THE owners of a Wrexham care home ended up with a court bill of more than £109,000 after an elderly resident suffering from dementia fell 15 feet through a first floor window and died of head injuries.
Victim Stanley James Tilston, 79, hated being confined in the home and had made it clear to staff and family he wanted to get out of the Plas Rhosnesni care home in Cefn Road, Wrexham.
In the days before the accident his son had told staff he planned to get out through the window.
Simon Parrington, prosecuting, told Mold Crown Court, sitting in Chester, restrictors on the windows were not robust enough and the company had failed to put Mr Tilston, originally from Chester, in a ground floor room.
The alarm was raised by another resident when he was found lying injured in a flower bed on June 1, 2008. He was taken to hospital by ambulance but died four days later.
The company was fined £66,000 and was ordered to pay costs of £43,200.
The Recorder Charles Fox said it was foreseeable Mr Tilston would fall or jump from the window.
“It could be classified as an accident waiting to happen,” he said.
At the time the care home was run by Hallmark Health Care, now known as Care Homes Wrexham Ltd, and it admitted a breach of the Health and Safety at Work Act.
It emerged Mr Tilston had used a coat hanger to losen chains installed on windows to prevent residents opening them wider than about 10cm.
An open verdict was later recorded at an inquest which was told Mr Tilston’s son had no complaint about the care his father received – but said his father hated it
because he was such a free spirit.
That morning he had been seen at 4am in bed – at that stage one window had the chain properly attached but the second had not been checked and was partially covered by a curtain.
He was found outside the window at 5am.
It was the prosecution case the regulators on the windows along the whole of the first floor were not adequate and an improvement notice was served.
Patrick Buckley, defending, said Mr Tilston’s window had been locked after reports he wanted to get out but said a handyman who had replaced the broken chain had then left it unlocked.
It was accepted the company had on this occasion fallen below the required standard but not far below.
The company was very remorseful about what had happened. Immediate steps had been taken to put it right and it had co-operated fully with the investigation.
After the hearing Sarah Baldwin-Jones of the HSE homes inspectorate said: “This incident was entirely avoidable. The chain window restrictors fitted at the home were unsuitable because they were not robust and could easily be defeated.”