An Unspoken need

Harry was a 49 year old man with severe learning disabilities and profound communication difficulties living in a palliative care service unit. He had pain related to undiagnosed bowel cancer and died without receiving any treatment other than paracetamol for his pain. A learning disabilities nurse wrote that ‘this man was unable to communicate his distress in a way that carers and staff could interpret.’ He had the right to quality of life like any other human being except that his needs were sometimes misunderstood because he communicated them differently.