Charity urges Government to reduce learning disability deaths

Leading learning disability charity, Mencap, is calling for the Government to set up a full National Learning Disability Mortality Review, which could help the NHS take the steps needed to address the fact that 1,200 people with a learning disability die unnecessarily every year.

Mencap’s call is prompted by the death of 22-year-old Elisha Langley in Basingstoke Hospital on 23 December 2012 of a brain abscess that developed following surgery to remove a cyst on her head.

A subsequent HM Coroner’s verdict has highlighted key failings in her treatment including a failure to diagnose “a skull defect likely to cause complications during and beyond the operative process” and spot that a post-operative infection in the wound area was “not superficial but in fact leading to penetration of the skull”.

Elisha Langley had a severe learning disability and required constant help and support to live her daily life. She could not communicate verbally. Her family believe that if doctors had listened and acted promptly them when they told them how unwell Elisha was, she may have been still alive today.

Mencap chief executive, Jan Tregelles, said: “Elisha’s death was a terrible tragedy. Sadly it mirrors many of the cases that we see with family members being ignored by health professionals, despite them being the ones who know their loved ones best. Losing someone you love is awful. Knowing it is easily preventable makes it even worse.

“This is a problem with a solution. Setting up a full National Learning Disability Mortality Review could stop the 1,200 avoidable deaths of children and adults with a learning disability every year, at a mere cost of £2,000 per life saved. It would allow health professionals to learn why vulnerable people are needlessly dying every single day. Despite this recommendation being made by the Confidential Inquiry one year ago, the Government has still not fully funded this.”

Alun and Julie Langley, Elisha’s parents, said: “Elisha may not have been able to speak but, as we were then, we are still her voice today. Time and time again, every concern we raised was brushed aside with staggering arrogance. This verdict now shows just how legitimate our concerns were.”

Over the past seven years, Mencap’s Death by Indifference campaign has fought against the unequal healthcare and institutional discrimination that people with a learning disability often experience within the NHS.

Last year, research commissioned by Mencap showed that more than 1,200 people with a learning disability die needlessly in the NHS every year.