A catalogue of hospital errors led to teenager's death
3/2/2009
Lee Nicholls was 16 when he died after an aneurysm on his brain burst just weeks after he was taken into hospital suffering from severe headaches, vomiting and double vision.
Lee collapsed in November 2004 after suffrering a brain heamorrhage caused by a rare and difficult to reach aneurysm. Surgeons operated and tried to remove the aneurysm but this left him with difficulty in walking and with mood swings. His condition deteriorated and at the end of February 2005, Lee was rushed to Weston General Hospital where he was misdiagnosed as suffering with meningitis and was given antibiotics. A lumbar puncture was administered on Lee but they failed to test for bleeding on the brain, this ommission was described by the coroner as a 'dismal failure'.
Lee was discharged from Weston General but just a few weeks later he collapsed and was placed on life support at Frenchay Hospital but died on 29th March 2005. He had suffered from another haemorrhage caused by the original aneurysm continuing to grow but this had been missed on two CT scans and the lumbar puncture.
In a statement, Lee's mother said that "Losing Lee has had a devastating effect on the family, to be told his death could have been avoided is completely soul destroying".
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Source: BBC News
