Mystery over fluid in dead Telford man's stomach
An unexplained two litres of liquid food were found in the abdomen of a Telford care home resident, who later died after being operated on, an inquest heard.
Peter Frederick Haseley, who lived at Church Parade Care Home, Oakengates, died at Royal Shrewsbury Hospital on May 11 from pneumonia.
The condition was brought on by fluid in the abdomen, which was discovered during an emergency operation on April 30.
The day before Mr Haseley had been fitted a new stomach 'peg' to be fed through at Telford's Princess Royal Hospital, and then sent home.
His family say there are questions to be answered about his care.
Mr Haseley, 60, had been fed by a tube to his stomach since December 2011, coroner for Shropshire John Ellery heard at Shrewsbury Guildhall yesterday.
He had gone to A&E on April 29 as he had pulled out his feeding tube with a sudden arm movement after being fed.
Kelly Griffiths, staff nurse at Church Parade, said: "I noticed feed coming out of the button. A piece of tube had cracked and was still attached. I put gauze on it but it was leaking through."
Care home support worker Jane Walker said they arrived at A&E at about 8.15am but it was 12.20pm by the time he was seen by the endoscopy nurse.
Dr Nigel Mike, consultant physician at PRH said he had examined Mr Haseley's abdomen before discharging him and saw nothing untoward.
He returned to the care home early afternoon but was readmitted to the PRH at 9pm with raised heart rate and breathing.
As his condition deteriorated he was transferred to the RSH where he had a heart attack at about 9am, after on-call surgical consultant James Rink had sent for scans. Mr Rink then operated on him.
"I had this huge volume of fluid and no obvious route for it at all," he said.
Dudley gastroenterologist Dr Sheldon Cooper, speaking as an independent expert, said the most likely explanation was Mr Hasesley had damaged both the peg and the scar-tissue tunnel the stomach when pulling out the tube.
Speaking outside of the inquest, Mr Hasesley's sister Gaynor Stevens said: "We're talking about a vulnerable adult. We're here today to hear from the hospitals, there are various aspects of his care under question."
The inquest is expected to conclude today.
