They tried to blame me for Tristan’s death
AN EXTRAORDINARY INTERVIEW WITH A GRIEVING MOTHER
STAFF at Angels Quest respite centre ‘misrepresented’ how often they checked on Tristan on the night he died, falsified the time an ambulance was called and falsified a risk assessment document after his death. Care centres create risk assessments before taking in a child with Tristan’s complex needs. When investigators examined Tristan’s assessment they found: ‘The weight of evidence suggests that this document was written after the night of the 5th Jan 2013.’ They went on to say the document is ‘invalid, spurious, misleading and false’.
The report states the document ‘contained a signature of a care assistant which was not in fact the care assistant’s signature, and was most likely designed to give the misleading impression that a risk assessment had been undertaken and managed’.
When asked how often Tristan was monitored, staff initially said checks were done every 10 to 15 minutes – even though Tristan’s mother said checks needed to be done at shorter intervals. But when investigators studied all the statements it became clear Tristan was not checked during the 56 minutes before he was found collapsed. They found staff ‘misrepresented the frequency of the checks on Tristan that night’. One
employee recorded Tristan was found at 22.30 and the ambulance was called immediately. But records from the emergency services show this call was made at 22.58 and Tristan was found at 22.56. Investigators concluded this falsification was done in collaboration with other staff to support the claim he was regularly checked.