Nursing home staff on trial after man with dementia dies in hoist on toilet
Six employees of a care home are on trial in connection with the death of a 69-year-old man with severe dementia, who died after spending an entire night in a hoist on the toilet.
Istvan Nagy was diagnosed with dementia at an early age and was admitted to the residential care centre in Maasmechelen in 2021. At 18:30 on 18 July 2023, he was placed on the toilet by a nurse and a student worker using a hoist.
They left the door open while they attended to other patients who needed help. When they went home between 19:30 and 20:00, the door was closed and they assumed the man had been moved by colleagues.
During the evening and night, several checks should have been carried out on various patients, including Istvan Nagy. Not all of these took place and the man was found dead on the toilet the next morning.
Acquittal requested
According to the medical examiner, death was due to a tear in the aorta. The man had been struggling with heart problems for some time, and even if he had not been left there, there was a chance the aorta would have torn anyway.
The prosecutor and the family’s lawyers say the prolonged stay in the hoist led to the stress that caused the fatal tear. The lawyers for the four nurses and carers who were on duty that day dispute this and all requested acquittals for their clients.
"That is too much to be a coincidence. Your care centre is not functioning properly"
According to the family, several defendants and the public prosecutor, the home was struggling with staff shortages at the time, which meant that several tasks were not performed and procedures were not followed.
It also emerged that there had been no alarm cord in the toilet for years. As a result, the acting head nurse and the newly appointed interim director also face charges in relation to the man’s death.
Structural problem
“This is about a day on which four different people made mistakes with the same patient,” said Hans Janssen, the family’s lawyer. “That is too much to be a coincidence. Your care centre is not functioning properly.”
The lawyers representing the nurses, carers, head nurse and interim director acknowledged that there may be a structural problem in all residential care centres when it comes to finding and retaining staff.
“I don't determine policy,” the head nurse said. “Even today, it’s not easy to find enough staff to cover the daily workload. I do my best every day to schedule the right people.”
She said standards had not been adjusted in the past 20 years, while patients’ care needs have increased significantly. A survey of the five nurses involved in the case also found that both before and after the incident in 2023, other patients had been left in the toilet, albeit for shorter periods of time.
The prosecution has called for six-month suspended prison sentence for the defendants. The verdict is scheduled for 30 October.
#FlandersNewsService | Illustration © PHOTO IMAGEBROKER
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