AN ELDERLY woman who died after drinking cleaning fluid in hospital was moved out of intensive care hours before her death.

Consultant Dr Philip Thompson said Joan Blaber was moved back to a ward just after midnight on September 22 last year. The 85-year-old was transferred from the intensive care unit and had to go outside for around ten seconds before going into another hospital building.

Dr Thompson, a stroke consultant, treated Mrs Blaber after she was admitted to the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton with a suspected stroke.

Senior coroner Veronica Hamilton-Deeley asked him about the move.

“It does raise a very serious question about moving a very frail old lady at that time of day which involved going outside around midnight,” she said.

“We are going to hear the bed was needed on the intensive care ward. We are not going to hear it was contributory to it but it’s always going to be a concern for the family. There will always be a connection in their minds. It does weigh very much on the minds of the family.”

Dr Thompson admitted the move was not ideal and the space was needed on the intensive care unit.

“Our priority is with each patient,” he said.

“We also have a wider responsibly of the flow through the hospital. Moving her in the middle of the night is not ideal. It’s distressing for her. It’s very difficult to make those judgements and balances when you are also having to create those beds for other people.”

Mrs Blaber was also being treated for anxiety. The coroner said she would have been distressed by the move.

She said: “She was probably really quite anxious at the time. I don’t think there can be much doubt this was not an optimal move.”

The coroner told the jury it was up to them to decide if the move had contributed to her death. “It is a matter of upset to Joan’s family,” Mrs Hamilton-Deeley said. The consultant said he saw no reason why the move should have contributed to the death of Mrs Blaber.

Dr Thompson read from hospital notes detailing how staff reacted after discovering the 85-year-old retired shopkeeper had ingested concentrated Flash floor cleaner.

In the notes, staff recorded the elderly widow vomited twice after drinking around 30ml green fluid left next to her bed. She was given oxygen and a chest X-Ray. Soon afterwards Mrs Blaber was sitting up and reported feeling better.

A night sister recorded: “Patient accidentally drank from the green jug. She is very chesty and a bit anxious. She is stable.”

Within hours Mrs Blaber was transferred to the intensive care unit after doctors diagnosed pneumonia and pneumonitis due to drinking cleaning fluid. Mr Blaber was returned to the ward within a couple of days.

Hours after returning she had entered the final stages of her life, Dr Thompson said.

“She did deteriorate quickly. The family said she told them while she was in intensive care she didn’t want another needle. They were concerned she was in distress or pain. At 3am on the 23rd, they stopped active treatment and prescribed symptom control medication.

“She was entering the dying process. She died not long after that at 10.55,” Dr Thompson said.

The inquest continues at Jury’s Inn near Brighton Station.