Second blow for family

Nurse who assaulted 72-year-old may still be in job

GOLD Coast Health is refusing to reveal if a nurse who slapped a brain haemmorage patient in the head is still practising.

The Gold Coast University Hospital told the family of Patricia Greene the 72-year-old was physically and verbally abused while receiving treatment in March.

However, when pressed by both Mrs Greene’s son, Dean Williams, and the Bulletin, it declined to answer if the female nurse was still working at the hospital.

In a letter to Mr Williams, who complained about the incident, the hospital said “the allegation made against the staff member (was) substantiated”.

Mr Williams, who lives in Western Australia, said it was disturbing that a number of staff allegedly saw the abuse, but no one ever came forward to tell him what happened.

He said his mother described the incident consistently where four nurses – three male and one female – tried to inject a needle into her knee.

When she struggled, the female nurse smacked her in the head where she had had her brain haemmorage and verbally abused her.

“To do that to an old, de- fenceless woman who was scared is cowardly and disgusting, and so was their response,” said Mr Williams.

“I’d like to make the person who did this fully accountable in the eyes of the law, under criminal law.”

Mr Williams said he started questioning what had happened to his mother when he had a meeting with her and two doctors three weeks after she had been hospitalised.

Mrs Greene was taken to hospital in late March after being found at the bottom of her stairs by her property manager.

“She was bleeding out of her ear, she broke the small bone in her ear and had bleeding on the brain,” Mr Williams said.

“She’s still going to take six months to recover. I’m furious about (the assault).”

Gold Coast Health released a short statement in response to the incident:

“While we can’t comment on individual cases, the public can be assured that we have a robust process for investigating complaints about the conduct of our staff. We take all complaints very seriously.

“There are a range of actions that can be taken for any substantiated breaches of the professional conduct expected of our staff.”

Mr Williams said he was planning to go to police.