Wartime hero's tragic fall on bus

4:00am Thursday 16th August 2007

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A wartime hero died after a hospital failed to diagnose rib injuries suffered in a fall on a sharply braking bus, an inquest heard.

Paul Bobryk tumbled over as the 5b approached traffic lights.

Both the bus company and Royal Sussex Hospital were criticised during an inquest into his death.

Coroner Veronica Hamilton Deeley said Mr Bobryk's death may have been prevented if the break in his rib cage, known as a flail chest, had been detected sooner.

He developed pneumonia as a result of his injuries and died a week after the fall.

The 84-year-old, from Dale Crescent, Brighton, served in the RAF during the Second World War and later worked as a designer for the South Downs Bus Company for more than 25 years.

He was travelling on the bus along London Road towards Brighton city centre when the accident happened.

Fellow passenger Rita Lindsey of Denton Drive, Hollingbury, told the inquest yesterday that she saw Mr Bobryk fall backwards and hit his right side on a chair after the driver "braked sharply" at traffic lights.

She and her daughter helped Mr Bobryk up and got off at the St Peter's Church bus stop with him.

She called an ambulance and went to the bus office at Churchill Square to report the incident, but the information was never passed along.

Bus driver Douglas Johnson said he did not tell police about the accident on March 26 as he thought Mr Bobryk was uninjured.

He said: "There was no harsh braking.

"He just walked off with the lady and seemed fine, just out of breath."

At the hospital he was checked over by medical staff at Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton, who suspected he might have fractured his ribs. He was prescribed painkillers and discharged, but was re-admitted on March 31 after developing pneumonia.

Miss Hamilton-Deeley asked accident and emergency consultant Paul Ransom why Mr Bobryk was not given a leaflet on managing rib injuries, as set out in the hospital's protocol.

Dr Ransom said the department may have run out of copies, or the doctor treating Mr Bobryk may have felt he understood the information well enough.

He said Mr Bobryk might have been kept in for observation had the flail chest been detected, although there would have been disadvantages to staying in hospital such as the increased risk of picking up an infection such as MSRA.

He said antibiotics may have helped the condition if they had been prescribed sooner, but Mr Bobryk had not shown signs of infection until he was re-admitted to hospital.

Summarising the case, Miss Hamilton-Deeley said she wanted Brighton and Hove Bus Company to write to her explaining why the incident was not reported to police.

She said hospital doctors should follow protocol more carefully in the future, saying: "If you're going to have protocols it's good sense to use them and make sure everyone complies with them."

She added: "I accept it is difficult to diagnose a flail chest but I believe the outcome may have been different if the diagnosis had been made.

She gave the cause of death as pneumonia due to a fall which fractured ribs, and said Mr Bobryk's heart disease and osteoperosis were contributory factors.

Mr Bobryk's family, including his daughters Nicola Johnson, 52, and Tina Bullivant, 49, said they wanted to thank Mrs Lindsey for helping their father and said they hoped lessons would be learned by the hospital.

His son-in-law, Arthur Johnson, said the hospital was in chaos when he and his wife Nicola went to pick him up after the accident.

He said: "We didn't know what had happened to him and there was no-one around to ask. He didn't know where he was either."

He added: "Knowing the breathing exercises, which were described in the leaflet, would have helped us look after him."

They paid tribute to Mr Bobryk, who was born in Poland and sent to a Siberian labour camp as a teenager during the Second World War.

He had written his autobiography, which describes how he joined the allied forces, eventually serving aboard Lancaster bombers as a radio controller on raids over Germany.

Tina said: "He was a very strong and colourful character who was full of life."