Brickbat: Starved in Plain Sight

In England, a National Health Service hospital’s official report confirmed that Adrian Poulton, who had Down syndrome and was admitted for a broken hip, died after being deprived of food for nine days. While his hip was healing, doctors listed him “nil by mouth,” meaning he was given nothing to eat, but he was never provided an alternative source of nutrition. The report states that lack of nutrition contributed to his death. During that time, his family believed he was being fed in hospital, even as Poulton told his sister, “I don’t want to die.” In its response, the hospital apologized and said it had carried out a serious incident review and committed to staff education on caring for patients with learning disabilities.