Staff 'missed opportunities' to save patient

Staff at a mental health unit missed "multiple opportunities" to realise a woman had become unwell before she died, a coroner has said.

Sian Hewitt, 25, died at Milton Keynes Hospital last year after collapsing at the nearby Campbell Centre. Coroner Tom Osborne said there was "a failure to start effective CPR".

A spokesman for the centre said changes have been made to how care is delivered.

Ms Hewitt, who had Asperger's syndrome and bipolar disorder, was admitted to the inpatient unit on 13 March 2019.

She died less than a month later on 6 April 2019 at Milton Keynes Hospital, where she was taken after collapsing on Willow Ward at the centre.

An inquest concluded she died of a pulmonary embolism, caused when a blood clot travels to the lungs.

In a Prevention of Future Deaths Report, Mr Osborne said the centre failed to carry out a risk assessment and there was a delay in administering a drug resulting in "her mania not being brought under control".

His report said the "failure to recognise how seriously ill she had become" had "resulted in lost opportunities to treat her appropriately that may have prevented her death".

He said her death suggested the NHS was "unable to provide a place of safety for those who are suffering from Asperger's syndrome" or other forms of autism "when they are also suffering additional mental health problems such as bipolar".

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Source: BBC News, 4 December 2020