Mr Patel said he wants to lobby Parliament and get them to listen and make a change.
London:
An Indian-origin man from London who lost his son due to what he calls a “cascade of mistakes” by medics has set up a new charity foundation to campaign for patients’ rights.
Jay Patel registered Patient Lives Matter earlier this month after his 30-year-old son, Balram, died due to “failures” in treatment and care at a London hospital. The coroner’s office has since told him it is launching an investigation into the circumstances leading up to Balram’s death last month.
“Balram died in an enormous amount of pain and discomfort, and before his time, due to a series of errors and failures in the treatment and care of the hospital consultant and a number of staff,” his father said in a mission statement for the new foundation.
“We strongly believe that the government is taking steps ‘after the event’ to talk to see what went wrong with patient care and/or treatment of patients. However, there are totally inadequate steps available at the time of the incident to rectify the situation. failure and ensure that the patient suffers little or no harm. Whether you are the patient, a parent, a family member, a friend or none of the above, we want to hear from you,” he said.
Mr Patel said he wants to lobby Parliament and get them to listen and make a change. His son suffered from six life-threatening conditions and was “developmentally delayed” with a mental age of eight to ten years.
“He was our baby. He was the embodiment of happiness, loved life to the fullest and made everyone he came in contact with happy, as well as those who did not even meet him but only heard his voice or knew about him,” said Jay. Patel.
“We are deeply saddened by the loss of our Balram, but we are also shocked that he passed away before his time in a tremendous amount of unnecessary pain and this was due to the lack of care, inappropriate medical treatment and delay in proper treatment . The coroner’s inquiry is now open and the coroner is investigating the delays in Balram’s treatment and the treatment itself,” he said.
Through Patients Lives Matter, he campaigns for simple steps towards a quick and uncomplicated second opinion on treatment plans, with an independent body managing this process.
It comes as a wider campaign has been launched for the so-called ‘Martha’s Rule’, for an independent way to get a second medical opinion, by the mother of 13-year-old Martha, who died in hospital from sepsis in 2021 . The UK government has backed the call, with UK Health Secretary Steve Barclay saying he is “committed to it”.
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