A British hospital worker has been given a 12-month caution order by a disciplinary panel after being found asleep in an operating theatre, covered by a sheet, after self-administering anaesthetic gas.
The Independent reports that operating department practitioner Troy Butler admitted he was “desperate for sleep” during his night shift and took the gas “on impulse”.
His absence from an emergency operation prompted a colleague to search for him, eventually finding him on a trolley and needing to clap and shout to rouse him, the tribunal heard.
The Health and Care Professionals Tribunal panel deemed the 2023 incident “an isolated incident”.
Butler was working at Doncaster and Bassetlaw Teaching Hospital at the time, and was responsible for responding to cardiac arrests.
His team testified that they had been setting up for an emergency operation at about 1am when they realised he was missing.
He was found sleeping on a trolley with the anaesthetic tube in his hands and the end near his mouth, the tribunal heard.
A colleague said after waking him up, he told them he was “desperate for sleep” after working long hours with an agency – and occasionally in a bar.
He was regularly working 70 hours a week at the time, and had reached “breaking point”.
Butler said he took a small amount of the gas but could not sleep so “turned it up some more”, and that he regretted his “ridiculous decision”, realising he had “put everyone at risk”.
He had since reduced his workload and improved his work-life balance, he added.
The tribunal panel accepted it was “an isolated incident arising from the strains and pressures in his life at the time”.
“He is, by all accounts, a good and competent practitioner,” it added.
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
Exhausted junior doctors putting patients’ safety at risk — NHS survey
‘Laughing gas’ has rapid, lasting antidepressant effect — Phase II trial
Global healthcare systems struggling under increasing pressures