Patient on steroids tried to kill wife then shot himself after hospital ‘rushed’ him home

A CORONER has criticised a hospital for “rushing out” a retired accountant who tried to kill his wife and shot himself after being psychotically affected by steroids prescribed to treat his cancer.

Peter Hart, 71, who had an aggressive and terminal brain tumour, was sent home by Kent and Canterbury Hospital staff despite his erratic behaviour induced by steroids. Hours later he tried to push his wife, Jane, down the stairs and pulled a swordstick [a cane concealing a blade] on her before shooting himself in the head with a shotgun.

Neighbours heard Mrs Hart’s screams and went to her rescue, locking Mr Hart inside his house in Kennington, Kent, before calling police. Then they heard the bang as he shot himself.

Mrs Hart, 68, said her husband had been completely changed by the steroids. She said her last memory of her loving husband of 41 years, who had never harmed anyone, was of him trying to kill her.

Mrs. Hart, who has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder since the tragedy in April, said: “It was like a horror film.”

She told the hearing in Folkestone, Kent, that while he was weakened by his illness the steroids gave her husband the strength to climb into the loft to get his licensed gun.

Recording a verdict of suicide, Rachel Redman, the coroner for Central and South East Kent, said: “It is a very serious issue for the hospital. There was a rush to get him out.”

A spokesman for the East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust said: “Mr Hart’s care followed our normal clinical procedures, including a referral to Kent and Medway NHS & So- cial Care Partnership Trust’s Consultant Psychiatrist to see if he was mentally suitable for discharge.

“The psychiatrist assessed him and felt that he did not need to be treated by Mental Health Services and that as Mr Hart wanted to go home this would be in his interests to do so if medically suitable.”