UK – 4th January, 2018: The family of a grandmother who choked to death eating an egg sandwich in hospital have received a five-figure compensation pay-out.
Lilian Hugill, 84, was admitted with a urine infection but died while attempting to eat the sandwich after staff failed to notice she was not wearing her false teeth.
She should have been served only soft food.
Medical negligence specialists Hudgell Solicitors, which represented Mrs Hugill’s family, said staff who admitted her in April 2014 failed to note she was not wearing her bottom set of dentures, despite being prompted to ask the question in the hospital paperwork.
As a result she was wrongly given an egg sandwich with crusts just hours later, said the lawyers.
They said she choked and suffered a heart attack and brain injury.
Mrs Hugill, who had previously battled a series of illnesses, including bladder cancer, died a week later.
An inquest in 2015 recorded a verdict of accidental death.
Mrs Hugill’s family have now received the payout from chiefs at York Hospital.
Linda and Mike Garbutt, her daughter and son-in-law, had launched legal action against York Hospital Trust believing a catastrophic error had been made in her care.
Their lawyers said the trust admitted that had appropriate care been provided, Mrs Hugill’s death would have been avoided.
Mr Garbutt, 63, of Thorganby, near York, said: “Lilian was let down at a time of life when people most need good healthcare.”
A spokesman for York Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust said: “We regret the circumstances of Mrs Hugill’s death and we are sorry for the impact this has had on her family.”
Mrs Hugill, a former print manager, lived independently in York after the death of her husband Vincent.
Source: https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/900328/grandmother-choked-to-death-hospital-dentures-york-hospital-trust