An inquest setup to establish the details surrounding the death of a patient has revealed incriminating evidence of how the woman died.
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A patient died after a careless hospital worker accidentally unplugged her emergency breathing machine.
Betty Rowling, 82, fell ill with a severe chest infection following a hip replacement and needed specialist apparatus known as a BiPAP machine to help her breathe. During the night a healthcare assistant came in to take her blood pressure and could not find a spare socket for the equipment. She unplugged the BiPAP machine while mistaking it for the plug for the bed.
The unnamed assistant quickly realised something was wrong and called on-duty nurse Natalie Robinson to help her turn the machine back on, but she was not trained to operate the BiPAP.Fellow nurse Jess Croft from a neighbouring ward was able to restart the machine but could not get it to the correct pressure.
Ms Rowling, from Illogan, Cornwall, died shortly afterwards at the Royal Cornwall Hospital. Assistant coroner Andrew Cox recorded a verdict of accidental death.
He said: “Betty was ill and was probably going to die imminently but the inadvertent switching off of the machine may have contributed to her death. There was no intent involved and the lack of plugs was an accident waiting to happen."