Question

Marty is 53 years old and suffers from quadriplegia. He lives in a state government-funded group home and spent days with an undiagnosed broken left leg. Due to his condition, he was not able to verbally communicate his levels of pain and symptoms, including a protruding bone that went unnoticed by the staff on duty. After two days a staff member raised concerns to management; however, they decided it was best to wait until the next day to contact a doctor for treatment.

Did the staff exercise their duty of care? Explain your answer.

Answer 1

Quadriplegia, also called tetraplegia, is the loss of muscle function to the arms, legs, and torso. More often than not, it is accompanied by loss of sensation to these areas as well. The paralysis can be temporary or permanent. ... The severity of quadriplegia depends on the location of the injury.so Marty was quadriplegic with no sensory function so she was unable to verbalize the pain and concern. But for the two days she was left with a protruding bone by staff. This questions the responsibility and professional ethics that the staff should have followed. Since he is a quadriplegic his activities of daily living was performed by staff members, which was a ideal time for physical examination. Q2 hourly positioning daily bathing and all essential care was to be rendered by the staff members. Missing out a fracture which is internal or hair line can be excused if their is no manifestation. But a protruding fracture should have been reported earlier. As the code of ethics says, Beneficence, justice, fidelity and veracity was not followed though they did harm the patient. It was the duty of the staff to do daily physical examination. After identifying the fracture they waited for another day to take him to the doctor which was not acceptable. We should never let a fellow human being to suffer like that, when all the help he wanted was at doorstep.