MORPHINE PLAYED NO PART IN STRAIT DEATH

Injuries were ‘unsurvivable’ and paramedic’s dose was ‘appropriate’

A MUM, struck by a jet-ski on the Menai Strait, was left with ‘unsurvivable’ injuries, and a dose of morphine administered by a paramedic at the scene played no part in her death, an inquest heard last week.

Jane Walker, 52, from Cheadle, Staffordshire, was on holiday with her son and husband Kevin when a 17-year-old jetskier crashed into the family’s rib (rigid inflatable boat) in August 2020.

The badly injured Mrs Walker, 52, suffered multiple injuries and was give morphine before being lifted from the vessel on to a trolley to a waiting ambulance.

She later died in Ysbyty Gwynedd, Bangor, the hearing in Caernarfon was told.

Mrs Walker, a pharmacy technician, suffered chest, lung, neck and other injuries but only a fractured right arm injury was visible at the time.

The rib was driven on to a trailer on the slipway.

Paramedic Darren Lloyd told the inquest he gave the patient, who was in obvious pain and agitated but talking, a five-milligramme dose of morphine, which can take 15 minutes to take effect.

But she deteriorated before then and she needed to be taken off the rib urgently.

He and a colleague got her on to a scoop stretcher and she was lifted off the ‘head-high’ boat.

She was then transferred to a trolley and wheeled up the slipway to the ambulance.

Mr Walker, asked Mr Lloyd if morphine can suppress breathing.

Mr Lloyd said it could, but it was the only painkiller he thought was appropriate.

Mr Walker, at an earlier hearing last year, said he believed the morphine dose had played a part in his wife’s death: “I’m convinced died.”

Mr Lloyd said Mrs Walker’s rapid deterioration had left him shocked.

“I did not think when I got to the boat that a right arm fracture would have ended up like it did,” he said.

When he told medics that Mrs Walker had initially been talking, they ‘couldn’t believe’ it, given the extent of her injuries.

Mr Walker said his wife was carried along a rough slipway ‘strewn with pebbles.’

Mr Lloyd said a ‘rapid extrication’ was needed given her deteriorating condition and that ‘any extrication’ would not have been smooth.

Paramedics now use an ipad system, readable by hospital staff, for better record-keeping, the inquest heard.

Dr Jonathan Whelan, associate medical director of the Welsh Ambulance Service NHS Trust, told the inquest: “The that’s when she five-milligramme dose for a relatively young adult patient was appropriate and even a little conservative.”

Mark Faulkner, a consultant paramedic and associate clinical director of London Ambulance Service, said he agreed with how the paramedic, Mr Lloyd, treated Mrs Walker (pictured above).

He added: “This patient had multiple body system injuries, [including] a significant chest wall injury.

“I’m not surprised these injuries were fatal.

“These injuries would, on the balance of probabilities, have been fatal irrespective of the medical intervention.”

However, he also said mountain rescuers and the military ‘have a wider range of analgesic options than paramedics.’

Such rescuers can administer ‘mucoso-phentenol lozenges and intranasal diamorphine’ and he has looked into trying to broaden paramedics’ options for five years.

Kate Robertson, senior coroner for North West Wales, said she was ‘astounded’ to learn paramedics can legally give patients fewer types of painkillers than mountain rescuers or soldiers can.

She said she would write to the Home Office in a Prevention of Future Deaths report over the issue.

Dr Brian Rodgers, a Home Office pathologist, said Mrs Walker sustained head, neck and chest injuries – most of which were ‘unsurvivable’ – and that the morphine played no part in her death.

The Marine Accident Investigation Branch had made recommendations after the collision which Isle of Anglesey County Council were considering.

The coroner said that she would write to them to check on ‘where they are at’ in managing vessels in the Menai Strait.

She also noted that paramedics are restricted in the analgesics they can administer.

Hearing that mountain rescuers and the military have access to more painkilling options ‘astounds’ her.

She therefore said: “I do find that my duty in respect of Prevention of Future Deaths is [enacted]. I will issue such a report to the Home Office.” But said she is not allowed to make recommendations.

The coroner concluded that Mrs Walker’s death was accidental.