FAI: Possessions check could have prevented patient’s death
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A possessions check should have been carried out on a woman who died of multi-organ failure caused by paracetamol intoxication, a fatal accident inquiry has concluded.
Elizabeth McCready, 49, died on 30 June 2018 at Glasgow Royal Infirmary.
An FAI conducted by Summary Sheriff Dianna McConnell found that had Ms McCready’s possessions been checked upon her admission to Stobhill Hospital on 23 June 2018 her death may have been avoided.
In her determination Summary Sheriff McConnell stated: “Ms McCready, was an informal psychiatric patient with suicidal ideation and was able surreptitiously to consume a fatal overdose of paracetamol whilst receiving inpatient care in a hospital ward. Paracetamol was neither prescribed nor administered as part of her inpatient management. She therefore either brought it with her into the hospital, or acquired it while on the ward or during an unauthorised absence or absences from the ward.”
She wrote that the “failure to carry out a possessions check was a precaution which could reasonably have been taken and had it been taken might realistically have resulted in the death of Ms McCready being avoided”.
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