Ashtons represents family as Inquest opens in Norwich this week into death of man with brain haemorrhage

Posted 11/07/2016 By: Sharon Allison

An inquest opens on Wednesday 13 July into the death of a Norfolk man after paramedics declined to take him to hospital, mistaking his brain haemorrhage for a drunken stupor. His family is represented by Sharon Allison, a medical negligence specialist at Ashtons.

In November 2015, the East of England Ambulance Service (EEAS) received a 999 call regarding Adam Frere-Smith, aged 48. His mother reported that her son was unconscious, having fallen and hit his head on the sink.

But Mr Frere-Smith had long-standing alcohol problems. When the paramedics arrived, they called a triage GP and between them decided he was unconscious because he was drunk. So they helped him to bed. The next day his mother called 999 again, reporting that her son was still unconscious.

An ambulance attended and tried to resuscitate him, but he was declared dead at the scene. A post mortem recorded that Mr Frere-Smith’s cause of death was a brain haemorrhage and fractured skull.

A serous incident report prepared by EEAS admits to errors in its response, including no neurological assessment and a failure to follow guidelines. The root cause of those errors is explained as ‘complacency due to the presentation of the patient and the lack of visible red flags’.

Sharon Allison comments: “It is troubling that a triage system seems to have failed in this way, and a GP and attending paramedics all jumped to the conclusion that Adam was unconscious because he was drunk. In her 999 call his mother reported a fall, but they seem to have overlooked that. The Trust in their report blame complacency but we must wait for the Coroner to hear all the facts before we can reach a definitive conclusion.”