Hospital Patient Was So Neglected He Called Police To Help With Thirst

A young patient, who was so thirsty he rang 999, died a few hours later, prompting fury from his mother at an inquest.

Officers arrived at the 22-year-old’s bedside but nurses sent them away, saying he was in a confused state.

Nurses forgot to give Kane Gorny his hormone medication, essential for controlling his body’s fluid levels, and when he became upset and angry due to his thirst being ignored, they sedated and restrained him, then put him in a side room and failed to check on him overnight.

Mr Gorny was at St George’s Hospital in Tooting, London, after treatment for a brain tumour meant he needed a hip replacement.

His mother Rita Cronin told Westminster Coroner’s Court that staff refused to listen to her concerns that her son had not been given vital medication.

Miss Cronin said that when she visited the hospital, staff seemed “out of their depth” and “nervous”.

She said when she visited the hospital for three hours the night before her son died, they did not check on him or give him medicine once.

The next morning, on May 28 2009, she returned to the hospital to find him delirious with swollen lips and tongue but nurses dismissed her concerns, saying: “there’s nothing wrong with him”.

It was only when a doctor checked on Mr Gorny an hour before his death that the ward staff realised how serious his situation was.

After his death, his father and Miss Cronin were with his lifeless body when a nurse came in and asked them to help change the sheets. The same nurse later asked in front of them: “Can I bag him up?”

The coroner has referred the case to the Crown Prosecution Service.

(NE)