Kane Gorny dies in hospital from dehydration after calling police to help him get drink of water
Clinical Negligence News : 6 July 2012
A 22 year old man, Kane Gorny, has died in hospital from dehydration after having previously resorted to calling the police to ask for a drink of water. Rita Cronin, Kane’s mother, has revealed that when the police turned up at St George's Hospital in Tooting, doctors turned them away. Furthermore, Rita herself was consistently ignored by staff at the hospital when she begged for help for her son.
When giving evidence at the start of a four-day inquest, Rita revealed how Kane had called her the day after his operation and told her that he had called the police because he was so desperate for a drink.
The inquest heard Ms Cronin went to the hospital immediately after the phonecall from her son and found Kane to be uncharacteristically "confused and angry," shouting at staff and behaving in an abusive manner. Despite having expressed her concerns at Kanes unusual behaviour, a doctor continued to ask if he was “always like this” and whether he was “coming off booze”.
Kane, a keen footballer and runner, suffered a brain tumour a year before his death and was in hospital undergoing a routine hip replacement after life-saving steroids had resulted in the weakening of his bones.
This condition required hormone medication to control fluid levels in his body, but despite continous reminders from Kane and his family, staff failed to provide him with the medication he needed.
Kane died on May 28th 2009 from dehydration after his requests for water were refused.
During the hearing at Westminster Coroner’s Court, it was revealed that whilst holding Kane's lifeless body, his family were asked by a nurse whether they had “finished” so that she could “bag him up”.
A coroner had such severe concerns about the case that she referred it to the police.
Ms Cronin told the hearing: “He sounded really, really distressed. He said "they won't give me anything to drink...I've called the police you better get here quickly, they're all standing around the bed getting their stories straight’”.
“They weren't doing anything. They seemed out of their depth. It felt to me like the two locum doctors were nervous about calling anyone more senior than them, I would have expected them to do that.”, Ms Cronin stated.
The inquest heard Kane was sedated with strong medication to calm him down. After receiving the medication, Kane was put into a side room where he was left by himself for the rest of the evening.
Ms Cronin realised that Kane couldn’t have been given his nighttime medication so she asked a nurse when he would be receiving his dose. The nurse promised to flag it up with the night nurse. However, the next day when Ms Cronin arrived at the hospital, she found her son looking “delirious”.
“At that moment three nurses were standing outside the room. I said ‘there's something wrong with my son’. Ms Cronin added, “The night nurse said ‘he's had a good night and there's nothing wrong with him.’
“I said: ‘He's not well’ and the other nurse tutted and said ‘She's already told you he had a good night,’ and with that they walked off.”
Following this debate with the nurses, Ms Cronin discovered Kane’s tablets sitting on the table by his bed. She approached the locum doctor, who assured her that missing one dose of his medication “wouldn’t do him any harm”. Desperate to seek help for her son, Ms Cronin approached another more senior doctor as he was going around the ward, the inquest heard.
Ms Cronin said, “He took one look at him and started to call everyone to come in here quickly.”
“It suddenly dawned on me he hasn't had his medication, hasn't had his bloods done, nobody's given him a drink, nobody's bothered to put his drip back on him. Nobody's done anything since he became aggressive”.
Kane's family were moved outside the room whilst doctors tried desperately to save his life. Unfortunately, Kane could not be saved and he died on May 28th 2009.
The death certificate said Mr Gorny had died due to a 'water deficit' and 'hypernatraemia' - a medical term for dehydration.
The death of Kane sparked a Serious Untoward Incident investigation at the hospital and was referred to the police by the coroner.
The hearing has been adjourned and is due to resume next week.