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Dylan Cope, nine years old. you ready for the interview, Dylan? Just two weeks after filming this video, Dylan died. I'll never forget that way back, you know, he had to stop a few times because he was in pain. His death was completely avoidable. His parents did everything right. They sought medical help and trusted the specialists who treated their son. I was told he would get better. But the care Dylan received was not what his parents thought. We called him to be examined by what I thought was a doctor.
Dylan's parents didn't know that their son was being examined by a nurse, not a doctor. A nurse who failed to notice the alarming symptoms of a condition that turned out to be fatal. In September, the British Medical Association warned that replacing doctors with nurses and other healthcare workers was putting patients at risk and even death. But for the Cope family of Newport, that warning came too late. Now they are campaigning to ensure that other families do not suffer the same incredible loss. We just want the children to be safe. It's too late for us, but not yet for others.
Dylan was your youngest child. Um, can you, can you tell me a little bit about him? He was truly unique, loving. He was very interested in the world around him. He loved science, the periodic table, the Rubik's Cube, games, and computers. Um, he was just very, very loving and brought that childlike magic to the family, being the youngest. He liked being the youngest. I found him very funny, intelligent, and inquisitive. I, I, I thought he would go far in life He would definitely achieve something very interesting and worthwhile in life.
Dylan began feeling unwell in the last week of November 2022. At first it looked like a normal childhood illness. And then, on Tuesday night, he, he just suddenly screamed in pain, like from his room. I ran over immediately, and he simply said, " My stomach hurts, it hurts terribly." And, and it lasted about 20 minutes. And I said, " Yes, I'm taking him to the family doctor now." This is very strange. Dylan's family doctor suspected appendicitis, which is an emergency condition, and sent him straight to the emergency room.
He was given painkillers and sent back to the waiting room for a while. And then we eventually called him in to be examined by, um, I thought, a doctor. But the woman who examined Dylan was not a doctor. She was a pediatric nurse. One of a new generation of healthcare professionals who are taking on increasingly responsible roles in the NHS. Instead of appendicitis, as the therapist suspected, the nurse said Dylan had the flu. Lawrence questioned this diagnosis, but everyone he spoke to that evening confirmed the nurse's correctness. I was assured that it was not appendicitis.
They said bluntly: "This is not appendicitis. This is the flu." Despite the pain not subsiding, Dylan was discharged home that same evening, given a note about a cough and cold. He was still in pain then. I'll never forget, um, but I didn't know there was parking near the children's So we had to park quite far away, in a spare parking lot, and I'll never forget that drive back, you know, we had to stop a few times. Because he was in pain. It was one o'clock in the morning, and it was terribly cold. The next few days, um, he didn't get any worse or any better. And we just assumed, well, we didn't assume, we believed it was the flu, given what we were told. And then, when
Saturday came, they told me he would get better. That morning he felt a little worse. So we started to worry, thinking: well, they said he would get better, but he clearly got worse. Lawrence rushed Dylan back to the hospital. When we were driving to the hospital, his, um, speech became slurred. And when we arrived, we put him in a cart, and they immediately surrounded him. And they saw that he was serious. they immediately surrounded him, and, um. Dylan's appendix ruptured, causing fatal septic shock. He died 4 days later. The coroner found that his death was entirely preventable. She said that if an experienced doctor had examined Dylan that first night in the emergency room, he would have
recognized the alarming signs of appendicitis that the nurse had missed. The investigation also revealed that the nurse did not even read the physician's referral warning about possible appendicitis. The nurse admitted that it was common for her not to read the referral. I was shocked that she openly stated this. And that she clearly thought this was normal, even though her duties included examining only those children who were referred by the therapist. The health authority running the hospital that mistakenly discharged Dylan has admitted responsibility for his death and has apologised profusely for shortcomings in his treatment.
Why don't you add a few marks to the discharge statement to confirm whether he was examined by a senior doctor? Why didn't this happen before? Why did my son and I have to go through death to make them do such a simple thing? Since then, the hospital has changed its rules: now all children referred by a family doctor must be examined by a senior doctor before being discharged home, not just a nurse. Corrine and Laurence are now calling for these changes to be implemented across England and Wales. I didn't know who nurse practitioners were. For me, only nurses and doctors exist.
I didn't know they had introduced this intermediate level where nurses do the work of doctors. And I think we don't want to demonize any group of clinicians at all. We just want the children to be safe. It's too late for us, but it's not too late for others. Coding, Scratch, and, in fact, everything. Can you stack cubes? Yes. Ride a bike? Yes. To be good? Yes. Embrace?
