A MOTHER told medical watchdog it "never crossed her mind" staff would not supervise her epileptic teenage son, who drowned in a bath at an NHS care unit.

Sara Ryan's son Connor Sparrowhawk, 18, who also had autism and a learning difficulty, was found dead after being left on his own and suffering a seizure while in the bath at Slade House, a care and assessment unit in Oxford, in July 2013.

Ms Ryan was giving evidence at the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) where her son's doctor responsible for his care at the unit, psychiatrist Dr Valerie Murphy, has admitted a series of failings but denies misconduct.

Ms Ryan, an Oxford University academic, fought back tears as she took the oath before giving evidence at the hearing in Manchester.

The tribunal heard Connor had bitten his tongue and suffered a nose bleed in separate incidents in the weeks before his death, injuries suspected of having occurred during unobserved seizures on the unit.

Dr Murphy has admitted failing to acknowledge Connor's risk of having seizures at the unit, carry out a risk assessment or "consider the implications" of allowing him to have baths on his own with staff only observing him at 15-minute intervals.

Ms Ryan said: "We just assumed he was being supervised in the bath. It was not something that came to my mind. It was almost one-to-one support on the unit.

"It had a whole team of specialist staff and there were five patients. It just never crossed my mind."

Ms Ryan said Connor was diagnosed with autism aged three, had learning difficulties and developed epilepsy, having his first seizure in January 2013.

The family, along with his siblings, managed his symptoms but his behaviour began to deteriorate when he reached 18, suffering from "hyper arousal" and sometimes violent outbursts, "verging on terrifying" his mother said.

In March 2013 a place was found for him at Slade House for further assessment and to come up with a plan for his future treatment.

But Ms Ryan said no real assessment of his history and symptoms were taken from her and no care plan was ever done before his death on July 4 that year.

She said Dr Murphy, who qualified as a medic in 2003 after studying at the National University of Ireland, told her Connor was not the usual type of patient they had on the unit.

Asked about weekly meetings she had with the medical staff, Ms Ryan said: "As I feel now, I felt deeply uncomfortable and distressed and lost really."

She described Dr Murphy as "dismissive, arrogant and distant" but conceded this might be because of her son's death on the unit.

She said: "I don't know, it might be coloured by what's happened. I suppose I was expecting a knight in shining armour to step up and help Connor and that didn't happen in any way.

"Connor had gone into that unit a family member and schoolboy. He was sectioned on the first night. I was told he was an adult and could not just turn up to see him. The whole situation was terrifying really."

Dr Murphy has admitted 30 separate failures over obtaining consent for treatment from Connor or his parents, keeping proper medical notes, developing or implementing a care plan, obtaining his history of symptoms or following national guidelines on epilepsy treatment.

The unit, now closed down, was run by Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust, which accepted full responsibility after an inquest into Connor's death ruled neglect played a part.

The trust is now facing prosecution under the Health and Safety Act over Connor's death and the same trust has repeatedly hit the headlines over its failure to investigate the deaths of hundreds of patients in its care between 2011 and 2015.

The tribunal continues.