Patient died after drinking drain cleaner

A Coroner’s Court jury attacked “serious failings” at a hospital where an elderly woman died from drinking drain cleaner.

Joan Blaber, 85, was left “frothing at the mouth and fighting for her breath” after a nurse unwittingly poured the cleaner from a bedside water jug so she could take her night-time medication.

An investigation by police and the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton failed to uncover how the cleaning fluid ended up in the water jug last September.

Recording a narrative verdict, the jury at Brighton and Hove Coroner’s Court found there were “serious communication failures” and added: “Evidence leads us to believe there was widespread confusion surrounding the water jug system that was in place and that jugs were being misused.”