The parents of a 33-year-old man who suffered brain injuries in a car crash say he spent up to 8 days in Royal Perth Hospital without being fed.

Nils Grimley is in intensive care and needs to be fed by a tube which requires a complicated procedure by radiology staff to insert.

His mother Laurelle says twice when the tube has become dislodged it has taken days for it to be re-inserted, and during those periods he has been left without sustenance except water.

She has blamed a lack of resources in the Radiology Department and says she feels frustrated by her son's predicament.

"It's impotence," she said.

"You know as a parent you're supposed to protect your child and I can't even get a fundamental right for him to be continuously fed."

The Health Minister Kim Hames says he sympathises with the family and the length of time taken to re-insert the tube was not acceptable.

"It is not acceptable to me that patients should go for that long without sustenance, not acceptable for one minute," he said.

"I've asked the staff at the hospital to make sure that they are much more sensitive to issues like this to make sure that this sort of problem doesn't occur again.

However he says it is not a funding or staffing issue.

"It's a logistics issue," he said.

"This is a difficult tube to insert, it's not something that you or I or any, lots of doctors would be able to do."

article here

i'm a bit confused about this. i get that it's difficult, but it still seems like they either didn't get round to it because they were understaffed or too busy. what do you think? poor bloke

Patients often go a few days in ICU without being fed. As long as they're getting calories in another form (e.g. from glucose in the IV fluids, or being fed through a drip), it isn't a big issue in the short term. Of course it's preferable to feed via the NG, but tubes do get dislodged sometimes, and sometimes they can't be reinserted the same day. I highly doubt that he'd not have been given calories at all in some form for 8 days. It sounds to me as if this has been blown out of all proportion.

yeah that's what i thought the case may be, but if you have no medical knowledge you're of course going to think "omg that's so terrible!". thanks for that :)

Oh I know, that's totally true. My annoyance is aimed at the papers for not getting their facts straight, not the members of the public who can't be expected to know any better.

I heard about this and living in perth... hell I hope I don't have to go to hospital anytime soon! On the news they said he only went 5 days without food, but when you can't function for yourself, or even if you can, that is a long time to go without any food! There is something lacking in our hospital system and I really think it needs to be funded better, or something so this doesn't happen again.

There's no way that they wouldn't have been giving him calories in some form for 5 days. He'd have probably been getting either feed or sugar via the drip. Quite often people in ICU CAN'T recieve food into the stomach via a tube, because they're bowel doesn't tolerate it... so many HAVE to be fed IV instead.

The Perth hospital system is shithouse.. even in a private hospital you have to scream bloody murder to get anything... and they dont check shit that they should... or believe you when you say you are allergic to ventolin! stupid asses!

But yes, I would bet that they were understaffed, they always are.. its pretty rediculous!

You're allergic to ventolin?? What happens when you take it?

it basically stops me having control of my muscles

Like it makes your muscles feel weak and shake?

That's a side effect of ventolin. It can make you shake or feel weak, or your heart race. The doctors were right, it's not an allergy. Not that you could be expected to know that. But they probably weren't trying to shrug you off, so I wouldn't dismiss them as being useless because they told you it's not an allergy (any doctor at any other hospital would probably tell you the same thing). It's a side effect (and if unbearable, would be a good reason not to take it), but it's not an allergy. An allergy causes things like a rash, itch, tight throat, swelling of your face, lips or throat, and difficulty breathing (which ventolin is unlikely to do, because it's mechanism of action is such that it opens up airways).

Im sorry but do you think Im an idiot or something? I know my body, and when I say I lose control of my muscles, it means that I literally cannot move... paralysed might be a good word for it.
And they didnt tell me it was not an allergy, they ignored me when I said I couldnt have ventolin, and gave it to me anyway.

I don't think you're an idiot. I just think no-one's ever explained it to you properly. Yes, that sounds pretty severe (and that's rare). But it's still a side effect, not an allergy. I've already explained above what an allergy is.

Also, in the doctor's defence, if you were having a severe asthma attack at the time, then ventolin is usually the best thing they have to treat you with. There's few other drugs which are as effective in severe asthma (although magnesium and steroids can help, and for all I know, they'd already given them to you). If your oxygen levels were low, then I can't really blame them for attempting to help you (and potentially save your life), at the risk of the downside being you experience an extremely unpleasant side effects. It's not an ideal situation, I agree, but it's hard to leave someone unable to breath, and risk having them die, when you have an alternative.

Presumably your muscle weakness is a temporary thing when it happens? I'm sure it's horrible, and in an ideal world, it would be best to avoid ventolin as much as possible, but it's probably better than being dead.

My point was really just that it's slightly unreasonable to refer to the doctors as "stupid asses" for not believing you're allergic to ventolin. That's not stupid, because your problem is not an allergy. I realise that must be frustrating, but it doesn't make them stupid (just as my pointing this out doesn't mean I think you're stupid).

I had another thought too... ventolin can cause a low potassium, and a low potassium can cause muscle paralysis. Did this just happen on one occassion, or several times? And had you been unwell at the time (vomiting for example, or if you hadn't been eating and drinking much, this can cause a low potassium, which would be worsened by the salbutamol)? Do you remember if they checked your bloods on the occassion that you got the paralysis?

It sounds like an extreme reaction for ventolin alone (although possible, but still a side effect, not an allergy), so I just wonder if the ventolin had caused a low potassium, which is what was responsible for the paralysis.

ahh the fine line between allergic reaction and severe side effects can be so blury sometimes.

is ventolin that spray stuff you use for asthma? i used to use it. made my heart feel like it was going to beat out of my chest. i hated it.

Yes it is. And that's quite common. It acts on similar receptors in the heart to those in your airways, so it often makes the heart beat faster.

You are incredibly brilliant. I just think you should know that, Red. :)

Beta 1 receptors on cardiac myocytes! I like pharmacology. =)

You just hurt my brain! ;)

Show off! ;D

Perth hospitals are insane, after having my daughter i never want to step foot in one here again

Yes Perth hospitals are insane.... they're always understaffed. With the whole ventolin issue, they don't always listen when you say you're allergic. If she has a medic alert bracelet saying she is allergic, then she is. You can't go giving medical advice when you're not actually the person's doctor. I'm sure Gem isn't that stupid.

Medic alert bracelets can be used for severe adverse effects to drugs. Not just allergies. This sounds like a severe response, not an allergy. They still shouldn't have given it to her if she had a medic alert bracelet though (this was not mentioned before).

And I NEVER once gave medical advice. I tried to explain why it isn't technically an allergy, and why the doctors may have done what they did (even if it was the incorrect decision) and I asked questions because I'm genuinely interested to know more about something which is very rare. I never once gave her any advice, so please do not claim I did. I try very hard NOT to give advice to anyone on here (even when people try and ask me for it) because I strongly believe medical advice should only be given by the person's own doctor, face to face.

Nor did I anywhere imply that she was stupid.

She said herself she's never been told by a doctor that she's allergic. So She's just assuming that she is.

wow, still talking about this!
Just to be more clear, since I wasnt :) The doctor who I spoke to after my 'response' to the ventolin, said that I had a severe reaction to it, which I just took to mean it was an allergy, but Red Fraggle has explained it to me, in a very clear and mature way :P, to say that it was more a side effect..
end :D