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Forgotten patient dies in Stockholm emergency room

The Local Sweden
The Local Sweden - [email protected]
Forgotten patient dies in Stockholm emergency room

A patient admitted to the emergency room of a Stockholm hospital later died after being forgotten by hospital staff for more than an hour.

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The incident, which occurred at Stockholm South General Hospital (Södersjukhuset), has been reported to the National Board of Health and Welfare (Socialstyrelsen), the Dagens Nyheter (DN) newspaper reports.

Staff first performed an initial diagnosis on the patient, who suffered from multiple illnesses including early stage dementia and came to the hospital one afternoon complaining of abdominal pains.

The patient was then led to an examining room for additional evaluation to be carried out within the next thirty minutes.

An hour later, the patient was found unconscious, splayed out on the bed, and covered in vomit.

While hospital staff tried desperately to revive the patient, the person died early the next morning.

In reporting the incident, the hospital attributed to mishap to a lack of personnel and an extremely heavy workload.

The hospital explained that, during the summer, it had great difficulty filling positions and that the hospital’s summer substitutes didn’t always receive sufficient training.

In its report, the hospital said it planned to implement new measures, including more rigorous and supervised training of new staff, in order to avoid similar incidents from occurring in the future.

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