NHS trust misled court on man's death, says coroner

A hospital trust has been accused by a coroner of withholding vital information about how one of its patients died.

Gregory Dervin, 35, was killed by a catastrophic brain injury he suffered in a fall at Broomfield Hospital in May 2024.

Hospital staff had told Essex Coroner's Court no first-hand report was written about the incident, but it emerged on Thursday this was not true.

Area coroner Sonia Hayes told Dervin's inquest she was "shocked and disappointed" with Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust.

"There cannot be a clearer case that the court was misled," she said.

Olivia Gittins, representing the trust, said there was "nothing I can say that will take away from how unacceptable this is", but denied information had been withheld deliberately.

Hayes had initially been supplied with a report that did not specify where Dervin fell, how he fell or the injuries he sustained.

But Daniel Hunter, the trust's falls lead, said on Thursday afternoon that a more comprehensive report with those details was indeed available.

He told the court the report had always been accessible, but whoever prepared the hospital's evidence had not clicked on drop-down boxes online to reveal it.

The court heard the report stated Dervin had been knocked unconscious in the fall on 3 May 2024 and was bleeding – details that had not been made available to the coroner.

Hayes praised Hunter for his honesty and said: "Nobody could be in any doubt that is relevant information for me.

"The distress that I can see the family are trying to hold together is not fair.

"They shouldn't, after all this time, be hearing this for the first time, and neither should I."

Addressing members of hospital staff in court, she added: "People are not made of stone. This is their loved one."

Dervin, a father and keen Arsenal supporter, was being treated for a heart issue brought on by what his family branded "mismanagement" of his Crohn's disease.

His parents have said they begged nurses to keep a close eye on him after his one-to-one care had been removed.

Giving evidence on Thursday, Olugbenga Aina, who was charge nurse on the evening of Dervin's fall, said he believed the patient may not have died if he was being supervised.

"If the [registered mental health nurse] was there, there might not have been the time spent here today," he told the inquest.

Dervin was taken to Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge for advanced treatment after the fall but died a week later.

Hayes adjourned the inquest until 27 January and ordered the hospital trust to undertake a full review by then of what evidence it had.

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