Son demands answers after dad died at the hospital in a "bed-rail" tragedy

Max Dingle, 83, died at Royal Shrewsbury Hospital in Shropshire.

Max Dingle

The son of a pensioner who died after his head got trapped between bed rails and a mattress has said there are 'unanswered questions' over the hospital tragedy. Retired police officer Max Dingle suffered a cardiac arrest and died 15 minutes after being discovered trapped in a ward at a Shropshire hospital.

An inquest into the 83-year-old's death heard how medics at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital did not resuscitate him even though he had a pulse when he was found. His death on May 3rd, 2020, was an 'avoidable accident', a coroner concluded.

It came after Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust - which runs the hospital - was fined more than £1,300,000 over Mr Dingle's death and a second patient. Mr Dingle's son has spoken out and said he would ask questions about his dad's care.

In a statement, Mr Dingle's son Phil said: "I am grateful for the support of the Care Quality Commission and the coroner throughout this process - and that justice has finally been served. I find it incredible a hospital is allowed to self-investigate a death which is considered a severe incident and unexpected death, and come to an unbiased conclusion.

"It is my understanding that it is the responsibility of the police to investigate deaths, not hospitals. There are still several unanswered questions; why my father was not renewed in the 15 minutes after he was found? Why the hospital did not show the entire timeline of my father's death to the pathologist.

"These and more I will be referring to the hospital. My father always sought the truth, and I am glad the truth came out today." Earlier this month, the trust was fined £1,333,334 for not supplying safe care to Mr Dingle and another patient - who died in different circumstances.

Senior coroner John Ellery said Surrey-born Mr Dingle, of Newtown, Powys, in mid-Wales, was admitted to hospital with 'shortness of breath' on April 27th, 2020. His medical history showed he suffered from a heart condition, lymphoedema and sleep apnoea.

The coroner said: "He remained in hospital until May 3rd, at 10 am, when he was found with his head trapped between the rails and mattress of his hospital bed. He suffered a cardiac arrest - from which resuscitation was not tried - and died at 10.15 am."

A first post-mortem examination gave a cause of death of heart disease and 'did not consider the entrapment caused or contributed to the death'. Mr Dingle's son “did not accept” the findings and instead commissioned expert consultant forensic pathologist Johan Duflou from the University of Sydney to review them.

Prof Duflou gave a cause of death of 'entrapment with positional asphyxiation'. Nobody from the hospital trust was present for the hearing but family members, including Mr Dingle's son Phil, dialled in from Australia.

Both pathologists later agreed that “entrapment did play a significant part in the cause of death.” An inquest was opened and adjourned while separate criminal proceedings against the NHS trust were conducted by health watchdog the Care Quality Commission.

The criminal inquiry ended this month after the trust admitted failings concerning the care of two patients, including Mr Dingle. Concluding the inquest, Mr Ellery found resuscitation had not been tried despite the pensioner opting for life-saving intervention.

He said: "Based on all the evidence, the conclusions of this inquest are Mr Dingle's death was an avoidable accident." At Telford Magistrates Court on May 18th, a judge imposed an £800,000 fine on one of two charges relating to the death of dialysis patient Mohammed Ismael Zaman, 31.

He also fined the Shrewsbury trust £533,334 over a charge brought about by Mr Dingle's death. The judge acknowledged the fines were mitigated by the confidence in conducting “full and extensive investigations immediately after both incidents.”

The trust, recently the subject of an overly critical report into maternity services it offered between 2000 and 2019, admitted the charges through its barrister. Separately, an independent review of maternity services, chaired by Donna Ockenden and published in March, found "repeated errors in care" at the trust, leading to injury to mothers or their babies.

The report said that some 201 babies could have - or would have - survived had the trust supplied better care.