Nurse's blunder over ventilator left patient with brain damage

Jamie Merrett, 37, was so worried about the care he had been receiving at his home that he alerted Wiltshire NHS and had a camera set up in his bedroom, which captured the incident in January 2009.

An investigation also found the company that employed the nurse did not have adequate systems in place to check the training staff had received.

Only days after the camera was installed, Mr Merrett, of Devizes, Wiltshire, was left close to death after nurse Violetta Aylward, from Reading, turned off the life-support machine and struggled to resuscitate him.

Mr Merrett, who was paralysed from the neck down after a road accident, was aware of the mistake that had been made before he lost

consciousness, unable to speak. He can be heard on the film urgently clicking his tongue as a warning.

Nurse Aylward tried to resuscitate him but it took 21 minutes for the machine to be restarted by paramedics, leaving Mr Merrett with serious brain damage.

He had been nursed at home since 2002 after the road accident left him tetraplegic.

Nursing agency Ambition 24hours, which supplied Nurse Aylward, said it could not comment as an internal investigation was being held. A spokeswoman for the Nursing and Midwifery Council confirmed Ms Aylward has been suspended while it investigates the incident.

A confidential report by Wiltshire social services, obtained by the BBC, concluded the agency was aware it was required to supply a nurse with training in the use of a ventilator, but the company did not have adequate systems in place to check what training their staff had received.

Despite his disabilities Mr Merrett had been able to talk, use a wheelchair and operate a computer using voice-activated technology.

His sister Karren Reynolds said his level of understanding has now dropped to that of a young child, adding: "His life is completely changed. He doesn't have a life now.

"He has an existence but it's nowhere near what it was before. He is very brain-damaged compared to what he was before. He was a highly intelligent man and you could have long in-depth conversations with him and now it tends to be more simplistic."

Overall responsibility for Mr Merrett's care lies with NHS Wiltshire.

In a statement the NHS Wiltshire Primary Care Trust said: "The PCT is committed to purchasing patient-centred services, which includes involving the patient and his family in decisions about his care needs and how these are provided.

"The PCT has investigated the incident in January 2009 when the patient's ventilator care was compromised. We have apologised to the patient and his family for this, and have put in place a series of actions to ensure that such an event will not occur again either for this patient or others.

"We are currently working with the patient, his family and the clinical team to establish whether it would be safe, in the future, to care for him at home."

Mr Merrett's story was featured in Inside Out West and Inside Out South on BBC1 last night.