Hospital staff not to blame for fall death (From Hampshire Chronicle)

Hospital staff not to blame for fall death

5:20pm Thursday 2nd June 2011 in Eastleigh

HOSPITAL staff could not have known that a head injury suffered by a patient who fell would prove fatal, an inquest heard.

Ronald Foyle, 79, had the accident at the Royal Hampshire County Hospital in Winchester the day before he died.

The inquest also heard that he slumped out of his chair on to the floor the same night.

The hearing centred on Mr Foyle’s care from when he arrived at the hospital in Romsey Road on September 9 last year.

Mr Foyle, whose family come from Chamberlayne Road, Eastleigh, was suffering from the final stages of terminal myeloma and renal cancer. He died on September 12.

However, a post-mortem found the cancer was not the cause of death.

Instead, it was bleeding inside the skull triggered by a fall when trying to leave his bed during the early hours of September 11.

Central Hampshire assistant deputy coroner Sarah Whitby did not blame hospital staff.

She added that “accidental death aggravated by neglect” must be ruled out and gave a narrative verdict instead.