It’s been a long day today, I was up before dawn to travel to Kent for the third pre-inquest review hearing into the death of Samuel Alban-Stanley. Sammy was just 13 when he died last April, a few weeks into the first lockdown. You can read more about Sammy and what happened in this post […]
Long blog title, apologies, lots to say. I am going to try and keep this blog post brief*, because it’s a Bank Holiday Monday and I’m not sure there will be anyone around to read it, and I have limited emotional energy left in the bank for the detail of this. Before I go any […]
I’m raging. Absolutely raging (still) at how Kirsten Major, CEO of Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust chose to respond to the media following the conclusion of the inquest into the death of Laura Booth. I wrote about it yesterday, you can read it here but please come back. This treatment of Laura’s parents, this giving […]
What a week. On Monday Assistant Coroner Abigail Combes delivered a blistering conclusion in Sheffield Coroner’s Court, into the death of Laura Jane Booth. Laura died in October 2016, but there was no inquest into the circumstances of Laura’s death. 18 months later an inquest was opened following the intervention of BBC Breakfast journalist Jayne […]
Laura was a much loved and longed for daughter who completed our family, when she died a part of us died with her. Laura loved people and people loved Laura. She communicated using Makaton, actions, gestures, a few words and considered use of blowing raspberries. Laura was very able to make decisions, and ensure her […]
I was in court this morning for the resumption of Rachel Johnston’s inquest. It was part heard as one of the witnesses suffered a bereavement and it was agreed that it would be resumed to hear remaining evidence which spoke to the Coroner’s responsibility to issue a Prevention of Future Deaths report if he had […]
Earlier this week I received an email from someone who’s job title is ‘National Transformation Lead for LeDeR’. This was a bit of a surprise, imagine a programme that’s only 6yrs old requiring a ‘national transformation lead’. It’s such an NHS response to things. Invent a programme, poorly resource it, put in poor leadership at […]
Last month the inquest into the death of Matthew Copestick concluded, two years to the day that he died, on 8 January 2019. I spoke with Matthew’s mum Helen and had the pleasure of reading the eulogy from his funeral. I wanted to share a little about Matthew with you before getting into his inquest. […]
This afternoon, Senior Coroner for Worcestershire David Reid found that Rachel Johnston died as a result of complications of necessary surgery, to which neglect contributed. In the summing up of his evidence the Coroner said: Despite all the challenges which Rachel had to face she was a lively and happy woman who loved music, theatre […]
The final evidence was heard in Rachel Johnston’s inquest today. There was a discussion before we heard from the expert witness about how to handle the evidence of the Registered Manager at Pirton Grange, who’s evidence was part heard on Tuesday. She’d described Rachel as ‘a personality that brightened up any room… a joy to […]