Close call on neglect verdict in fall inquest

A PENSIONER died following a fall at the Royal Oldham Hospital after nursing staff incorrectly refused to allow family members to take her walking frame on to the ward.

Coroner Simon Nelson said that he was close to including a finding of neglect after hearing details of Maria Galij’s care.

Former cotton worker Mrs Galij was admitted after a fall in her garden in Eton Avenue, Coppice, on March 25 this year.

Her step-son Stefan Galij told the Oldham inquest yesterday that he and his wife were informed by nurses that they could not take her walking frame on to the ward for her.

Instead, she would have to wait until after the weekend for a mobility assessment by a physiotherapist. But the couple were concerned that Mrs Galij had a urinary infection and was not receiving the help she needed to get to the toilet. They also said that she could not reach the buzzer she was given to call for assistance.

Mrs Galij suffered two falls after going to the toilet on her own.

On the second occasion she hit her head. Her condition deteriorated and she died of an acute subdural haematoma (bleeding of the brain) on March 29.

Mr Galij, from Radcliffe, said: “We feel that if perhaps the items that we had requested, or if she had been assessed earlier and given the aids and help, she might well be with us still.”

Mrs Galij who was widowed emigrated from the Ukraine after the Second World War and lived independently. She was involved in the Ukrainian community and her step-son added: “She was a lovely lady. Kind, courteous and did not suffer ill health at all.”

Divisional nursing manager Joanne Slaone, who was not involved in Mr Galij’s care, told the inquest that staff had not updated her falls-care plan after her first fall.

Effort

She added: “It is my understanding that patients’ relatives should be encouraged to bring in their own walking aids.

“The only time a physiotherapist’s assessment would be required was if it was new.”

Mr Nelson said he was satisfied that the hospital was making a profound effort to prevent falls.

He added: “On a balance of probability I cannot be satisfied more likely than not as to the precise circumstances in which Mrs Galij left her bed and went to the bathroom.

“I do not know whether the alarm was available and I cannot be satisfied as to whether it could have been reasonable for her to be observed, given she was at the end furthest from the nurses’ station.

“Those are the only reasons why I feel I could not bring in a verdict of neglect.”

He recorded a verdict that, against a background of general frailty, the traumatic head injury sustained in an unwitnessed fall was a significant and contributory factor in Mrs Galij’s death.