Nurse who set himself on fire had mental breakdown over dismissal, inquest told

An award-winning nurse who died after setting himself on fire outside Kensington Palace suffered a “mental breakdown” over how his NHS employers handled his dismissal, an inquest has heard.

Amin Abdullah, 41, died on February 9 last year close to the London home of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge after being sacked from Charing Cross Hospital where he worked as a charge nurse.

Giving evidence at Westminster Coroner’s Court, his partner Terry Skitmore said Mr Abdullah slipped into a depressive state during a disciplinary investigation which began in September 2015 and after he subsequently lost his job at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust.

Mr Skitmore said Mr Abdullah, who “lived for the job”, was a “caring” and “dedicated nurse”, and “struggled to understand what he was being disciplined for”, leaving him “anxious”.

The inquest heard how he had written a letter for another colleague caught up in a complaint made by a patient “to show how she could respond”, resulting in him getting embroiled in the issue.

Mr Skitmore said Mr Abdullah, after initial meetings and the investigation, did not hear anything about the disciplinary “for many weeks” and put in a grievance regarding the delays in a bid to get some answers.

On December 21 2015 he was handed an instant dismissal on the grounds the letter he had written to support his colleague was “untrue”.

Mr Skitmore said following the decision Mr Abdullah was “not ranting and crying anymore” and said a “calmness” had come over him, and that the Malaysian-born nurse said to him “that is my fate”.

The inquest heard how he had moved out of their flat into a bed and breakfast in January 2016 because having the disciplinary paperwork around him was “driving him mad” and he “needed to get away from it all”.

Mr Skitmore said alongside “colossal depression”, the delays in the disciplinary process eventually led to the “mental breakdown” of his partner, who grew up in an orphanage after his mother committed suicide when he was around eight years old.

Under questioning from Caroline Cross, representing Mr Skitmore, he said: “The disciplinary and additionally the 10 weeks of ignoring him caused him to have a mental breakdown and caused him to do what he did.

“I have got to live the rest of my life with that, and I do not want anyone else to go through that.”

Holding up a picture to the inquest of his partner smiling on holiday in Spain, he described him as the “happiest man in the world”, adding: “Seven months later I’ve got a pot of ashes with candles by it.”

“They have lost a magnificent nurse and I have lost a magnificent partner,” he said.

The inquest heard how on January 27 last year Mr Abdullah was voluntarily admitted to St Charles Mental Health Unit, after he had injected himself intravenously with a steroid drug that is usually given into the muscles, in a bid to try and take his own life.

After being allowed out he failed to return to the unit where he was being treated for depression and was later found alight and emergency services called.

Mr Abdullah had lodged an appeal against his dismissal in January 2016 and a hearing date had been set for February 11.

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