Morning, it’s early, and dimpsy outside so I’ve scoured my house for a well lit corner and I’m talking to you from my kitchen.
I have just hit publish on a blog post that I wrote yesterday, on what was the 9th anniversary of the death of Mark Shannon. Last week I got to speak to his mum, Carol, who told me about the day in question, and what happened to Mark, and a little bit about who he was as a person and their family life.
Umm, I have to say it takes a lot to shock me these days. I’m deeply cynical and pretty unflappable and think I’ve heard most things before, but I was shocked. I was shocked at what happened to Mark, and more importantly what didn’t happen by way of investigation or scrutiny after his death.
Mark was 40. He was in a day centre run by the Brothers of Charity, Thingwall Hall and he had what is referred to as an “incident” or an “episode” in a swimming pool.
Staff members hoisted him out of the swimming pool and rather than calling for emergency medical assistance immediately they decided they would get him dressed, and hoisted him again, and get him back into his wheelchair. And at that point they decided to walk across the yard, to speak to the Day Centre Manager, and then call for an ambulance.
What then happened is Mark was taken to hospital, where they ascertained he’d had a brain haemorrhage, and a number of days later he died. Mark was 40, otherwise fit and well, he had a learning disability and epilepsy but other than that there was no reason why he should have died.
But there was no investigation. There was no police investigation, there was no coroner’s investigation, there was no safeguarding investigation. Umm, and the internal investigation amounted to a paragraph.
So have a look at the blog post and see what you think, because I can’t quite believe it.
[Apologies for sound interruptions, that was my dog clip clopping around on the wooden floor at points].