Family to sue hospital after drug death

THE family of a mum who died from an overdose of prescribed painkillers are suing the hospital where she was treated.

Katherine Jane Bailey died at New Cross Hospital in Wolverhampton on December 22, 2020.

The former company director, 56, from Bloxwich, had a toxic level of dihydrocodeine, an opioid painkiller, in her system.

Black Country area coroner Joanne Lees recorded an open verdict because it was impossible to establish for certain how she had taken such large quantities of the drug while in the hospital.

Mrs Bailey’s family now plan to sue the Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust, which runs New Cross, for “clinical negligence”.

Mrs Bailey was admitted to an ear, nose and throat ward at New Cross on December 19 after having major nosebleeds.

She was suffering from anxiety and alcohol withdrawal.