Hospital deaths ‘an outrage’ – coroner

COURT: The deaths of two elderly patients attacked with a walking stick by a pensioner in a hospital were a “monstrous outrage”, a coroner said. Ken Godward, 76, and Roger Lamb, 79, died after being beaten by Harry Bosomworth, 70.

THE deaths of two elderly patients who were attacked with a walking stick by another pensioner on a Yorkshire hospital ward were a “monstrous outrage”, a coroner has said.

Ken Godward, 76, and Roger Lamb, 79, died after being beaten by Harry Bosomworth, 70, who had schizophrenia, at St James’s University Hospital in Leeds in February 2015.

An inquest heard how Mr Bosomworth’s behaviour had started to deteriorate, and that he was “suffering a psychotic episode” and believed that his home was being raided by intruders at the time of the attack.

Recording narrative verdicts, coroner Kevin McLoughlin told Wakefield Coroner’s Court yesterday that there was no fault on the part of the hospital, that the incident could not have been foreseen and that the attack was only a contributory factor in each man’s death.

He said: “That two men suffered in this way is a monstrous outrage, perpetrated in a hospital where they would have expected to have been safe. It is offensive to any right-thinking member of society that this should happen to them.

“We must establish how it was that a person came to be at their bedside with a weapon and be able to inflict such injuries.”

The inquest heard how Mr Lamb had been trying to help Mr Godward when he suffered his injures.

Mr McLoughlin added: “That a 79-year-old man, who himself was suffering from his own illnesses, would go to the aid of a fellow patient speaks volumes. He deserves a commendation, in my submission.”

Earlier this year, a leaked investigation report detailed how Mr Bosomworth was admitted to the hospital suffering from oesophageal cancer. It explained how a decision was taken to take him off an anti-psychotic drug despite warnings from his family.

Mr McLoughlin said the decision had been prompted by fears the drug had contributed to two seizures that Mr Bosomworth suffered within days of being admitted, adding that there were “justified clinical reasons” for not prescribing the medication.

The inquest heard how Mr Bosomworth had been given a sedative drug in the early hours of February 28 after acting strangely, but was found at 7am with his walking stick, standing close to the injured Mr Godward and Mr Lamb, wearing only his underwear.

Witnesses told how Mr Lamb, a former civil servant, had blood on his face, while an injured Mr Godward was in tears. They both died days later.

Pathologist Kirsten Hope said the blunt-force trauma suffered by the two men contributed to their deaths, which were both ultimately caused by chest infections.

The coroner told how Mr Bosomworth had not demonstrated aggression in the lead-up to the attack, and said nurses had treated him in the correct way and were “vigilant” in regularly checking on him.

But speaking afterwards, Mr Godward’s daughter-in-law Lisa Dixon said hospitals had now become “non-safe” places.

She added: “If it wasn’t preventable, why have the hospital spent two-and-a-half years doing changes to stop this from happening again? If this is a place where you go for safety, run by a government, then there’s something radically wrong.”

Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust’s chief medical officer, Yvette Oade, said the conclusion that the incident was not preventable concurred with the trust’s own investigations.

That two men suffered in this way is a monstrous outrage.

Coroner Kevin McLoughlin.