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Sister’s fear over hospital admission
THE sister of a care worker who died in hospital after being sectioned under the Mental Health Act has said her sibling always feared she would “be left to die in that ward”.
Despite pleas from nurses concerned about Linda Ann Phelps’ breathing, doctors decided not to move her from Camden and Islington Mental Health and Social Care Trust’s Helen Boyle ward to a medical ward for further observation, a St Pancras Coroner’s Court inquest heard on Tuesday.
Ms Phelps, of Dobson Close, Swiss Cottage, who was admitted to the ward on the Royal Free hospital’s grounds in October 2004, was found slumped in her seat in a smoking room last February.
Nurses said they became concerned for Ms Phelps, 47, as her breathing worsened.
They said attempts to revive her were delayed after staff found a vital oxygen cylinder was empty. Although another cylinder was found and she was brought to consciousness, Ms Phelps later died in the Royal Free’s A and E department.
In a letter written before the inquest, Ms Phelps’ sister Ellie Fuller said: “It is hard to explain the pain I feel on her loss. All along she said she would end up being left to die in that ward and I persuaded her it was in her best interest to stay. It seems she was right and I was wrong.”
Deputy coroner Sean McGovern said: “Linda Ann Phelps died from previously undiagnosed bronchopneumonia. The death occurred while as a psychiatric in-patient who was also being treated for intermittent breathing problems.”
Ms Fuller said her sister was a generous, committed Catholic who spent most of her adult life working with the mentally ill.
A Trust spokeswoman said in-patient staff will now be given advanced resuscitation training and each ward will now have its own life-saving equipment.
Verdict: Natural causes. |
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