Care company admits duty breach after nurse switches off girl’s ventilator
A nurse accidentally switched off the ventilator sustaining 13-year-old Joy Osundeko, who could not breathe independently, leaving it off for nearly six minutes before her parents restored her breathing. Joy survived the incident, but her family say her health and behaviour deteriorated afterwards; the care company admitted breaching its duty of care, while denying the incident caused an injury or contributed to her death.
Joy, who had Down’s syndrome and other serious conditions, spent nine days in hospital after the February 2022 incident. She died four months later, after her 14th birthday, following a stroke that caused brain stem death. Her father said the family discovered how long the ventilator had been off when they reviewed CCTV footage.
- A ventilator was switched off for nearly six minutes.
- Joy’s parents restored her breathing.
- The care company admitted breaching its duty of care.
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A nurse at a care company accidentally switched off a ventilator that was keeping 13-year-old Joy Osundeko alive in February 2022. The ventilator remained off for nearly six minutes before her parents noticed and restored her breathing; though Joy survived the immediate incident, her family observed that her health and behaviour changed afterwards.
Joy had Down's syndrome and other serious medical conditions that meant she could not breathe independently and was entirely dependent on the ventilator. Her family discovered the full extent of the incident—how long the ventilator had been off—only when they reviewed CCTV footage from the care setting.
The care company subsequently admitted breaching its duty of care towards Joy, though it disputed whether the incident caused her any lasting injury. Joy died four months later at age 14 following a stroke; her family believes the ventilator incident may have contributed to her decline, but this remains contested between them and the company.
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The strongest fair case each way — we don't pick a winner.
The case for
The care company's admitted breach of duty in switching off a life-sustaining ventilator on a completely dependent child is a grave failure of responsibility that should establish full liability. Beyond the immediate survival, the family observed concerning deterioration in Joy's health and behaviour following the incident, suggesting real physical and psychological consequences. The seriousness of breaching duty on a profoundly vulnerable child should place accountability on the company for the trajectory of harm that followed, rather than requiring the family to prove the precise medical pathway from oxygen deprivation to stroke four months later.
The case against
The care company fully accepts responsibility for the serious breach of duty and acknowledges this was an unacceptable failure of care. However, law and fairness require distinguishing between proving a breach occurred and proving that breach caused specific harm; Joy survived the immediate incident without apparent acute medical emergency, and her death four months later resulted from a stroke, a medical event with potentially multiple and independent contributing factors. Attributing her death to the ventilator incident would be to speculate about causation without medical evidence clearly linking the breach to the stroke, a conflation that fairness requires us to resist.
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Originally published by Daily Mail as “Shocking moment nurse switches off severely disabled 13-year-old girl’s life-saving ventilator for nearly six minutes before she died four months later”.