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Andrew Way |
Identity of patient who died on roof is revealed
Royal Free says no cover up over death of renowned photojournalist
A WARTIME photojournalist who vanished from a Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead ward fell to his death after wandering off the ward he was in, the New Journal can reveal.
Denis Cameron, who photographed scores of Hollywood legends including Sophia Loren and John Wayne, went into the hospital with a fractured wrist but plunged to his death after wandering off his ward at 3am on October 6.
Making London, Los Angeles, Paris and Cambodia his homes, Mr Cameron, who worked for Time, CBS and Newsweek, and photographed the Vietnam war, had once masterminded a plan to evacuate hundreds of orphans from Phnom Penh, Cambodia, just before the city fell to Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge in 1975.
His endeavours to bring the children to safety on an Australian transport plane collapsed and he ended up imprisoned in the French embassy for a month with 20 other journalists, narrowly escaping execution on several occasions.
But the man who survived ambush in Cambodia, and threw himself into the midst of conflicts in Lebanon, Iran during the revolution and the first Gulf War, lost his life while in the care of the Royal Free Hospital.
It is understood a family member has submitted a complaint to the hospital. Police and the hospital have launched their own investigations into how 77-year-old Mr Cameron, who lived in sheltered housing block Monro House, Fitzjohn’s Avenue, and suffered from Parkinson’s Disease and dementia, came to leave the seventh floor Hopgood ward, wander out of a fire exit, climb down several flights and fall an estimated 25 feet to his death. Hospital staff had to scour the grounds twice before he was finally found.
An inquest, opened and adjourned for further investigation at St Pancras Coroner’s Court on October 11, confirmed a post mortem had found Mr Cameron died of multiple injuries following a fall.
Although in a letter to the New Journal this week Royal Free chief executive Andrew Way claimed there was “no news blackout” following Mr Cameron’s death, which was kept quiet by the hospital, he said: “An inquiry was launched as soon as the body was found and is continuing. Statements were taken by our own staff and the police.
“The inquiry was not, as your report implies, launched after ‘concerned insiders blew the whistle. No member of staff had raised concern with his or her line manager about either the investigation or events which led up to it. “Once the inquiry is complete, a report will be made to the patient’s family. The coroner has informed us there will also be an inquest.
“It would not be appropriate for the trust to comment further on the incident until both these processes are complete, so we will not be able to respond to your reporter’s latest list of questions.”
A list of 14 questions concerning the circumstances surrounding Mr Cameron’s death were submitted to the hospital by a New Journal reporter on Friday but they remain unanswered.
Mr Way added: “An inquiry was launched as soon as the body was found and is continuing.
“No member of staff has raised concerns with his or her line manager about either the investigation or events which led up to it.”
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