PATIENT JUMPS FROM WINDOW

Southland Times, Issue 24573, 23 October 1941, Page 6

PATIENT JUMPS FROM WINDOW

INQUIRY INTO WOMAN'S DEATH (P.A.) CHRISTCHURCH, October 22. How a patient got out of bed at the Christchurch public hospital, fell out of a window and so injured herself that she died a few hours later was revealed at the inquest before Mr E. C. Levvey, S.M. The patient was Mabel Annie Newberry, unmarried, a middleaged woman, who was recovering from an operation undergone a week before the accident. Ellen J. Dick, night staff nurse, at the hospital, said that on August 15 at 12.10 a.m. in the women’s surgical ward she heard a cry and on investigating found the window open behind the bed which had been occupied by Miss Newberry. The bed was empty. She found Miss Newberry lying on the ground outside. The witness and another staff nurse carried her back into the ward on a trolley. Helen Craddock, a student nurse, said she was on night duty at Ward 10. She had received no special instructions about Miss Newberry. At midnight she noticed that Miss Newberry was awake and spoke to her. At 12.5 a.m. she had to go to the other end of the ward A few minutes later a patient called out that somebody was getting out of the window. The witness ran down the ward and found Miss Newberry’s bed empty and the window open. Two other nurses went out to look for her as the witness could not leave the ward. The night was windy and that would account fox - the witness not hearing the window being opened. The windows were all shut and the sills were high above the floor. Miss Newberry would have to climb over a heater to get out of the window. Nobody could fall out of the window by accident. It would have to be a deliberate act. RECOVERING FROM OPERATION Di - C. H. Thompson said Miss Newberry was admitted to the hospital on August 6 and was operated on two days later. She was recovering quite satisfactorily from the operation, but was not looking forward to a further minoi - operation for piles which was to follow when she had recovered sufficiently. On the morning of August 15, just after midnight, he was called to attend Miss Newberry, who had been found outside the ward and taken back to bed. She was suffering from shock and the abdomen was distended. There was no sign of a fracture. She died at 4.20 a.m. There had been some neurasthenic condition in the patient. Mr Robert Stead, for the relations, asked whethex - there was any reason why the relations were not informed of the accident until 4.30 a.m. so that they could not arrive before Miss Newberry’s death. Dr Thompson replied that this was not the surgeon’s job but the staff nurse’s. The Coronex - asked Dr Thompson to draw the attention of those concerned to the need fox - prompt action in notifying the relations. Di - A. B. Pearson, who conducted a post-mortem examination, said that in his opinion the operation had been successful. Apart from the fall the patient would have recovered. The Coroner found that Miss Newberry died from peritonitis arising from injuries received in a fall when, under the influence of pain, she threw herself out of a window at the Christchurch public hospital.