Investigation and inquest
On 25 March 2025 I commenced an investigation and opened an inquest into the death of Jean Alice WALDRON aged 79. The investigation concluded at the end of the inquest on 07 January 2026. The conclusion of the inquest was that Mrs. Waldron "died from natural causes, to which the effects of a long-standing traumatic spinal cord injury and a pressure ulcer contributed."
Circumstances of the death
Towards the end of 2024 Jean Waldron, who lived with a long-standing cervical spinal cord injury and a more recent diagnosis of vascular dementia, developed a sacral pressure ulcer, which was monitored and treated by district nurses. Around the beginning of March 2025 she developed a chest infection. Despite treatment, she continued steadily to decline, and died at her home in Worcester on 12.3.25.
Coroner’s concerns
In her evidence at the inquest a carer from your agency, who was a Team Leader, gave evidence that:
(a) she had read and understood an email from the District Nurse Clinical Lead, dated 15.1.25, which made clear that carers should not provide any care in relation to Mrs. Waldron's pressure sore as they did not have the correct licence to provide wound care; and
(b) despite that clear instruction, she had on 3 separate occasions thereafter removed soiled wound dressings from the pressure sore and attempted to clean the wound with saline and gauze because she felt that it was in the deceased's "best interests" so to do.
The lead Tissue Viability Nurse who gave evidence at the inquest said that the use of gauze was inappropriate and would have led to further adverse complications with the pressure sore.
It is particularly concerning that a carer who was a Team Leader acted in the way described, and suggests that carers employed by your agency may not have received adequate training about:
(a) the limits of the care which they are able to provide; and
(b) the need to accept and follow advice given by specialist doctors and nurses at all times.