A British woman in Ipswich died after she was knocked to the floor by another hospital patient who reportedly had a history of violence. Caryl Mclaren, 89, died in the hospital in January 2022. The man responsible suffered from end-stage dementia, and it is now suggested that the incident could have been prevented if he had received more supervision, per BBC.
Though Mclaren suffered from a number of health conditions, she could apparently get around well on her own. She was in a toilet cubicle on the same day that she was set to be discharged from the hospital, but that is when a man forced open the door, knocking Mclaren to the ground. She suffered a fractured wrist, rib, and hip, and she died just six days later on January 11.
As a result of the incident, the hospital has instituted a “wide range” of organizational protocols. However, the daughter of Mclaren, Loraine Moss, said that it is “too little too late; the steps should have been put in place while she was in there,” adding that it is “so, so hard, because she should still be here.”
An investigation discovered that the man responsible for the incident had no formal Mental Health Act assessment conducted on him, despite being in the facility for almost three months, per the report. An adult safeguarding report revealed that if there had been more staff and supervision in the facility, then “the incident could have been prevented.”
The staff in the hospital explained how security had been called on the man responsible for Mclaren’s death on five previous occasions. While he was supposed to be discharged in November 2021, the staff were not able to find a care home that was prepared to take him.
Mclaren’s grandson expressed his intent to campaign for new legislation that would see elderly patients separated from those in other wards of the hospital. He said: “There have been a catalogue of errors made by the hospital that could have prevented this from happening and I will go as far as I need to go to make sure this doesn’t happen again.”
