THE mother of a 23-year-old cerebral palsy sufferer who died when food entered his lungs was worried about his care, an inquest heard yesterday.

Rosi Reed said she was concerned about a reduction in physiotherapy when Nico Reed moved to a supported living bungalow from specialist Penhurst School in Chipping Norton.

She also feared staff at his new home, Barrantynes, then run by the now defunct Ridgeway Partnership, were not recording how often her son was being sick.

Mr Reed died from aspiration of gastric content, Oxfordshire Coroner Darren Salter said as he resumed a 2013 inquest into the Chalgrove resident’s death at County Hall, Oxford, yesterday.

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He was found not breathing by Barrantynes carer Weston Mickeke, who told the coroner he last checked on Mr Reed at about 5.15am on August 22, 2012. Mr Mickeke found him not breathing when he next checked at about 6am.

Other staff fed him at about 8pm the previous night, through a tube directly to his stomach as he was propped up in bed at an angle of about 45 degrees, the coroner was told.

Mrs Reed said Penhurst School had checked on her son in the night at least every 30 minutes and particularly after 5am “which was the time when he was in danger of vomiting”.

She said Nico should have been fed with his back straight at 90 degrees, adding: “Nico was receiving his evening food while lying in bed before going to sleep.

“This vastly increased the danger of him going to bed and being sick in his sleep.”

Staff told her his vomiting was not recorded and she estimated he was being sick two or three times a week.

She said: “I think two or three times a week is a worry and clearly my worries were not without foundation.”

Mrs Reed said she was not aware of any specific assessment about the risk of aspiration and “aspiration around his early morning vomiting was something I feared terribly”.

She said staff said of night checks: “Some people said half-an-hour, some people said ‘when we can’. We got lots of answers.”

Mr Mickeke – the only staff member looking in on residents – said he made checks about every 20 minutes.

Mrs Reed said: “Sometimes that 20 minutes, with the greatest will in the world, will slip.”

The carer also said he witnessed Nico having “neck spasms” where he stopped breathing for five to 10 seconds.

Mrs Reed said he benefited from regular physiotherapy and hydrotherapy at Penhurst School, but he only had five hydrotherapy sessions after the November 2010 move.

She said: “Because he wasn’t having enough physiotherapy he developed the neck spasm.”

The facility is now run by Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust.

Its physiotherapy co-ordinator Susan Martin will give evidence when the two-day inquest resumes today.

 

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