Gran, 83, ‘died weeks after being tied up by staff on a luxury cruise’

A GRANDMOTHER with dementia was tied up with bathrobe cords and drugged by staff while on a luxury cruise only weeks before her death, an inquest heard.

Marguerite Hayward, 83, woke up ‘screaming’ from a nightmare during a Mediterranean cruise with husband Frederick in April 2017.

Veteran Mr Hayward, who fought with the Army in Korea and Suez, called for help from their £8,500 suite on the six-star Regent Seven Seas Explorer.

Mrs Hayward, pictured, who had mild dementia, had her hands and feet bound as seven staff members tried to calm her down. She was also given two doses of a sedative, The Daily Telegraph reported.

Mr Hayward, who died at the age of 89 earlier this year, said in statements read out at the inquest his wife of 64 years ‘lashed out’ at security guards because they raised their voices. He said his wife was ‘pinned’ to the bed and ‘forcibly injected’ with ‘entirely the wrong drug for her’.

While Mrs Hayward, a retired property manager, was ‘much calmer’ the following day, the ship’s doctor said she had to be ‘medically disembarked’ for specialist treatment, her husband said.

The couple, from Lavenham, Suffolk, got off the ship at Sorrento in southern Italy. Before they left, staff gave them a £1,000 bill for the drugs used.

Mrs Hayward was kept sedated in hospital for five days in Italy before being flown to the UK for treatment. She died on July 29, 2017, at a care home, Suffolk Coroners’ Court heard.

Coroner Nigel Parsley found that the ‘sequence of events which started on the ship, and the treatment which she received overseas, had a cumulative and contributing effect on her death’.

Regent Seven Seas Cruises said it followed the correct procedures.