Still Clapping, Are We?

Matthew Charnock, 35, was rushed to Whiston Hospital after being smashed over the head with an iron wheel brace by jealous Steven Cotterill. But despite Mr Charnock appearing extremely confused and bleeding heavily from a head wound, nurses failed to order a CT scan and instead patched up the cut and sent him home with painkillers.

Envy of the world, am I right?

Mr Charnock was found unresponsive the next day and taken back to hospital where medics discovered he had a serious skull fracture and was suffering from sepsis and meningitis. He underwent surgery but could not be saved. Last week Coroner Jacqueline Devonish ruled Mr Charnock was unlawfully killed and that his death was contributed to by neglect by triage nurse Stephanie Keelan and emergency nurse practitioner Paul O’Brien, who failed to order the scan which would have saved his life.

And the coroner was in no doubt about the potential outcome if the NHS 'workers' had done their job. But they weren't the only ones who's performance was less than it should have been. 

Following a three-week trial at Chester Crown Court, Cotterill, then 39, was convicted of Mr Charnock’s manslaughter and jailed for seven years.

And his 'accomplices' in the ER? What about them? 

Nurse O’Brien was also investigated and interviewed by police, who found Mr Charnock’s treatment to be ‘sub-optimal.’ But the nurse was never charged after the Crown Prosecution Service decided there was no realistic prospect of convicting him of gross negligence manslaughter.

Some play the game. Some quit half way through. Some never even get off the bench at all.