Family ‘abandoned' by health services before depressed son took his life
A doctor whose son electrocuted himself says she is 'devastated' by the findings of an inquiry into the circumstances around his death.
Jane Macdonell felt 'gutted' when concerns raised by the family about the way Harris Macdonell was cared for when he began struggling with mental health problems, were not addressed.
She said her son was placed on an adult psychiatric ward in Melrose, known as Huntlyburn Ward, at the age of 16 and never recovered from the experience.
Sheriff Peter Paterson used his judgment after the hearing in Selkirk to highlight the shortage of hospital beds in Scotland for struggling children and teenagers such as Harris. He also said the lack of security on the adult ward from which Harris ran away 'simply defies common sense'.
However, he ruled there were no precautions that could reasonably have been taken which would have prevented Harris's death.
His mother, who was a paediatrician in the Scottish Borders when her son died, said: 'I would not, in the Borders, have had a child with leukaemia sitting on my ward for nine nights who was ill. I would not have had a sick neonate [newborn baby] sitting on my ward for nine nights who was ill. They would have found a bed somewhere. They would have gone to a specialist ward.
'Whereas for Harris it was good enough to put him in Huntlyburn. There is just this difference in the treatment of mental health patients from other medical patients.'
It was early February 2018 when Harris, a keen rugby player and musician, was admitted to Huntlyburn after a period feeling low and suicidal. On February 10 he ran out of the building, heading for the bypass towards Tweedbank. Staff collected him in the ward car but, the determination says, 'As they were driving at a speed of between 30 and 40mph, Harris jumped from the vehicle.'
His face was so badly injured he had to have plastic surgery.
Later, in a creative essay as part of his English Higher course, Harris would describe his experience in the adult mental health unit, from the gloomy entrance, and chemical smells to eating meals listening to other patients screaming.
He concluded: 'I think that no other young person should have to go through the experience I had. It was the wrong place for someone who was already mixed up, frightened and unsure of who they were.'
However, after a spell at the mental health unit for young people in Edinburgh in 2018, Harris's condition improved. He returned to school, obtaining four Highers with grades B and C despite his illness.
It was when lockdown was imposed in 2020 that the then 19-year-old's mental health began to decline.
Macdonnell says — despite her medical expertise — she did not have anywhere to turn for help, describing the family as 'abandoned'.
• David Macdonnell: Why grieving parents now beat a path to our door
'You need to have somewhere that families know they can go to,' she said. 'There was nobody who took care and interest for Harris's wellbeing.'
The fatal accident inquiry determination says his parents saw Harris in their kitchen around 9.30pm on August 18, 2020, after he had attended rugby practice. His mother realised he was missing the next morning and his body was discovered in the field opposite the family home later that day.
Sheriff Paterson highlighted the 'remarkable courage' of Jane Macdonell in giving evidence in public amid the 'unimaginable pain and suffering' of losing a child.
Macdonell said she felt she had no option but to seek the inquiry. 'I felt it was the only avenue I could go to that might result in some change to the system, that might shine a light on what's going on,' she said, adding that she was 'devastated by the limitations of the process'.
She said she has since been in touch with other families whose children, like Harris, have a diagnosis of autism with high function and have taken their own lives.
The determination said the shortage of beds for children and adolescents 'should not happen' and while the contribution it made to Harris's death was 'impossible to say' it may have affected his ability to engage with services in 2020.
It also highlighted the need for better controls on entry and exits to Huntlyburn Ward.
Dr Kevin Brown, from the young people's unit now based on the site of Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, had told the inquiry: 'In the period since 2018 there has been a significant deterioration in the care and treatment of young people in the YPU.'
Brown described services as overwhelmed and said: 'The standard of care received by Harris in 2018 would be unattainable now.'
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