warrants further investigation.'

The researchers also found that the systolic blood pressure, the top number in a blood pressure reading, increased an average of 3.5 points in a pool of 132 participants.

Doctors have warned the drinks may disturb the heart's natural rhythm

 

Dr Shah added: 'The correlation between energy drinks and increased systolic blood pressure is convincing and concerning, and more studies are needed to assess the impact on the heart rhythm.

'Patients with high blood pressures or long QT syndrome should use caution and judgment before consuming an energy drink.

'Since energy drinks also contain caffeine, people who do not normally drink much caffeine might have an exaggerated increase in blood pressure.

'People with health concerns or those who are older might have more heart-related side effects from energy drinks.'

The findings were presented at the American Heart Association's Epidemiology and Prevention conference.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2297095/Energy-drinks-cause-high-blood-pressure-fatal-heart-problems.html#ixzz2ORdlTOcW
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High consumption of processed meat.....

Processed meat 'is to blame for one in 30 deaths': Scientists say a rasher of cheap bacon a day is harmful

• Analysis of diets of 500,000 linked meat to cancer and heart disease deaths
• Should be 'limit of no more than 20g a day of processed meat', equal to one rasher of cheap bacon or one full English breakfast a week

By Fiona Macrae
PUBLISHED:00:00 GMT, 7 March 2013| UPDATED:12:30 GMT, 7 March 2013

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Meals containing too much processed meat such as cheap ham, bacon and sausages could send you to an early grave, a large-scale study has found.

Analysis of the diets and medical history of almost half a million men and women linked processed meat to deaths from cancer and heart disease.

The Europe-wide research, including work by Oxbridge scientists, found that processed meat is to blame for about one in 30 deaths.
The researchers suggested a limit of no more than 20g a day of processed meat – equal to one rasher of cheap bacon.

The warning comes in the wake of the horsemeat scandal which has caused many consumers to question the origins of their food.

Processed meat, made by combining the leftover parts of animals which cannot be sold as good cuts such as steaks and joints, contains high concentrations of fat, including artery-clogging cholesterol.

The researchers from ten European countries quizzed almost 450,000 people, many of them Britons, and tracked their health for an average of 13 years.

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They said: ‘Men and women with a high consumption of processed meat are at increased risk of early death, particularly due to cardiovascular diseases but also cancer.’
Some 26,344 of the participants died over the course of the study, with those who ate the biggest amounts of processed meat being 44 per cent more likely to have died than those who ate the lowest amounts.

The figures for heart disease were striking – those who ate the most processed meat, more than 160g or three sausages a day, were 72 per cent more likely to die of heart disease.



 

Processed meat such as bacon and sausages could send you to an early grave, a large-scale study has found

A study last year found that eating 50g of processed meat a day – the equivalent of one sausage or three rashers of bacon – raises the likelihood of cancer by a fifth.

But in the latest, much bigger study, those who ate the most processed meat were almost 50 per cent more likely to suffer an early death, with heart disease the overwhelming cause.

The study, published in the journal BMC Medicine, concluded that a limit of 20g a day of processed meat – equal to a rasher of bacon or one full English breakfast a week – would prevent about 20,000 early deaths in the UK each year.

Tracy Parker, a dietician at the British Heart Foundation, said: ‘With spring in the air, many of us may be looking forward to sunny barbecues. But this research suggests processed meat, such as sausages and burgers, may be linked to an increased risk of early death.

‘However, the people who ate the most processed meat in this study also made other unhealthy lifestyle choices.
‘They were found to eat less fruit and vegetables and were more likely to smoke, which may have had an impact on results.’

Professor Karol Sikora, one of Britain’s leading cancer specialists and an unpaid member of the industry-backed Meat Advisory Panel, said the key to good health is a balanced diet.

He said: ‘Don’t worry about having a bacon sandwich. It is not going to kill you. But don’t have four bacon sandwiches every day for your whole life.’

The amount of white meat eaten, such as chicken, was not linked to death rates by the researchers, while small amounts of red meat appeared beneficial.



Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Tim Lang, professor of food policy at City University, London, said: 'This study is yet another little plank going into the edifice saying we've got to down on [processed] meat.

'This is what we're saying, let's lower the amount of animals we are producing. We need to reduce the cattle culture in this country.

'The key issue is we don't know what a good diet is, we've had dietary guidelines based on a very narrow based idea of what is nutrition.

'For me, this study is another reminder of the need to go for a more sustainable diet.'
A Department of Health spokesman said: 'It's important that everyone eats a balanced diet. Eating well and being active can help prevent serious illnesses such as cancer and heart disease later in life.

 

'Red meat can be part of a balanced diet. But people who eat a lot of red and processed meat should consider cutting down as regularly eating a lot could increase your risk of bowel cancer.
'For tips on how to eat well and be more active, visit the Change4Life website.'

Burgers, sausages and pies were particularly singled out as being harmful

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2289351/Processed-meat-blame-1-30-deaths-Scientists-say-rasher-cheap-bacon-day-harmful.html#ixzz2MvoDXy5Q
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