Family’s ‘nightmare’ shock over death of 52 year old Dad

On Monday 1st December 2014, a pre-inquest hearing took place at Manchester Coroners Court following the death of 52-year-old Paul Stockton at Manchester Royal Infirmary on 18th October 2013.

Paul Stockton, a father and grandfather, was admitted to Trafford General Hospital on the 15th October 2013 following a seizure and although his family thought he was recovering well, he died 3 days later, within hours of being transferred to Manchester Royal Infirmary.

The family was informed that he’d had a brain haemorrhage and following a post mortem examination, the Coroner’s office issued a certificate stating that he had died of natural causes. As far as the family was concerned it was a terrible tragedy but was just ‘one of those things’.

Then, four months later, in February 2014, completely out of the blue, Mr. Stockton’s mother received a letter from the hospital containing a report into the circumstances surrounding Mr Stockton’s care, which had been carried out by a ‘High Level Investigation Team’.

The family was shocked to read its contents much of which they hadn’t known including the fact that Paul Stockton had fallen over, suffering a head injury which hadn’t been properly treated and that he’d allegedly been ‘slapped’ by a security guard. The Serious Untoward Incident Report ran to 26 pages and identified 9 failures in the delivery of care, 3 areas where there was a lack of training and set out a lengthy series of recommendations accompanied by an action plan designed to ensure that lessons were lessons were learned for the management of future patients. The allegation of assault had been referred to the police.

Paul Stockton’s daughter Sophie, a mother of 2 young children, said:

We were devastated when Dad passed away so suddenly. I had visited him the day before he died and he was fine. The whole thing was traumatic. But when we received that letter it was like a nightmare – finding out all the horrendous things that had happened to Dad whilst he was in the hospital.

Helen Dolan, a Clinical Negligence Partner at PotterReesDolan, is representing the family. She said:

The coroner has now given clear directions as to who should attend the full Inquest and what evidence should be made available to all involved. Obviously, it is an anxious time for the family but they are confident that the Inquest will be thorough and that they will finally learn what actually happened to their father. It is a shame that the Hospital Trust carried out it’s own investigation in what can only be described as in covert circumstances which has greatly added to the family’s distress.

Read the full piece on the MEN website here

Contact Helen Dolan on 0161 2375888 or email her here