‘Sleeping’ patient was actually dead

A care home resident in western Sweden who was thought to be asleep on the floor was repeatedly ignored by nurses and eventually declared dead by an on-duty doctor.

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The care home, in Gothenburg, western Sweden, has been reported to the National Board of Health and Welfare (Socialstyrelsen) after the incident.

The patient was found asleep beneath a hospital bed, and home care staff alerted the nurse on duty as they were unable to wake the patient for medication.

The patient was making a snoring sound while apparently asleep, according to the Lex Maria report.

However, the nurse did not prioritize the incident and refused to make the trip to the care home, and told the staff members to wait.

After several hours, the home staff noticed that the patient was no longer snoring and alerted the nurse once more to do a house call, but the nurse refused to check on the patient for the second time.

Instead, the matter was handed over to another nurse who was working the night shift.

Half an hour later, staff members realized the patient was no longer breathing at all and had no pulse, forcing staff members to make an emergency call for an ambulance.

Emergency services arrived and performed CPR for three hours to no avail. A doctor who was on-call declared the patient to be dead.

The incident has now been reported to the health board in accordance with Sweden's Lex Maria, the informal name for regulations governing the reporting of injuries or incidents in the Swedish health care system.