OAP’s heater burns bring care home fine

LABURNUM HOUSE

AN elderly woman with dementia who suffered horrific burns, shouldn’t have been staying at her care home, a district judge has declared.

The managers of Laburnum House, Shaw, have been ordered to pay more than £15,000 in the wake of the incident which saw 82-year-old Phyllis Cornes fall on an unguarded convector heater.

District Judge James Prowse said Mrs Cornes’s illness had reached a point at which home staff were incapable of providing sufficient care.

In January 2012 staff had been told to check on Mrs Cornes every hour, which they did until 3am. When someone went in at 4am she was on the floor, slumped backwards on the heater, which was close to her bed.

Mrs Cornes was taken to Royal Oldham Hospital and later Wythenshawe Hospital’s burns unit, where she underwent weeks of treatment for burns and septicaemia.

The judge heard yesterday that before the incident Mrs Cornes, who hadd lived at the home for 18 months, was in good physical health and able to walk around and feed and dress herself.

Since the incident her mother’s health had “severely declined”, said her daughter. She is now unable to walk or feed herself.

Statements from the home’s staff said her mental capacity had become so debilitated they had been struggling for some time to provide the care she required and had told her family and the local authority she should be moved to a nursing home.

Michelle Brown, defending the home, said: “This was not a case of having someone in their care and giving them little regard. It was the opposite.

“The managers employed a consultant to carry out risk assessments, but for some reason the portable heaters weren’t picked up on. Since the incident, all the heaters have been removed and new heaters fit for care homes are in place.”

The owners of the care home pleaded guilty to two breaches of the Health and Safety at Work Act. District Judge Prowse fined the home £12,000 plus costs of £3,086.