PATIENTS FALL

Hokitika Guardian, 26 October 1928, Page 1

PATIENTS FALL

OUT OF HOSPITAL WINDOW

•or Press Association—By Electric T e I egr aph—Co py right).

CHRISTCHURCH, Oct. 25

Oil the night of October 13, Joseph farmer, of Eeniside, lei! from the first floor window of the Public Hospital on-to the street pavement below. He was carried back' into the Hospital in a dying condi-

(Ml. The inquest was concluded to-day

he evidence of Dr Pearson was that oath was dm* only partly to tin* fall

•om which tile injuries and shock

were serious, and that ho suffered also from atheroma, or the gradual thickening of the blood vessels, and corebrae thrombosis, with softening, which would have caused death within a few .d'ays, the fall only hastening his end, and being a contributory

actor. The other evidence was that Smn-

mor was with twenty-seven other patients in a. ward in charge of a probationer nurse. It was hi-s habit occasionally to get out of bed, and walk about' the ward. The nm\x stated that she understood his illness had followed upon a paralytic stroke. He apparently got out of bed in her absence, and fell out of the window.

The Coroner found that death was due from atheroma, cerebral tlironvobnsis and softening and shock, associated with injuries received through falling out of the window in the Christchurch Hospital, a distance of thirty feet to the asphalt below. The Coroner added that, in his opinion, there was no evidence ol neglect on the part of the Hospital authorities, or the nurses. l)r Pearson’s evidence satisfied him that the accident had only hastened death Ip a few days.