The death of an autistic teen after suffering an allergic reaction to antipsychotic medication was “potentially avoidable”.
That’s the view of the specialist Learning Disability Mortality Review (LeDeR) into the death of 18-year-old Oliver McGowan.
Oliver McGowan, whose death after he was given antipsychotic medication could have been avoided
The teen’s brain swelled so much after the medication, olanzapine, it began to come out of the base of his skull.
Given drug against his wishes
Oliver’s parents, Paula, 55, and Tom McGowan, 52, say doctors gave their son the drug against his own wishes and those of his family.
It resulted in his death at Bristol’s Southmead Hospital in November 2016.
Oliver was trialled on an antipsychotic a year earlier. The paralympic hopeful – who had epilepsy, cerebral palsy and a learning disability as well as autism – reacted badly, say the family.
A new LeDeR into Oliver’s death was announced in August 2019.
Funded by NHS England, the LeDeR programme investigates the deaths of people with learning disabilities. Its aim is to thereby improve care quality.
‘Ignorance and arrogance’
In a statement, Paula and Tom said their son died as a result of the combined “ignorance and arrogance” of the doctors treating him.
The couple, who live between Bristol and New South Wales in Australia, blamed his death on “prejudice, subconscious bias and diagnostic errors overshadowing treatment decisions”.
Family fought for latest probe
An earlier version of Oliver’s LeDeR removed the finding that his death might have been avoidable.
This prompted the family to fight for that latest probe. The new LeDeR was led by Dr Celia Ingham Clark, the medical director for NHS England.
In 2018, an inquest ruled that the antipsychotic was a “significant factor” in Oliver’s death, but medics had prescribed it properly.
Earlier this year, Avon and Somerset Police announced they were investigating the circumstances surrounding Oliver’s death.
Related:
- Criminal probe into Oliver’s death
- New probe into death of Oliver McGowan
- Petition demands police train in autism
- Mum petitions for forced autism training
Published: 21 October 2020
