Pensioner died after care home blunder, coroner told

A care assistant admitted failing to comply with care home policy when using specialist equipment to lift an elderly man who later died in hospital, an inquest has heard.

Samuel Farr (84), who was a resident at Stormont Clinic in Belfast, died in July 2008.

A month earlier he had been taken to A&E after falling out of a lifting hoist as a care assistant, Babu Joseph, tried to move him from a chair to his bed.

Mr Farr, who had a number of conditions including osteoporosis, was described as a “frail man”.

Mr Joseph, a foreign national, had worked for the residential care home run by the Four Seasons Health Care since 2005. During the inquest, held at the Coroner’s Court, Angela Mullan, a nurse and manager of the clinic, said it was the policy for two people to carry out manual handling and moving of patients in a hoist.

Ms Mullan said during an investigation after the accident in June 2008 she was informed by staff there were “aware” Mr Joseph had carried out this exercise alone on a number of occasions.

However, Mr Joseph said that was the only time he had moved a patient by himself.

He told Coroner Jim Kitson he had received training and said he had moved Mr Farr as he had been sitting in his chair for over an hour and had been “crying out” to be moved back to his bed.

Under questioning by Mr Kitson, he said he had attempted to find another nurse to assist him but failed.

But as he was moving Mr Farr he then fell out of the hoist–about half a metre – on to the bed, hitting his head on the wall.

The side of the sling had also been removed from the hoist.

Mr Farr suffered from a laceration to his face and had hurt his leg. His condition deteriorated and he died on July 12, 2008 at the Ulster Hospital from pneumonia.

Mr Joseph was transferred to another care home and retrained.

It emerged Mr Farr’s daughter had raised a number of complaints with the care home before the accident.