Two elderly men died of prescription drug complications on a ward where callous nurses sedated patients just for an ‘easy life’ and ‘their own amusement’
- Two elderly men died from complications on ward where staff drugged patients
- Do you have a relative on the stroke ward — or know what went on? email [email protected]
Two elderly men died from complications of prescription medication on a stroke ward where callous nursing staff drugged patients ‘for their own amusement’.
One 86-year-old patient had a primary cause of death of dehydration and chronic opiate toxicity following the administration of Midazolam, a drug commonly used in end-of-life care, a post-mortem examination found.
The man, whose underlying cause of death was given as chronic kidney disease, spent 13 days on the unit before a rapid deterioration in his health and he died on November 22, 2018, a coroner was told.
A second man, a retired maintenance manager suffering from advanced pancreatic cancer, died on the stroke unit three days earlier aged 79.
His primary cause of death was given by pathologist Dr Alison Armour as aspiration pneumonia following administration of morphine sulphate, with metastatic cancer the underlying cause.
Guilty: Nurses Charlotte Wilmot, left, and Catherine Hudson, right
Senior nurse Catherine Hudson (left), 54, was convicted on Thursday of drugging two patients in April 2017 and November 2018, either to keep them ‘quiet and compliant’ or ‘out of spite’. She and a junior colleague, Charlotte Wilmot (right), 48, were both found guilty of conspiring to administer a sedative to a third patient in 2017
They are among eight patients who died after treatment on the stroke unit at Blackpool Victoria Hospital whose deaths are being examined by a coroner.
Two ‘callous and dangerous’ nursing staff who conspired to drug and ill-treat defenceless patients on the unit have been warned that they faced jail.
Senior nurse Catherine Hudson, 54, was convicted on Thursday of drugging two patients in April 2017 and November 2018, either to keep them ‘quiet and compliant’ or ‘out of spite’.
She and a junior colleague, Charlotte Wilmot, 48, were both found guilty of conspiring to administer a sedative to a third patient in 2017.
Custody photo of nurse Catherine Hudson
The pair swapped vile and graphic messages, including one where Hudson boasted of sedating an elderly patient ‘to within an inch of her life’.
Their trial heard of a culture of abuse on the ‘corrupt’ ward, with claims that 95 per cent of staff would take drugs from the unit, sometimes on a recreational basis.
During the police investigation – launched in 2018 after a whistleblower reported Hudson’s callous behaviour – detectives examined the deaths of eight patients treated on the ward.
No one has been charged in relation to their deaths, and there is no suggestion that Hudson or Wilmot contributed to their deaths in any way.
Both the men whose post-mortem details have been revealed were admitted to the unit after Hudson had been arrested and suspended.
Police also launched an unrelated murder inquiry over the death of a grandmother on the unit.
Valerie Kneale, 75, bled to death after being assaulted – possibly sexually – by what detectives fear is a ‘predator’.
Eight patients died after treatment on the stroke unit at Blackpool Victoria Hospital (pictured) are having their deaths examined by a coroner
Blackpool coroner Alan Wilson adjourned inquests on the eight patients until the end of Hudson and Wilmot’s trial.
It can also now be reported two other staff from the unit pleaded guilty to offences.
Senior nurse Matthew Pover, 40, of Smethwick, West Midlands, admitted two counts of theft by an employee, supplying a Class C drug and being concerned in an offer to supply a Class C drug.
Healthcare assistant Victoria Holehouse, 33, of Hambleton, Lancashire, admitted theft by an employee.
Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said it could not comment on an ongoing inquest.
‘I was never with it during hospital stay’
A patient treated on the ‘corrupt’ hospital stroke ward has told how he was in a ‘constant state of sedation’.
The man, who was an in-patient on the unit at Blackpool Victoria Hospital in 2018 – the year police were called in – said he felt he was ‘never compos mentis, never “with it” ‘.
The middle-aged man said that relatives were concerned about his treatment and complained, but no action was taken. ‘My family said it was like I wasn’t there,’ he added.
Giving a horrifying insight into his experience in the 49-bed unit, the former in-patient – who had health problems but had not suffered a stroke – said: ‘I was on a lot of pain medication but my stay on the stroke unit was very different to the other wards I’d been on.
‘I was reacting differently to the medication, I was never compos mentis, never “with it” – even though it was the same medication I’d been on. My family said it was like I wasn’t there.
‘They noticed my medication never seemed to be wearing off – I was in a constant state of sedation.
‘My mum used to joke, saying: ‘They’re probably sedating you to shut you up’.’
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