Teenager says he nearly died after having nuts delivered to his hospital ward
Teenager says he nearly died after having nuts delivered to his hospital ward
Jacob Robertson has lodged complaints against his local health board in Swansea
Jacob Robertson in happier times before he fell ill
(Image: Rebekah Robertson )
A teenager with a life threatening nut allergy said he almost died after he ordered nuts that were delivered to him on his hospital ward.
Jacob Robertson, 18, said he was able to have the brazil nuts delivered and eat them even though staff knew the risks. He was first admitted to the ward at Neath Port Talbot Hospital after attempting to take his own life when he became unwell in February. He then tried again with the nuts on the ward, but his life was saved by medics, he said.
The teenager has now been moved to a different hospital but three months later says he still isn't getting the care he needs. Jacob has lodged formal complaints against his GP as well as against Swansea Bay University Health Board for the quality of care he says he recieved in community health teams and hospital.
The board said it can't comment on individual patients in its care, but hopes to better understand Jacob's concerns.
Jacob with his mum Rebekah Robertson
(Image: Rebekah Robertson )
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The sixth form student, who should be sitting his A levels at Olchfa School, where he passed his AS with straight As last summer, said eating the brazil nuts on the ward sent him into anaphylactic shock. He said medics managed to save him but the life threatening crisis left him with PTSD on top of his other mental health diagnoses
Jacob said he should never have been allowed to order and take delivery of nuts on the ward and that his threats that he was suicidal were brushed aside as "attention seeking" by at least one nurse. His mother Rebekah Jacobson said there has been a lack of continuity of care.
Community mental health teams don't seem to communicate, they claim. They said Jacob has had as many as five or six different psychiatrists in four months.
At other times Jacob said he was sent home from Port Talbot Hospital hospital when he was too unwell and on one occasion tried to take his life jumping from a tall building.
"It is very frightening and I don't feel safe," said Jacob, who has a place to start a pharmacy degree at Bath University and is upset that he is too ill to sit his A levels now.
He said the nightmare began when he started feeling "low" and went to his GP earlier this year. He and his mother claim the GP prescribed him too high a dose of the anti depressant, sertraline. Side effects of the medication can spark suicidal thoughts and when they went to hospital for an emergency appointment were told Jacob had been prescribed 100g of sertraline, twice the dose a young person should have been.
"I think because I am young I was not taken seriously on the first hospital ward I was admitted on," said Jacob, "They told me that my fears I would attempt to take my life were "attention seeking" which upset me and made me feel even more unsafe.
"It feels like a battle. I am 18 and struggling. My intention is to go back to school one day and take my A levels. I want to be alive and it is very frightening when I feel overwhelmed and suicidal," he said.
Jacob said when he has a crisis at Olchfa School just before he was admitted to hospital his school had been "very supportive". He said it was a different matter with the NHS.
"I usually enjoy cycling and hiking and being active. I have got good mates. But I don't have the motivation to go back to school at the moment because I am unwell."
The teenager said he wants an investigation by the health board and feels that mental health services are broken. He said he is still waiting for a full-time care coordinator and confirmation that he'll receive Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) a type of talk therapy designed to help individuals manage intense emotion.
Fighting back tears his mother Rebekah said she could not believe how her son had suddenly become so unwell. She is terrified he will do himself harm.
"You feel you are banging your head against a wall," said Rebekah, "things are promised and taken away and professionals don't agree with each other. We are four months in and battling for help, it's exhausting."
Jacob and Rebekah said he is getting far better treatment now at Cefn Coed Hospital, which is run by the same health authority and their complaints are about Port Talbot Hospital, the GP and community health care teams. But they are still concerned he is not getting the therapy he needs and his mother fears he may harm himself.
"When he was sent home once (from Port Talbot Hospital) he ended up on top of a multi storey car park. He had put himself in crisis to get help," said Rebekah, who runs her own business, Mumbles Podiatry.
"I was shouted at and dismissed (by mental health staff). They kept letting Jake out and once he also ended up on railway tracks.
"He has been in Cefn Coed three weeks and staff there seem lovely but the problem is there is no continuity. He is on his fith or sixth psychiatrist.
"As a mother I feel desperate and devastated that he is suicidal. A few months ago he had his whole life ahead of him. We just want help.
"I am so scared something will happen to him. They had the police helicopter out once looking for him. We are not asking for the world. We just want him to get treated."
Rebekah is heartbroken seeing her son's empty bedroom at home while he is in hospital and fears what might happen next without the help he needs.
"I am terrified that when he comes home he won't be safe."
Article continues below
She became so run down during the last few months battling for her son to get the care he needed that she was hospitalised herself when a tooth abscess became infected.
Jacob has also started a petition asking for support for his demands for mental health care provision.
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