Patient attacked by rat in hospital bed
Patient attacked by rat in hospital bed
A PATIENT was bitten more than a dozen times across his back and neck by a rat as he lay sedated in hospital, his parents have claimed.
Jason Ketley, 42, was left with painful and bloody injuries after he was savaged by the rodent at a specialist care unit in Surrey, the Daily Mirror reported.
Staff spotted Mr Ketley stumbling around a corridor with the rat hanging from his neck by its teeth and nurses knocked it off and killed it. Hospital officials said it was a field mouse.
But his mother Pat Boardman told the Mirror: "That's an outrageous claim. He had large, open bite marks.
"I'm appalled that this sort of thing could happen to my son in an NHS hospital in this day and age.
"He was completely helpless and terrified. It's a disgrace. He was very scared and the staff had to show him they had killed the rat to prove it could no longer hurt him."
Mr Ketley, who has a mental age of two, was attacked at St Ebba's Hospital in Epsom. His mother, 64, of Bognor Regis, West Sussex, heard what happened when she called to check up on him.
She said: "I was horrified. He was quite heavily sedated and wasn't able to defend himself."
After the attack last November, Mr Ketley was given injections against diphtheria, tetanus and polio. His parents have made a formal complaint to the Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Foundation Trust.
The trust's director of quality and nursing Jo Young said the incident was "genuinely shocking" and that Mr Ketley's parents' concerns were being taken "very seriously".
