A Bristol paramedic has been suspended for a year after a seriously ill man died just two hours after she told him to just take immodium and then changed the notes of his oxygen levels so she didn’t have to take him to hospital.
Debbie Porter had a seven-year unblemished record as a paramedic and was working in the Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire area when she and her colleague were called to a 31-year-old man who was seriously ill.
A tribunal hearing was told Miss Porter was the lead clinician on the scene and failed to recognise how ill the man, who has not been named, was. The Health and Care Professions Tribunal Service hearing was told Miss Porter was a Band 6 paramedic when she went to the man’s house at 2.19pm on August 20, 2018.
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The man had been suffering from severe diarrhoea and vomiting for 12 hours, and had been shaking since 2am, was ‘dizzy and faint’, and not completely alert. The tribunal heard Miss Porter assessed him and deemed it ‘appropriate to leave him at home and advised the patient to self-administer Immodium, to maintain fluid intake and to call the GPs the following day if symptoms persisted’.
But the man’s health rapidly deteriorated after they left, and a second ambulance was called little more than an hour later. The man collapsed at 3.40pm and an ambulance was called at 4pm and when paramedics arrived again, they found he had gone into cardiac arrest, and was pronounced dead at 4.20pm.
Several inquiries and investigations were held into what had happened, including a Coroner’s inquest, and they found Miss Porter had failed to conduct an adequate clinical assessment, had changed the notes of the oxygen reading - which was just 83 per cent, but was changed to 98 per cent, recorded a second blood pressure reading that had not been taken and recorded that the patient had a normal skin colour, when this was not the case.
Miss Watson had initially been allowed to return to work in ‘restricted practice’, but after earlier hearings, she was given training and supervision, and then allowed to work again during 2019 in unrestricted practice.
She actually quit the position in December 2020, and said she would not be coming back to work as a paramedic. She had not contributed to this latest hearing, and was not represented.
The tribunal heard a series of mitigating factors, including the fact this was a ‘one off incident in a career lasting seven years, she consistently acknowledged most of her failings from an early stage, expressed remorse, regret and provided an apology to the man’s family, demonstrated some insight into her failings from early on after the incident, and had no further issues when she did go back to unrestricted practice.
But the panel at the tribunal said the case was ‘extremely serious’, and because she had left the job, the panel had to consider either suspending her for a longer period, or striking her off altogether, in case she ever wanted to return to the role.
“This was a finely balanced decision because the Registrant is not engaging and has said she has left the profession of Paramedic,” the tribunal ruling said. “However, the Panel is mindful that it must impose the least restrictive option. The Panel has therefore determined that in the circumstances the Registrant should be allowed a further period of 12 months to re-engage in what will be a difficult journey to remediate her failings in the event that she wishes to resume her career as a Paramedic. It has made this decision knowing that the current Suspension Order will protect the public.
“The Registrant should be aware that if she fails to engage the next panel is likely to consider a Striking Off Order,” it added.
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