After dad car’s path suffering hallucinations
Arts Outside with Summer Saturdays
guys outside the front of our house with crowbars,” Miss Alderson told the court.
“I went to the window to look and it was the next door neighbour going to work in a totally different car to what he said he saw.”
Throughout the rest of the day, Miss Alderson said Anthony was ‘paranoid’ and ‘just wouldn’t settle’.
At midday, she dropped him off at a disciplinary hearing with his employer where he was told he was fired due to his conduct.
On the way home, Miss Alderson said Anthony began ripping up his bank cards and throwing them out of the window of the car.
She said he explained he ‘needed to get rid of this because the men are going to come for me and my money’.
Miss Alderson decided to drive Anthony to hospital because she was becoming increasingly concerned about his state of mind, however he refused to get out of the car and said he was fine.
That evening, Miss Alderson said he seemed calmer and they ordered a takeaway.
“We were chatting about what jobs he was going to apply for,” she explained. “Then he just stopped talking and said that the men were at the window.
“It went on for a short period of time and then he calmed down again.”
Later that evening, Miss Alderson saw Anthony ‘swinging’ a vacuum cleaner at the top of the stairs - explaining he was trying to ward off the men trying to come upstairs.
Later, Anthony left the property and proceeded to ‘hang around’ his and Miss Alderson’s cars. He was also shouting at the road and called the police to report he had been assaulted.
When officers arrived at the property, Miss Alderson told them she was concerned about his behaviour.
The concerned officers called for an ambulance and waited at the property for six hours until he was transported to hospital.
At around 8am, Anthony arrived at hospital where he was later diagnosed with severe alcohol withdrawal.
An internal inspection into the care Anthony received while in hospital raised a number of ‘missed opportunities’, read out in court by Lisa Forshaw, assistant director of nursing for urgent care and investigating officer for the Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust report.
Due to the severity of his alcohol withdrawals, he should have received a 30mg dose of chlordiazepoxide, a sedative used to control agitation caused by alcohol withdrawal, every hour. However, it was found he was given only three doses during an eight hour period.
It was also found that no mental capacity assessments on Anthony had been conducted.
Having been moved from his initial cubicle into the corridor, as the hospital was busy at the time, Anthony got up from his trolley at 5.15pm and walked out the emergency department.
A nearby health care support worker saw him in one of the hospital corridors and asked him where he was going to which he said he ‘needed to get out’.
The support worker, who reported thinking Anthony was experiencing ha l l u c i n a - tions, asked security to radio for assistance while they continued to follow him through the hospital and grounds.
Outside the hospital building, Anthony was met with two security guards who tried to convince him to come back inside. While initially trying to persuade him to return, they deemed him to have the capacity to make the decision himself to leave the hospital.
In court, Coroner Kearsley asked Mrs Forshaw if security guards are trained in assessing capacity to which she replied “no, they are not”.
She added: “I think he had fluctuating capacity and if an assessment had been done then absolutely these security guards would have been instructed to restrain the gentleman. It wasn’t considered that his capacity would fluctuate.”
Anthony then walked towards Rochdale Old Road, where he hung around a property before leaping out into the street in front of a passing vehicle.
He died as a result of the collision and his medical cause of death was ruled as hemorrhagic and traumatic shock.
Recording her conclusion, coroner Kearsley reiterated that there had been a number of ‘missed opportunities’ in Anthony’s level of care at hospital.
“The court finds that, as a matter of fact, Mr Mckenzie was not monitored appropriately,” the coroner said.
“He should have been subject to hourly scoring and observations in accordance with the alcohol withdrawal policy.
“He should have been prescribed an appropriate amount of chlordiazepoxide which would have helped alleviate the withdrawal symptoms.
“A formal assessment of his capacity did not take place and if it had done, on the balance of probabilities, the security guards would have been made aware that they could restrain Mr Mckenzie if he attempted to leave the ward.
“If this had occurred, on the balance of probabilities, Mr Mckenzie would have been prevented from leaving the hospital when he did so.”
Coroner Kearsley added that at the time of the collision, it was likely he was suffering from ‘severe hallucinations due to severe alcohol withdrawal’.
The coroner added: “If he had been appropriately treated and assessed, it is more likely that not that by 5.30pm, his alcohol withdrawal symptoms would have been less severe.
“In addition, it would have been more likely than not, that he would have been prevented from leaving the hospital. Given the medical condition and his hallucinations, there was no evidence to suggest he had the capacity to intend to take his own life.”
However, she acknowledged that the internal investigation had been ‘open and honest’ and recognised that the hospital trust had taken proactive steps to address the concerns raised.
Miss Davis, representing Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust, told the court: “There are clear failings in the care provided and, on behalf of the trust, I would just like to reiterate the trust’s apologies to Mr Mckenzie’s family. Historically, training around the alcohol care pathway has been poor but this has now been rectified with a new e-learning package and face-to-face learning.”
Addressing Miss Alderson and Miss Howarth, the coroner praised them both for the way they had conducted themselves in court and that it was ‘a credit to both yourselves and your children’.
She added: “I can’t imagine how difficult the situation has been for you both having lost Anthony but then also having to adapt to some information you may have discovered afterwards that you’ve both got children with him.”
In a joint statement issued at the time of Anthony’s death, via Greater Manchester Police, the family said: “Anthony was the most unique, amazing fun loving man who did as he pleased most of the time.
“But mainly he was the best daddy to his young boys. Nothing meant more to him than his children, they were his entire world.
“He was just the most caring, humorous man, everyone loved him and we will all be forever thankful we had him in our lives.”
“A formal assessment of his capacity did not take place”
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YOUR Trust and Rochdale Borough Council have an exciting partnership with Without Walls underway.
Three years ago, Rochdale Council and Your Trust (formerly known as Link4life) being our borough-wide charity that exists to provide for happier, healthier, creative lives through combining cultural and leisure services joined forces to become part of Without Walls Touring Network Partnership; a consortium of festivals, organisations and artists dedicated to raising the profile of the UK outdoors sector, both nationally and internationally.
Being a partner with Without Walls has already produced a great series of events including at the most recent, pre Covid-19, Feelgood Festival and this summer under the banner of Summer Saturdays.
In our times it is imperative that we continue to provide opportunities for people to engage with creativity.
So, it was great to see this summer’s innovative series of pop-up events animating shopping areas and green spaces across our borough.
A programme of performers who appealed to everyone, engaging shoppers, and visitors in exploring the sights and sounds of the amazing world around us.
The performances were a mixture of static and promenade elements delivered across the borough that certainly brought a much-needed lot of joy to many people and something new to our communities.
We were treated to such as:
- My House, Apocalyptic Circus - www. withoutwalls.uk.com/ programme/myhouse/
- The Jukeboxes - www. bootworkstheatre.co.uk/ bootworks-project/ the-jukeboxes/
- Fools Paradise Street Theatre - www. foolsparadise.co.uk/ companies/ jasonmaverick/ animatedhumanstatues/ - www.foolsparadise.co. uk/companies/ halfhumantheatre/ sparkytherobot/ - www. foolsparadise.co.uk/ companies/ upperlevelperformance/ themirrordivas/ - www. foolsparadise.co.uk/ companies/artemis/ bobandjerry/
- Pif Paf, Toast - www. pif-paf.co.uk/portfolio/ toast/
- Hikapee, Look Up - www.hikapeetheatre. com/look-up
- Gobbledygook Theatre - www. gobbledegooktheatre. com/projects
They were performed in places such as: Falinge Park, Rochdale; Middleton Town Centre (Gardens, market area and Shopping Centre), Queens Park, Heywood, Hopwood Park, Heywood, Rochdale Town Centre, (Riverside Shopping Centre, Baillie Street, Yorkshire Street), and Hare Hill Park, Littleborough.
Your Trust’s deputy Chief Executive Darren Grice says: “Initially, presenting work outdoors, on the street, in a town centre or park helps us to reconnect with residents but longer term, it will enable us to build new audiences for culture.
“Outdoor arts doesn’t have the barriers of traditional venues such as tickets and in many cases, cost. It’s democratic, presented in civic space owned by everybody and audiences can ‘vote with their feet’.
“Our partnership with Without Walls has quickly gathered significant local support.
“It’s not our ‘usual arts supporters’ either, the evidence is that a significant majority were accessing our cultural programmes for the first time, demonstrating that taking the arts ‘outside’ is helping to build brand new audiences for culture.”
AATA is very much looking forward to the next product of this partnership!