Life support 'turned off in error'

A TETRAPLEGIC man whose life-support machine was mistakenly turned off by an agency nurse working for the NHS has been left with severe brain damage, it has emerged.

Jamie Merrett, 37, was so worried about the care he had been receiving at his home that he alerted Wiltshire NHS and had a camera set up in his bedroom, which captured the incident in January 2009.

An investigation also found the company that employed the nurse did not have adequate systems in place to check the training staff had received.

Only days after the camera was installed, Mr Merrett, of Devizes, Wiltshire, was left close to death after nurse Violetta Aylward, from Reading, turned off the life-support machine and struggled to resuscitate him, it was reported.