Elderly woman scalded by spilt tea developed sepsis that contributed to death, inquest hears
A 91-year-old woman developed sepsis due to a scald from tea spilt in her lap while out to lunch.
Mrs Daphne Anderson died after she sustained third-degree burns over 6% of her body after she was scalded but did not immediately report it.
An inquest into her death, previously adjourned after the woman’s daughter called for the exhumation of her body for a fresh autopsy, concluded at Dublin Coroner’s Court with a narrative verdict.
Coroner Dr Myra Cullinane returned the narrative verdict describing the sequence of events that lead to Mrs Anderson’s death.
However, the elderly woman's daughter Audrey Anderson had instructed her legal team to make the court aware her preference was for a verdict of medical misadventure which she claimed was ‘more accurate’.
Daphne Anderson, from Offington Lawn, Sutton, Dublin 13 went for tea at a Dublin hotel with her daughter Audrey on November 30, 2015.
Audrey Anderson previously told the court her mother ate dinner as normal that evening. The following day she was examined by a GP and was found to have marked skin, blisters and oozing on her upper thigh area.
She was admitted to the Bon Secours Hospital in Dublin on December 1.
Mrs Anderson was reviewed and transferred to the specialist burns unit at St James’s Hospital on December 3.
She was treated with antibiotics and intravenous fluids and her condition improved until December 14 when she began to deteriorate rapidly after she developed a perforated colon.
She died four days later on December 18.
The inquest was adjourned on March 8 because Audrey Anderson asked for an independent autopsy following the alteration of post-mortem results during the previous inquest hearing.
Consultant Histopathologist at St James’s Hospital Dr Mairin McMenamin reviewed the autopsy records and delivered an updated cause of death to the court.
Dr McMenamin gave the cause of death as intra-abdominal sepsis and colon perforation due to diverticular disease and toxigenic clostridium difficile (C.diff) infection as a consequence of burns to the perineal area in a patient treated with antibiotics. Contributory factors included cardiac problems and an impaired immune system.
“In my opinion, if she had not received the burns she would not have died at this time,” Dr McMenamin said.
Coroner Dr Myra Cullinane noted Mrs Anderson’s thoughts on returning a medical misadventure verdict but returned a narrative verdict setting out the circumstances of Mrs Anderson’s death.
“I cannot ignore the fact of the burns, they are placed high in the sequencing of death causation,” the coroner said.
