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Delay at Stafford Hospital A&E led to death

Neglect by medical staff contributed to the death of a father-of-three in the A&E department of Stafford Hospital after his distraught wife's pleas for help went unheeded, an inquest jury ruled.

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Neglect by medical staff contributed to the death of a father-of-three in the A&E department of Stafford Hospital after his distraught wife's pleas for help went unheeded, an inquest jury ruled.

The actions of both Francis Thompson's GP and the nursing staff in A&E, which meant he did not get vital medication until it was too late, fell "just short of gross", the jury concluded.

The inquest also highlighted staffing levels and poor standards of communication in the casualty unit.

Assistant deputy coroner Margaret Jones is now to write to the authorities.

Mr Thompson had visited his GP at 5pm on January 7, 2008, with a number of symptoms, the three-day inquest heard.

Because of the 67-year-old property developer's history of deep-vein thrombosis, combined with a recent long-haul flight from the Caribbean, his GP, Dr Jason Davies, ordered a blood test to check for the condition.

The inquest found had Mr Thompson received anti-blood-clotting drugs or at least been sent straight to hospital his chances of survival would have increased.

Instead he and his wife Janet were asked to drop the blood sample at the hospital before returning home to The Green, in Milford, where they were contacted at 9pm with an urgent instruction to attend A&E.

They arrived at 9.30pm but Mr Thompson was not seen by doctors until he collapsed 40 minutes later.

Giving evidence haematology consultant Paul Cervi, said: Mr Thompson should have been fast-tracked especially when his lips began turning blue. In a narrative verdict, the jury recorded Mr Thompson died of natural causes but that his GP and the nursing staff in A&E bore some responsibility for the delay in treatment which may have saved his life.

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