‘My son just needed some proper help’
A mother believes her son’s death could have been prevented with proper mental health care during his battle with an eating disorder.
Steven Brazier, from Minster, would binge eat and purge up to 25 times a day, which saw his weight plummet from 19 stone to just eight in two years.
The 19-year-old suffered a cardiac arrest after years of struggling to get the help he needed from Kent and Medway NHS and Social Care Partnership Trust (KMPT).
His mum Melanie Brazier launched legal proceedings against the trust and is calling for an urgent shake-up to prevent other families experiencing the same tragedy.
This week, KMPT admitted Steven did not receive the appropriate treatment, but not that this contributed to his death.
Mrs Brazier says her son was so desperately ill – at one point he diced with death by standing in the middle of a dual carriageway – he should not have been allowed to make his own decisions but despite her pleas for him to be sectioned, she says health workers listened to him and his protestations he was fine.
She found him dead in bed on February 7, 2014.
Mrs Brazier, of Norwood Rise, said: “I thought a mental health section was there to protect a patient because they can’t make a decision for themselves.
“They had all the evidence but they couldn’t be bothered.
“It was hell for us. God knows what it was like for Steven.”
Steven, who also suffered from Asperger’s Syndrome, was assessed by the trust’s eating disorders unit in December 2011 but was not admitted as an inpatient until the following April.
He was sectioned but this was lifted after just one month against his mother’s wishes having seen him miss appointments and discharge himself.
Steven was finally detained in June 2012 and later transferred to Hayes Grove Priory hospital, Bromley, with failing kidneys.
Mrs Brazier said between then and Christmas 2013, she made repeated requests for him to be sectioned again.
She said: “He was very thin and said he wanted to die.
“I said to the mental health people I wanted to make a complaint and they said they would get an appointment for him to be reassessed.”
It arrived three days after his death.