Oliver McGowan: Health chief apologises for autistic teen's death

Oliver McGowan was a keen footballer and had hopes of becoming a Paralympic athlete

A health chief has apologised to the family of a Bristol teenager who died after being given drugs he was known to be intolerant to.

Oliver McGowan died at Southmead Hospital in November 2016 after his admission for an epileptic seizure.

An independent review found his death was "potentially avoidable".

Chief executive of the regional clinical commissioning group, Julia Ross, said "we are unreservedly sorry to the whole McGowan family". 

The 18-year-old, who also had mild autism and learning difficulties, was given olanzapine to sedate him, despite his parents telling medical staff not to give him the drug.

He died in intensive care 17 days later after a rare side effect caused his brain to swell.

Paula and Tom McGowan previously said they had never had a personal apology for what happened to their son

The review found LeDeR (learning disability mortality review) into Oliver's death took an "unacceptably prolonged" 17 months to complete and contained a number of inconsistencies.

It was also found that the box next to the question "was the death avoidable" was ticked and later unticked.

"I welcome the opportunity to apologise to Paula and Tom McGowan and indeed to Oliver's brother and sister, who were deeply impacted by Oliver's death, but also by the process that wasn't good enough that we went through," said Ms Ross.

An independent review published in October 2020 found Oliver's death was "potentially avoidable"

An independent review into the LeDeR launched by NHS England after complaints by Oliver's family, found it to be "mismanaged, poorly monitored and allowed to progress without due rigour or any independent oversight". 

It made 21 recommendations, that the Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire Clinical Commissioing Group (CCG) said it would "implement in full".

A spokesperson for the CCG said: "The CCG is deeply sorry for the mistakes it made during Oliver's original LeDeR review and recognises that the systems and governance that were in place at that time were not good enough."

A police investigation into Oliver's death continues and his parents have called for a fresh inquest, calling the first "deeply flawed".