An inquest into the death of 74 year old Barbara Hellewell has found that the failings of the residential home where she lived contributed to her death on 1^st December 2010 following a fall in her bedroom.

Barbara Hellewell had been a resident of the Firs Residential Home, Dodworth Rd, Barnsley, since January 2010.  She suffered from dementia and required daily medication to thin her blood due to a medical condition.  She was assessed by the home as having very poor mobility and was at a very high risk of falls. 

Mrs Hellewell sustained six falls at the home before the fall which led to her death on 1^st December 2010.  Four of these falls occurred in her bedroom between April and July 2010.  All of these falls were documented in accident report forms completed by members of staff at the home.  Despite this, the monthly risk assessment conducted by the home stated, erroneously, that no falls had occurred during this period. 

No action was taken by the home in relation to these falls.

Mrs Hellewell went on to suffer a further fall from her bed on 1^st December 2010.   An ambulance was called and she was judged to be well.  Her condition deteriorated and she started to vomit blood.  She was taken to Barnsley District General Hospital on 7^th December but sadly passed away on 31^st December 2010.

During the inquest a member of staff from the home gave evidence about their concerns over the poor record keeping of the home.  It was identified that records were inadequate and incomplete, staff training was deficient and there was a failure by the home to notify those charged with providing medical care to Mrs Hellewell, such as her GP and District Nurses, of the falls.

A post mortem concluded that as a result of the fall she had developed a large haematoma to her right thigh which then became infected and subsequently caused her death. 

Deputy HM Coroner for South Yorkshire (West), Mr Urpeth, in summing up the evidence concluded that in making the verdict of neglect  he was satisfied that there was a total and complete failure by the home to provide basic care to Mrs Hellewell and this failure contributed to her death.

He concluded that had these earlier falls been addressed, Mrs Hellewell’s risk of falling would have been reassessed and it is likely the fall on 1^st December 2010 which led to her death would have been avoided.

The family’s solicitor, Tania Harrison of Howells LLP, said the family were very satisfied with the inquiry conducted by the coroner and were pleased that the verdict reflected their own thoughts on the treatment of their mother by the home. 

After the inquest, Tania Harrison said “It is deeply saddening that incidents of neglect such as this continue to occur to vulnerable elderly individuals by those who are charged with caring for them.   It is unacceptable that people are still dying in residential and care homes from wholly avoidable causes.” 

Speaking on behalf of the family, Barbra Hellewell’s daughter, Maria said: “As a family we feel that justice has been done for our mum. I am so glad I made the decision to seek legal advice and push for an inquest following mum’s death.  I knew that we were not being told the whole story regarding the circumstances surrounding her death.  I was not told about any of mum’s falls by the home.  I found out about them whilst my solicitor and I were going through the home’s records.  They did not even tell me that she suffered the fall on 1^st December.  It was the hospital who told me following her admission on 7^th December. 

We are very disappointed that there was no representative of the home present at the inquest to hear the verdict.  We feel they have taken a very blasé attitude to the inquest and have not taken the investigations seriously at all.  Their decision not to attend the inquest, in our opinion, confirms this.

We hope lessons are learned as a result of the criticisms made by the coroner and I hope no family has to go through what we have gone through in the past 12 months in search of justice for our mum.”

Barnsley Chronicle Press Coverage