Blackpool Victoria Hospital found to have neglected ‘kind and talented’ 27-year-old found dead in toilets
The death of a ‘kind, gentle and talented’ 27-year-old who killed himself in a hospital toilet after waiting 22 hours to be seen by the mental health team was “contributed to by neglect”, a coroner has ruled.
Jamie Pearson was found unresponsive in the disabled toilets of the emergency department on the morning of Friday, August 16.
Mum Julie Knowles said he had been in a highly distressed state when he was brought into A&E at around 7pm the night before after taking an overdose of prescription drugs.
After an anxious four-hour wait he was ushered into the emergency ward and placed on a drip for 10 hours as medics sought to prevent damage to his liver.
Julie was eager for Jamie to speak to the mental health team but was told he was in a safe place and would get any help he needed after he had been treated for his overdose.
Sadly, that would be too late for Jamie who was battling what doctors described as acute psychosis.
Overcome with panic and fear and tormented by paranoid delusions - a desperate Jamie took himself to the disabled toilet on the A&E ward and killed himself.
An inquest heard that Pearson should have been seen within four hours by mental health specialists but was deemed low-risk and was still waiting 22 hours later when he killed himself in a toilet.
Blackpool coroner Alan Wilson found Mr Pearson's death was "suicide contributed to by neglect".
He said early on 18 August Mr Pearson's mental health was clearly deteriorating, with his calls for help left unheard "partly because of the confusion about whether a referral to mental health professionals had been made".
Hospital staff who found Mr Pearson "unresponsive" resuscitated him, but he died four days later, unable to survive the loss of oxygen to his brain.
Maggie Oldham, chief executive at Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said: "I am truly sorry that we did not do more to keep Mr Pearson safe."
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