University of Exeter student sent home from hospital with a fractured skull

The doctors failed to properly assess the patient’s injuries, according to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman

3 months ago

Caitlin Taylor | News

A University of Exeter student was sent home from hospital in 2022, despite having a fractured skull.

In December of that year, the student, who was 18 at the time, was hit by a cyclist and proceeded to spend three hours at the Royal Devon and Exeter hospital.

She had various injuries such as, a cut on her forehead, facial swelling, pain in her neck and chipped teeth.

The injured student was sent home with an undiagnosed fracture to her head after the doctors failed to assess her properly according to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO).

The Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the hospital, offered its “unreserved apologies [to] this patient and their family”.

The BBC reported that the unnamed woman was discharged from the hospital after having the cut on her forehead glued shut by doctors. However, the following day, she felt nauseous and had agonising pain in her head, neck and shoulders. This eventually led to swelling in her face. Her parents took her to Royal South Hampshire Hospital in Southampton.

In the Southampton Hospital, an X-Ray and CT scan revealed a fracture to the front of her skull, along with a broken rib and extensive facial bruising.

When her family found out about the missed diagnoses, it was reported that they were “shocked and angry”.

Following this, the patient’s mother said “it felt like because she was a young person going into hospital, there was no one to advocate for her” and that they” missed major red flags”.

The patient’s mother claimed that her daughter was “still suffering from the effects of her treatment” and that the experience had affected her grades.

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The PHSO said that the patient should have been given written and verbal advice about what to do if the symptoms escalated after being discharged. Rebecca Hilsenrath, from the PHSO, commented that it was important that the head injuries were “properly assessed and treated appropriately in good time”.

As the patient proceeded to show a range of symptoms following her injury and discharge, she was not taken seriously and “was let down badly” according to Ms Hilsenrath.

The Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust said they would “like to share our unreserved apologies for the failures [the patient and family] experienced in the care they received. Offering excellent patient care across all of our services is of paramount important to us and we are working… to meet the PHSO’s recommendations to ensure we learn from this case and prevent anything like this happening again.”