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Friday April 7, 2017
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No. 784
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DEATH OF ALMA, 92 DUE TO NEGLIGENCE GP and care home to blame after she was wrongly prescribed antibiotic, rules Coroner A CORONER has ruled that a GP and a residential care home were negligent in the death of an elderly woman in 2013. Alma Davey, 92, was a resident at Manorcroft Care Home in Dewsbury when Dr Philip Turner of the Grove House surgery in Batley wrongly prescribed the antibiotic amoxicillin for a chest infection. Dr Turner, who had previously publicly apologised to the family of Mrs Davey for his mistake, overlooked the warning on her medical notes that she was allergic to penicillin-based drugs. Also on her notes was a comment of ‘none known’ in relation to allergies, which Dr Turner told an earlier inquest hearing he must have glanced at. Dr Turner is now retired from practice. But staff at Manorcroft had numerous records of Mrs Davey’s
allergies, said Assistant Coroner Dominic Bell at Bradford Coroner’s Court this week, yet systematically failed to check them in giving Mrs Davey the drug three times daily for almost a week before she was rushed into hospital. Boots, the chemist which dispensed Mrs Davey’s drugs, was earlier cleared of any blame because Manorcroft staff did not alert them to her condition. Now Mrs Davey’s family say they intend pursuing a civil case against Manorcroft. Her son Eddie Bolderson, of Carlinghow Lane, Batley, said they have had no acknowledgment of responsibility, let alone an apology, from the home. He said: “There is a sense of relief that at least now we know what happened. The Coroner was clear about that.” Mrs Davey, who previously lived at Lidgate Lodge in Soothill, was transferred to Manorcroft after
breaking her leg in a fall in 2012. Mr Bolderson said despite her age his mother was in good general health and very sharp. She had been given 19 doses of amoxicillin and been treated separately wih antihistamines and steroids as her condition deteriorated and she developed a rash. When her face and tongue began swelling – a result of anaphylactic shock – medical help was sought and an ambulance called. Mrs Davey had developed sepsis and this, along with her chest infection and the adverse reactions to the amoxicillin, was found to have killed her. Her daughter, Mrs Shirley Gibson, said: “To get where we are today, at this inquest over three-and-a-half years after mum’s death, has been a long, difficult and distressing journey for the family.” She added: “There is recognition
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