Great Ormond Street Hospital has apologised after the parents of a young boy with cancer overheard "abhorrent" staff joking about the Grim Reaper.
During his short life, Raffy Holliday, 3, had leukaemia three times, pancreatitis, a blood clot, a bleed between his brain and skull, and two massive seizures.
His parents, Imogen and James, had recently made the heart-wrenching decision to end active treatment for the toddler.
As they were waiting for the arrival of the palliative team of nurses and doctors to Raffy’s room, Imogen overheard doctors and nurses joking about death.
Imogen, 35, told KentLive: “I heard them say Grim Reaper. This is a children's hospital. It is such abhorrent behaviour. There are dying children."
"I was absolutely disgusted to my core. I told them 'what you have just said is absolutely disgusting. It is vile'.
“I said 'you are standing here waiting to meet me and my son and I have heard you speaking like that'. We were waiting to hear if we could get more donor cells.
“On the Friday before, we had met with the palliative care and he was in a really, really bad way. He looked pretty lifeless. We made the really, really hard decision to end active treatment after discussing it with the team, because it was cruel and he was declining at such a rapid rate.
"He wasn't even able to swallow his own saliva. He was vacant behind the eyes. It was torture seeing him. He had been through so much.”
The mum said the team had been examining boards on the wall, which show staff pictures and the ward names, which are of animals and birds.
She explained: "They said 'what would our symbol be?' and the consultant replied ‘palliative team, the grim reapers’.
“The nurse said ‘we should get it on hoodies and go into the rooms’ - actioning the grim reaper hood. The junior doctor added ‘no, it needs to be a bird. What about raven? No, no, dove. Symbol of hope’. She then proceeded to put her hand out in front of herself as if to halt, and said ‘sorry, no hope’," said Imogen.
"At this point, they all burst out laughing, seemingly finding some hilarity in their profession and children dying.
"They were waiting for our CNS (clinical nurse specialist) to come and visit me, Raffy’s mother, and to meet him.
“I can hardly put into words what it is like to be in this situation and be so vulnerable, at a time when you need sympathy, empathy, love and support... and witness this.”
A Great Ormond Street Hospital spokesperson said: "We expect our staff to be compassionate and kind at all times and to ease, not add to, the burden of our families.
“We are very sorry for the distress that has been caused to the family. Conversations of this nature are indefensible. As soon as we were told about the incident, we launched an investigation.
“We are taking this extremely seriously. It is ongoing."
