The ultimate NHS indignity: Body of hospital patient left to die in corridor is ignored for hours... before staff simply drag him away

'He went to them for help and they left him out in the corridor to die', says Peter Thompson's daughter

Senior nurse claims it was 'the appropriate method of handling the situation'



Nurses casually stepped over a patient as he lay dying on a hospital floor.

Peter Thompson, 41, was left in a corridor for ten hours before someone noticed he had passed away.

In a final act of indignity, hospital auxiliaries pulled his lifeless body across the floor in a manner his family described as like ‘dragging a dead animal’.

CCTV footage shows Mr Thompson entering the hospital at 7:45pm, not long before he collapsed and died

Dragged: Mr Thompson was pulled along the floor after lying in the middle of a hospital corridor and having nurses stepping over his corpse for more than TEN hours thinking he was asleep

The scenes which shame the NHS were all captured on CCTV. Staff thought Mr Thompson was merely drunk and left him to ‘sleep it off’.

Yesterday a coroner condemned the death as ‘wholly preventable’.

An inquest heard that the father-of-one, who had consumed a cocktail of drink and drugs, could have been saved had he received emergency treatment.

The hospital’s accident and emergency department was just 200 yards away.

Last night it emerged that three nurses face a disciplinary inquiry over their inaction.

Mr Thompson’s parents Alan and Rene labelled his treatment ‘inhumane’ and accused nurses of ‘disgusting neglect’.

His father, 71, a retired production line worker, said: ‘Seeing your own flesh and blood being dragged across the floor like a dead animal is heartbreaking.

‘It was just inhumane what they did and I just cannot understand how in this day and age this can be allowed to happen.’

Lifeless: Mr Thompson is dragged along the corridor for some distance outside the ward where he was left lying for ten hours

Panic: Staff suddenly realise that the neglected man was in fact dead and not asleep. It was too late

Mr Thompson’s daughter Carly, 23, added: ‘He went to them for help and they left him out in the corridor to die cold, wet and lonely with nothing.’

Mr Thompson, a voluntary in-patient with alcohol and drug problems, was stopped from entering his ward at the Edale House Unit in April last year. He had turned up with a bottle of vodka and refused to surrender it.

He fell asleep in the corridor at around 8.10pm after nurses decided to let him ‘sleep off’ the effects of the alcohol, the inquest heard.

At 6.15am senior staff nurse Dini Oyebadejo found him unresponsive and raised the alarm. Mr Thompson, formerly of Levenshulme, Manchester, was declared dead at 6.43am.

Distraught parents Alan Thompson and Rene Thompson say they can 'never ever forgive these people for what little they did' to their son Peter Thompson

In happier times: Peter Thompson, 41, (pictured) was found lifeless on the floor in Manchester Royal Infirmary's Edale House after nurses thought he was asleep

Dr Alan Fletcher, a consultant in emergency medicine, concluded the victim would have lived had he been taken to accident and emergency during the night.

A pathologist report concluded he died from fatal levels of alcohol and anti-psychotic drugs. He was four times the drink-drive limit.

Manchester coroner Nigel Meadows told the inquest: ‘It seems to me undeniable that the jury came to a conclusion the death was wholly preventable.’

He will now write to Manchester Mental Health and Social Care Trust, responsible for Edale House laying out recommendations and will also inform the Nursing and Midwifery Council calling for investigation into three of the nurses involved.

Nadia Kerr, partner at Pannone solicitors, which represented the family, said: ‘This is a shocking indictment on the care standards provided by the Manchester Mental Health and Social Care Trust.

'We have now agreed compensation for Mr Thompson’s family, but no amount of money can ever compensate them for their loss.’

A spokesman for Manchester Mental Health and Social Care Trust said: ‘This was an isolated incident and does not reflect the high levels of care and dignity with which we treat our service users. We are very sorry.’

The coroner recorded a verdict of misadventure contributed to by neglect.