We just don't care

[PAWS]

Charlotte Bevan left Bristol maternity hospital wearing flimsy clothing, a pair of paper light open slippers and carrying her 4 day old baby. Hospital staff knew she had mental health issues /post natal depression and described her as being in a confused and depressed state yet they did not notice her rambling out of the hospital. They did not think it was worth their valuable time keeping a close eye on her and her baby.
Charlotte wandered all the way to Avon Gorge on a freezing cold night without a single person noticing an obviously distressed woman wearing paper thin slippers and flimsy thin clothing carrying a baby.
What is believed to be Charlotte’s body has been discovered in the gorge.
In the name of God, how could this happen. I am sick to death of hospital staff saying they are over worked, I am sick of the general public looking the other way and ‘not getting involved’.
A few years ago I myself spent a lot of time in hospital and I am going to take a lot of flak for saying this but it is a fact that every single time I shuffled past the nurses station there was a gaggle standing about talking. When my mother was dying my sister and I had to do practically everything for her while the nurses lounged around the nurses’ station eating strawberries and reading magazines and when my father in law was dying he couldn’t even get a nurse to take away the piece of lung he had just coughed up.
But it is not just the medical staff who let Charlotte down. What sort of animals have we become? What sort of society have we created? How could anyone with any humanity ignore an obviously distressed woman rambling the freezing streets with a tiny baby wrapped in a thin blanket?
Anyone who saw this poor woman last night and did nothing should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves and as for the medical staff who left her and her baby –why don’t you go and get a job you F*****g like!

[dogtired]

Re: We just don't care

So so sad, the CCTV footage showed a crowd around a slot machine of some sort.
As a retired nurse it makes me ashamed .

[wales01man]

Re: We just don't care

A Society has been created where we ALL live in our own cocoon world this has turned out to be a tragedy if the Poor woman is the body found in Bristol there are questions to be answerd by the Proffessionals in the NHS who may have helped her.

We need to change our attitude to others but HOW?

[MissFM]

Re: We just don't care

I was picking my grandson up from school when they announced on the wireless that they've now found the body of a baby close to the body already found. Hard to "keep it together".

Terrible, terrible...and I totally agree with you Paws. The same scenes (nurses not wishing to be disturbed from their cups of tea, gossip and magazines) accompanied the death of my father.

A few years ago I myself spent a lot of time in hospital and I am going to take a lot of flak for saying this but it is a fact that every single time I shuffled past the nurses station there was a gaggle standing about talking. When my mother was dying my sister and I had to do practically everything for her while the nurses lounged around the nurses’ station eating strawberries and reading magazines and when my father in law was dying he couldn’t even get a nurse to take away the piece of lung he had just coughed up.

[seduraed]

Re: We just don't care

I know tradegies of this sort have always occurred . However there seems to have been a litany of failure. What were the security staff doing ? Why did no motorist stop? We are living in own litttle worlds and not willing to take responsibility or risk . Too much like the priest and the levite not enough like the Samaritan. I am sure i would hve stopped if I haad seen young woman out at night. Two lives wasted.

[leclerc]

Re: We just don't care

She discharged herself from hospital and clearly no concerns for the welfare of the baby were raised prior to post birth but yet now we are hearing of them because usually if that were the case then the hospital could NOT discharge the baby with the mother due to concerns for the welfare of the young child. I'm afraid something like this will happen again and we'll look at failures but realistically we all know that something similar IS going to happen again.

My condolences go to her family but I won't criticise others when clearly the so called concerns were never acted upon with either mother or child.

[PAWS]

Re: We just don't care

Sorry leclerc but there were a lot of concerns about her state of mind both anti and post natal. She had suffered from mental health issues for many years and the staff at Bristol Maternity were well aware of that. She did not discharge herself she simply wandered out of the hospital with her baby. Medical staff and her family were all aware that she was very confused and severely distressed. She had actually stopped taking prescription medication for severe depression so that she could breast feed her baby. She was a special case and should have been properly supervised.

[leclerc]

Re: We just don't care

On the BBC Website it had the hospital spokesperson saying this: "A spokesman for University Hospitals Bristol, which runs St Michael's Hospital, said Ms Bevan discharged herself for "reasons unknown to us" and there were no signs she was planning to leave."

Clearly I've misread the article..... http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-30306067

[MissFM]

Re: We just don't care

Yes, as usual there's a lot of misreporting and confusion. But I don't believe she discharged herself and I do believe that she should have been given very particular consideration and care (from the information emerging). There seems to be a culture (if you can call it that) within some sectors of the NHS, as prevalent elsewhere, that people with mental health issues are simply a tiresome waste of space and resources - as are the aged - qv the obnoxious term "bed blockers".