The inquest opens on Thursday (19 June) into the death of a Silverton woman who was in the care of a hospital and placed on the controversial Liverpool Care Pathway (LCP).
Mrs Christine Walker, 86, was admitted to Cheltenham General Hospital on 17 March last year, following a fall.
She had hurt her elbow but, when examined, it was found she only suffered some bruising. However, she was kept in for monitoring.
The next day she was transferred to Kemerton ward, but was not seen by a doctor for three days. When a consultant finally attended her, she was found to be vomiting and suffering from diarrhoea.
She was confirmed as having contracted norovirus in the three days she was left unattended whilst on the ward.
Mrs Walker's condition continued to deteriorate and her son Nick claims that, on 10 April, he discovered she had been placed on the Liverpool Care Pathway two days previously.
The LCP is a controversial strategy for managing end-of-life care, in which food, water and medicines are gradually withdrawn.
But this approach is only supposed to be used with full consent of the family. The hospital claims they had consulted the family, but Mrs Walker's son denies the subject had ever arisen.
The family are represented by Oliver Thorne, a medical negligence specialist with Exeter-based lawyers Michelmores.
'There are several issues of concern which the coroner will want to address,' Oliver Thorne explains.
'There is the gap of three days when it seems Mrs Walker was not seen by a doctor, the condition of the ward which allowed her to contract the norovirus, and the contradiction between the family and the hospital about their agreement to the LCP.
'It wouldn't be proper to speculate further before the inquest, but clearly the family have deep concerns as to what happened to Mrs Walker after her admission for quite a trivial injury.
'Trivial it may have been, but it ultimately led to her tragic death. The coroner will want to establish the exact cause and the circumstances in which Mrs Walker died, and her family await the outcome with grief and anger.'
