Man died from sepsis after 34-hour medication delay

"hospital staff, during the final admission, decided to try an oral antibiotic but the requested drug was unavailable. An IV antibiotic was only given 34 hours after Graham arrived at hospital, and at half the dosage it should have been. There was also a three-hour delay between the doctor requesting the drug and it being administered, the report found. By the time a second dose of antibiotic was given, which was also delayed, Graham had become septic."

"His mother, Sylvia, who has asked for only first names to be used, said Graham, who lived in Ollerton in Nottinghamshire, had an incurable disorder called Alexander's Disease, which affects the nervous system. Frequent infections meant he had regularly been treated by the Doncaster and Bassetlaw Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and while oral antibiotics were ineffective, he responded to IV medication."

A 45-year-old man with Alexander's Disease was admitted to Bassetlaw Hospital in November 2022 with an infection. He had a history of responding only to intravenous antibiotics. Despite GP email and verbal advice from his mother, care home staff and paramedics to use IV antibiotics, hospital staff opted for an oral antibiotic that proved unavailable. IV treatment was administered 34 hours after arrival and at half the appropriate dose, with an additional three-hour delay after the drug was requested. A delayed second dose followed, the patient developed sepsis and died a week later. The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman concluded the death was avoidable.

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