Nurse drowned ‘after appearing exhausted on A&E shift’ – inquest
ANURSE drowned when her car entered a river after clocking off from her busy A&E department night shift where she appeared “exhausted”, an inquest has heard.
Laurie Jones, 23, had last been seen leaving the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff at around 1.40am wearing her blue nurse’s scrubs, and was reported missing after she did not return to her home in nearby Caerphilly.
Yesterday, the coroner’s court in Newport was told the mother of a three-year-old girl who Ms Jones treated just before the end of her shift on October 2 last year described her as appearing tired and her “extremely busy” ward understaffed.
Katie Bolan, the mother of the child, said in a written statement: “Around 10.45pm a nurse who I later identified as the missing person came to see my daughter. I did not know her name at the time. She seemed OK at the time but I noticed she repeated herself several times and she appeared exhausted. It was extremely busy and there didn’t seem to be enough staff to cope with the number of people.”
Mrs Bolan said Ms Jones returned at around 1.15am when she gave antibiotics to her daughter, but appeared to be confused and stumbling over her words.
Mrs Bolan said: “When saying where to store the antibiotics she said ‘in the freezer... no in the...you know the... in the fridge’. She appeared to me to be extremely exhausted. It was the last we saw of her. It was because of the way she was that I contacted the police.”
Ms Jones was reported missing at 9am that morning by her worried family and a missing person inquiry led to police searching along her usual route home from work.
Her submerged VW Beetle was eventually found near the B4251 road in the village of Wyllie, Blackwood, at around 12.50pm later that day, around 30m from where she appeared to have left the road. The road was said to have several bends known as the Wyllie Bends which should not present problems to drivers in normal conditions.
Ms Jones’ body was found inside her car with both her legs leaving the driver’s side window, and she had managed to unfasten her seat belt in the seconds after the crash.
Pc Darren Southern said it was “likely”
she had been submerged from about 2am.
The inquest heard the road surface was wet from “extremely heavy rain” which presented “very poor conditions for driving”. The police officer said it could not be determined at what speed she had been driving at. A post-mortem examination said she had suffered drowning and a head injury.
Simon Jones, her father, told the inquest: “She was her normal happy self leading up to the collision. She was enjoying being home again, going to family gatherings, making plans and looking towards the future.”
Coroner David Regan gave a narrative verdict, saying: “Ms Jones left the road and entered the river 500m from village of Ynysddu. As a result she died by drowning.”
Outside the inquest, Ms Jones’s mother Jo said colleagues of her daughter believed the workload on her 12-hour shift had not been dangerous or excessive. She said: “The witness statement from her work didn’t pick out anything. It was just a usual night in casualty, really.
“It may seem really busy and out of control, but there’s usually some sort of handle on it. But obviously I have no idea on that particular shift. With some she could be excessively busy, on occasion she might have had a bit of an offload. Knowing Laurie she would’ve had a couple of cases going on.”
She said she wanted to see barriers and lighting erected on the section of road to make it safer for drivers in poor conditions.
She added: “She was just an everyday person going about her job. She had a lot more potential to give to life and it’s been taken away.”
A spokesman for Cardiff and Vale University Health Board said: “Cardiff and Vale University Health Board is aware that today the coroner is reviewing the death of our colleague Laurie Jones.
“We understand this is a difficult time and would like to extend our deepest sympathy to the family, friends and colleagues of Laurie.
“Laurie’s death has been a tragic loss to both her family and the NHS, where she is greatly missed.”