Investigations are underway after a woman died at a hospital because she was given cleaning fluid instead of water.
Joan Blaber, 85, was at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton last year when she was provided with a water jug that contained Flash. No one at the facility has been able to explain how such a toxic liquid ended up anywhere near a vulnerable patient.
Detective Inspector Julie Wakeford says no one will be charged and there's not enough evidence for a manslaughter charge to be imposed, reports the Daily Mail.
Advert
She added: "We believe we have identified the member of staff who placed the water jug at Mrs Blaber's bedside.
"We know later when she was given her medication it contained Flash cleaning fluid. We don't know how it came to be in there.
"After interviewing 90 to 100 people we are still not any closer to finding the answer to that."
Her family believes that it was simply a 'tragic mistake' but they still want answers.
Coroner Veronica Hamilton-Deeley said: "There is no evidence someone did this deliberately, but it lurks on the back of one's mind because this was such an extraordinary thing to have happened."
She was also concerned that during initial investigations, police had to get an interpreter in for at least one hospital staff member.
"How do you train staff, who may have been able to manage basic communication, in the rather more intricate matters you need to understand when you are handling and dealing with substances which... are potentially extremely hazardous?" she asked.
Since the death, a lawyer for Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust said the cleaning fluid had been removed from the ward to ensure that another unfortunate death couldn't happen again.
It follows a grisly story from the weekend, concerning the revelation that a 93-year-old woman had died in hospital after essentially being eaten alive by scabies.
Rebecca Zeni died in June 2015 of septicemia due to crusted scabies at the Shepherds Hill Nursing Home in LaFayette.
Shockingly, health officials at the nursing home knew she had scabies and yet did nothing to prevent the outbreak.
Scabies is an itchy skin condition caused by thousands of mites that burrow into your skin and cause a rash. Not only do you need to cover your body in a cream to kill all the bugs, but you also need to wash your bed linen and any clothes that you've worn since being infested to ensure no eggs hatch.
The family's lawyer Mike Prieto told 11 Alive: "I don't understand how you can allow a human being to suffer needlessly."
Staff were allegedly told not to touch the woman's hand over fears it would actually fall off.
Featured Image Credit: