Death of father who died of sepsis was ‘avoidable’ decides coroner
The death of a father who contracted sepsis following delays to his treatment was “avoidable”, a coroner has ruled.
Coroner for the Black Country, Zafar Siddique, recorded a short narrative conclusion into the death of Simon Smith at the end of the three-day inquest hearing in Oldbury on Monday afternoon.
The inquest had previously heard that Mr Smith, 51, went to Dudley’s Russells Hall Hospital in July 2018 after suffering severe pain in his leg. He had begun to show signs of sepsis, including a high temperature and raised heart rate.
More from the inquest:
But staff failed to give him antibiotics to treat the condition until days later and he went into multi-organ failure.
He was eventually diagnosed with a rare infection in the thigh bone, which triggered sepsis.
Mr Smith, of Bullfinch Close, Russells Hall, in Dudley, spent 11 weeks in intensive care and was discharged, but weeks later returned to hospital as he had not made a full recovery. He died from sepsis on November 1.
In returning his verdict, Mr Siddique said: “Simon Smith was a 51-year-old man when died due to complications of sepsis.
“His death was avoidable and contributed, in part, by neglect. There were identifiable failures made after a failure to recognise his clinical condition and that he had developed an infection.
“Failure to recognise how ill he was and failure to appropriately prescribe antibiotics led to his death. I am satisfied the trust has moved on significantly.”
The trust’s medical director Julian Hobbs told the inquest: “Our improvement is not complete and it is something the orthopaedic team is relentlessly pursuing, and we are very sorry.”
