'Milestone' Parents hope guidance will save lives following Oliver's death

THE parents of an autistic teenager who died after being prescribed medication against his and his parents' wishes have hailed as a “significant milestone” the publication of guidance they hope will safeguard others.

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A report in 2020 found 18-year-old Oliver McGowan’s death four years earlier was “potentially avoidable”.

He died at Southmead Hospital in Bristol in November 2016, after being given the anti-psychotic Olanzapine and contracting neuro-leptic malignant syndrome (NMS) - a rare side effect of the drug.

An independent review later found that the fit and healthy teenager’s death was “potentially avoidable” and his parents Paula and Tom McGowan said their son died “as a result of the combined ignorance and arrogance of doctors” who treated him.

The learning disability mortality review (LeDeR) into the death concluded there had been a “general lack of understanding and acknowledgement of Oliver's autism and how Oliver presented himself when in seizure” and that there had been a “body of written evidence - alongside verbal requests from Oliver and Oliver's family - not to prescribe” Olanzapine.

After the Olanzapine was administered, Oliver's temperature rose and he showed signs of NMS.

The medication was stopped on October 28 and a CT scan two days later showed Oliver had sustained a serious brain injury.

He died on November 11.

His parents have campaigned since his death for improvements in the system, and yesterday the Government published new guidance it said will ensure safer, more personalised care for people with a learning disability and autistic people.