Son’s grief over father’s ward death

A GRIEVING son told an inquest his father should have been on suicide watch in hospital after telling him how he was going to kill himself when his wife left him for a man she met online.

Frank Postle, 47, became severely depressed after Karen, his wife of 24 years, left him for a man she met on the internet four weeks earlier, the hearing was told.

Mr Postle was detained at St Catherine’s Hospital in Doncaster after a second suicide bid and was able to use his bedsheet to hang himself in his room.

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His son Craig told the inquest he had passed on his fears about his father to ward staff but was told his psychiatrist was too busy to see him.

On the first day of a three-day hearing, a nurse admitted procedures to discuss the patient’s case with family members were not followed and Craig should have been consulted.

Mr Postle, a former warehouseman of Armthorpe, Doncaster, died on February 11, 2010, after staff found him hanging from the toilet door of his room.

He had previously told his son he had tested the sheet to see if it was strong enough to hold his weight.

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The inquest was told Mr Postle was also £50,000 in debt at the time and believed he had been unwittingly paying for his wife to enjoy weekends away with her lover.

In January 2010, he was admitted to Doncaster Royal Infirmary after shooting himself twice in the chest with a nail gun, and while being transferred to St Catherine’s he leapt out of the moving taxi.

Mr Postle was allowed weekend home leave but was taken back by police after his family found he had bought another nail gun.

The inquest continues.