Family’s plea after gran choked to death in home
THE family of a pensioner with dementia, who choked to death after care home workers gave her the wrong meal, believe the tragedy could have been prevented if staff had been better trained.
Grandmother Jane Olive Parker, 68, died after being given chicken nuggets by care home staff at Fir Trees Care home, in Dukinfield – despite a diagnosed swallowing problem.
An inquest into Mrs Parker’s death in June last year concluded neglect on the part of care home provider HC-One, who had contributed to her death.
Senior Coroner Alison Mutch, OBE, filed a Prevention of Future Deaths Report after raising concerns that adequate steps had not been taken by HC-One or the local authority to prevent further deaths.
Minister of State for Health Caroline Dinenage responded to the report with the assurance that “guidance” had been issued to care homes by the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists regarding patients with swallowing problems.
But Mrs Parker’s son, Richard, says this doesn’t go far enough and is calling for a review of the training received by care staff, to ensure what happened to his mother happens to no-one else.Mr Parker told the M.E.N.: “It’s awful to hear your mum has been neglected. No family should have to go through what we did – the past few years have been hell.”
Mrs Parker, a retired secretary who had lived in Glossop, had been diagnosed with vascular dementia in 2015, the inquest heard. Following a fall at home, she was admitted to Tameside Hospital, where a choking incident alerted staff that she had problems swallowing.
Doctors recommended she should have what was known as a “stage three diet” – consisting only of semi-solid, soft or pureed food that could easily be digested.
In July, 2016, she was transferred to Fir Trees Care Home, where a decision was made not to assess her directly but rely on a previous care plan.
No new care plan was put in place and the transferred plan from Millbrook omitted any previous choking episodes, wrongly stating she could eat “stage four foods”. On August 24, 2016, Mrs Parker chose chicken nuggets for dinner, served in her bedroom.
About 40 minutes later, care workers found her unresponsive and she was later pronounced dead. Mrs Parker’s son, Richard, says a “universal policy” should be adopted by care homes across the industry, with clear direction as to what food constitutes which diet.
A spokesman for Fir Trees said: “Over the two-and-half years since this sad case, we have worked hard to learn from what happened and to share these learnings across our organisation.”