An elderly stroke victim who died after suffering malnourishment and pressure sores experienced “significant failures” in basic care at a nursing home, an inquest has been told.
Bed or chair-bound Dorothea Hale, 75, died in hospital weeks after being admitted from the Grosvenor House nursing home in Abertillery, Monmouthshire.
On Wednesday, coroner Geraint Williams highlighted a number of failures by care staff during the mother-of-two’s four months at the home between July and November 2006.
But he said a lack of evidence that better care would have prolonged her life meant he could not record that her death in January 2007 was contributed to by neglect.
The inquest heard Mrs Hale was diagnosed with a heart condition and underwent surgery in March 2006. She later suffered two strokes, which left her paralysed down her left side, and needing full-time nursing care. Mrs Hale had a peg tube feeding system fitted as she had difficulty swallowing and in July she moved into Grosvenor House. Notes made by nursing staff at the hospital prior to her transfer record the mother-of-two as being turned regularly every three or four hours and not having any pressure sores. Catherine Cawte, Mrs Hale’s daughter, told the inquest she had not realised at first how much weight her mother had lost after moving to the nursing home.
Welsh nursing home resident died after becoming dehydrated and malnourished msn.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from msn.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.