Clinical Negligence Solicitors

The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman has criticised Homerton Hospital, after a 60-year-old man went missing from his bed for three hours and was found dead in a lavatory cubicle, having bled to death.

Allan Hawdon from Hackney had been admitted to Homerton Hospital after he began coughing up blood. He had been diagnosed with an abscess on his lung.

The Daily Mail reports that on the day he died, Mr Hawdon told nurses that he was going outside to make a phone call – but staff failed to notice that he had not returned and was not in his bed, even though his mobile phone was lying next to his bed.

It was only when Mr Hawdon’s partner, Susan Lyon, 68, arrived at the hospital and found him missing from the ward that a hunt was launched for him.

Ms Lyon found a locked door in a lavatory on the ward and alerted staff after there was no reply from inside the cubicle. She added that staff were “reluctant” to break down the door.

Ms Lyon – who had been Mr Hawdon’s partner for 25 years – said that once staff had agreed to break down the lavatory door, the sight that met her was “horrific”:

“They were reluctant, but when they did, there was Allan slumped sideways on the toilet with blood all over him. I started giving him mouth-to-mouth.

“The crash team came and they told me he was dead.

“The worst thing is he was in that toilet three hours – and I have no idea if he suffered, if he called out for help.

“It's so heartbreaking. No one said what he had was life threatening.

“…The image will stay with me forever. It was horrific,” Ms Lyon said.

Mr Hawdon had been in hospital for five says before his death. An internal report into his care by Homerton Hospital found no issues, however.

However, the Ombudsman has now criticised the trust over Mr Hawdon’s care.

The Ombudsman’s report found that Mr Hawdon had visited the lavatory three hours before he was discovered in the locked cubicle, but nursing staff had not searched for him – despite the fact he was due to receive medication an hour before Ms Lyon arrived at the hospital.

The report also found that staff had not checked Mr Hawdon during a 13-hour hour period the day before his death.

The report said that nurses should have been keeping “a close eye” on Mr Hawdon, as his condition deteriorated.

A spokesman for Homerton Hospital said:

“In line with the Ombudsman’s recommendations, we drew up an action plan which focuses on improving the recognition of ¬deteriorating patients.

“We now have a more sophisticated early warning system.”

It is reported the hospital has introduced a digital system for logging patients’ notes, which will flag up any issues relating to checks on patients by staff.


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