An 89 year old war veteran has died in hospital of a broken neck and breathing issues after being king hit by a fellow care resident of Macquarie View aged care facility at Bolton Point, Lake Macquarie, NSW.
At about 7pm, Robert Driver was in his walker, when another resident living with dementia allegedly hit him from behind in a surprise attack. The blow knocked him to the ground, and despite his injuries, Mr Driver was not taken to hospital, instead being put to bed by facility staff.
“That evening my father was hit from behind by another client of the dementia ward in a totally unprovoked and surprise attack,” said daughter Julie-Anne Jones.
Robert Driver, a granddad, war veteran, former lieutenant and RAAF serviceman, was eventually taken to hospital the following day when he was discovered to be experiencing difficulty breathing and suffering with a stiff neck.
Upon being admitted to John Hunter Hospital, he was found to have suffered a broken neck. According to hospital staff, the break was at a critical juncture of the cervical cord which was affecting his ability to breathe. Due to his injuries, the hospital told his family they did not expect Mr Driver to survive.
He was then taken back to the care facility, where he died on August 25th, five days after the attack. According to the post-mortem, Mr Driver died of the cervical spinal injury. NSW Police are now investigating the death.
According to Mrs Jones, the man who allegedly attacked Mr Driver was known as being aggressive, and had recently been transferred to Macquarie View aged care from another facility.
“Why was my father put to bed and not taken directly to hospital? Everyone knows if you have a concussion you do not lay down,” Mrs Jones said.
“We want accountability for this incident. This was totally preventable.”
According to Bolton Clarke chief operating officer David Swain, the facilities management are working with the NSW Police and the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission following this attack.
“Both were residents of our special care dementia unit which provides care for residents with higher needs.
“The resident was monitored closely and in consultation with the hospital was transferred for treatment when symptoms increased … We are deeply saddened at these events and our thoughts are with the family,” he said.
“The male resident who exhibited aggressive behaviour was also taken to hospital for further assessment and has been permanently transferred to a different specialist centre for ongoing care.”
This is because staff are not properly to handle aggressive patients, I saw this happen all the time at the nursing home, and staff ran away as they were not trained to calm the person down. Many woman were given black eyes and men were punched for no reason.
This is very sad for this family, sounds like the gentleman who was the aggressor needed more supervision or should have been in a specific facility for this type of behaviour, however they should have transferred the resident directly to hosp, no one should ever be put to bed after an attack like that!, that is standard practice, report incident and transfer, sounds like a severe lack of training,care factor or time!!!! , by PC, n nurses both RN or and EN!!
The way this was handled was negligent. Head injuries require assessment by the ACE team. The RN on duty well & truly dropped the ball on this one & should probably reconsider his/her career choices. Perhaps retail would be more suitable.
When there is a fall and head injury the RN is supposed to call the family to ask them if they would like to send the resident to hospital. Most family say to monitor the resident in the facility! The RN should not have moved him if he was in pain and told the family member and suggested he be taken to hospital! What happened???
As far as the aggressive resident goes he should never have been transferred from one facility to another with his background of aggression but I see this happening all the time at my facility. They keep taking aggressive males when other facilities have kicked them out! They may have dementia but it is not an excuse when others are at risk!