Woman died after ambulance error

A 93-year-old woman died after she fell when left at the wrong house by an ambulance crew, an inquest has heard.

The crew realised their mistake when they arrived at Mary Purnell's correct address, but dropped off more patients before returning to find her.

When they arrived at the house in Dinas Powys, south Wales, Mrs Purnell, who had dementia, was found with a broken leg. She died five weeks later.

A narrative verdict was returned at Cardiff coroner's court.

A narrative verdict is used when a chain of events has led to a person's death.

After the verdict, Cardiff and Vale NHS Trust said it wished to express its condolences to Mrs Purnell's family.

 In a statement, the trust added: "The trust has reviewed its procedures following the incident and has listened carefully to the conclusions of the inquest and the coroner's comments."

A spokeswoman for the Welsh Ambulance Services NHS Trust said: "Following this tragic incident, Welsh Ambulance Services NHS Trust has conducted an internal investigation, co-operated fully with all other agencies and reviewed and continues to review its policies and procedures."

The court heard that on 20 August, 2003, Mrs Purnell had been to a day unit in Barry.

She was collected at the end of the day by an ambulance crew who had around five or six other patients to take home.

Ambulance man Roy Jeffries told the hearing that he and driver David MacAdam were given a list of names and addresses, but the list contained details of people due to travel on one of two ambulances.

Empty house

They were not told which patients would be on their vehicle.

When the ambulance arrived at the house in Dinas Powys they "assumed" that Mrs Purnell lived there, the court heard.

In fact the woman who lived there had earlier been collected from the day centre by her son.

The ambulance staff found a door key under a flower pot, took Mrs Purnell into the empty house, placed her in a chair and left.

Asked why Mrs Purnell had been picked out, Mr MacAdam said: "I honestly can't answer that question."

After leaving the pensioner in Dinas Powys, the ambulance crew drove to the home she shared with her daughter, Christine Jones, in nearby Penarth.

"Mrs Purnell's daughter came out and met us and we didn't know who was to be dropped off," said Mr MacAdam.

'Redress mistake'

"We knew it was a Mrs Purnell but we didn't know who Mrs Purnell was, so I asked her to identify her mother.

"She could not. Then I realised we had made an awful mistake.

"We said we would go back to Dinas Powys and try to redress the mistake."

Mr MacAdam said he decided to drop off the rest of his patients before going back to collect Mrs Purnell because at least one person on board needed to use the toilet.

When the ambulance crew returned to the house where they had left Mrs Purnell in Dinas Powys, they found her lying on a garden terrace, crying in pain.

The widow, who had dementia and chronic lymphatic leukaemia and could not be left alone, had suffered a broken leg in the fall. She died in hospital on 29 September.

'Left unsupervised'

Cardiff and Vale coroner Dr Lawrence Addicott said: "The pathologist said she died from bronchial pneumonia due to dementia, chronic lymphatic leukaemia and the fracture.

"He was unable to say that one of those three conditions was directly related to her death more than the other.

"The fractured femur had been a contributory factor since she had become immobile since the operation."

Delivering a narrative verdict, Dr Addicott added: "Mrs Purnell, who suffered from chronic lymphatic leukaemia and dementia, died following a fracture of the femur that she sustained when she fell in the garden of a premises to which she had been returned from a day centre.

"She had been returned to the incorrect address, of which she was not familiar, and left unsupervised."

Solicitor Peter Maynard, acting for Mrs Purnell's family, said they were considering whether to take further action and hoped that steps had been taken to prevent such an incident ever happening again.

This article is courtesy of BBC News.