The Times today reports that the mother of Dan James, the 23 year old man who was paralysed playing rugby and  ‘assisted to die’  in Switzerland, has criticised the inadequate care her son received from the NHS, where he was moved instead of immobilised, which is likely to have made his paralysis more severe and contributed to the depression which led him to seek assisted suicide.

James’ mother is reported as saying” “It is impossible to know how things would have turned out if he had been treated differently, but perhaps Dan would have ended up with an injury he could have lived with.”

There are, of course, other ways Dan James’ tragic and untimely death might have been averted.  It is vital that society as a whole concentrate its efforts on improved spinal care services for patients, and research on repairing spinal cord damage, rather than seeing suicide or homicide as an inevitability for people with these injuries.

The article reports that more than 800 people in the UK and Ireland are paralysed following an injury to their spinal cord.  The Times article raises the possibility that the severity of these injuries may be exacerbated by the ignorance of those who attempt to help after an accident, and of hospital staff.

The family of Dan James are planning a poster campaign to raise awareness of how to deal with a suspected spinal injury and are running the London Marathon to raise money for spinal research.

As high-profile as was the story around Dan James’ death,  it is vital that the moral debate on assisted suicide does not distract from the message  that better care in the immediate aftermath of a spinal cord injury is an absolute necessity.

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