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Hospital faces legal fight after pensioner injured in escalator fall
HEALTH bosses are facing legal action after an 84-year-old man fractured his skull when he fell more than 20ft down a new escalator in a Yorkshire hospital.
Former miner Len Conway had just attended an appointment at an osteoarthritis clinic and was laden down with 28 prescribed nutritional drinks when he lost his footing.
He broke his cheekbone and needed stitches in his face, ear, hands, legs and under his tongue after the incident in the outpatients block at Barnsley Hospital.
Mr Conway had also been at the hospital to visit his 84-year-old wife, who had been admitted for a hip replacement operation after a fall in her garden.
The couple's daughter Carole, of Greenhill Avenue, Barnsley, said her father still had red track marks on his face seven weeks after the fall, which happened on March 17. She added: "I have never seen a mess like it in my life. His skull was fractured and he had lines down his face where he had fallen down 17 metal rises. His ear was hanging off and he had broken his dentures.
"His mouth and tongue were lacerated and blood was pouring out of his face. He had two mangled hands and there was a big hole in his arm. We thought he may need plastic surgery."
Ms Conway said her father had been an "extremely independent pensioner" before the incident, and she was considering pursuing the hospital for compensation on behalf of him.
She said staff there told her that her father was the second pensioner to be injured falling down the escalator.
She added: "Since the accident my parents have needed full-time care. My dad is totally shattered, it has taken so much out of him that some days he can't get out of bed. We have to keep taking him back to the hospital for more treatment, and every time he goes back there he shakes."
She added: "It doesn't make sense to have people who are already ill trying to use this escalator. It's just too dangerous."
Barnsley Hospital NHS Foundation Trust confirmed the Health and Safety Executive was investigating and said an internal inquiry had taken place. A spokesman was unable to confirm whether there had been an earlier accident but chief nurse Sharon Linter said she regretted any distress to the Conways. Improvements had been made around the escalator.
She added: "We would like to reassure all our patients and visitors that the escalator in outpatients has been designed, built and tested to meet British standards and has also passed local building control."
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Weather for Yorkshire
Saturday 26 May 2012
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