A LINDLEY man’s death from internal bleeding after a fall at Huddersfield Royal Infirmary came after he had been given more of a blood-thinning drug than needed, an inquest heard.

Coroner Roger Whittaker began the inquest into the death of Arthur Pearson at Huddersfield Coroner’s Court yesterday.

But he called a halt to the proceedings and adjourned the case until November 4 so more evidence could be gathered.

Mr Pearson – known as Malcolm – died on June 17 this year at HRI.

He had fallen from a chair next to his hospital bed on Ward 8 and suffered broken ribs – he had brittle bones due to osteoporosis.

The injury caused him to bleed to death internally.

Pathologist Dr David Goldsborough said Mr Pearson would not have bled so heavily if he had not been given an excessive amount of the blood-thinning drug warfarin.

He said: “It would have been unlikely he would have died from blood loss at the time he did if his blood-clotting mechanism had not been significantly impaired.”

The 83-year-old had been admitted to hospital on June 7 after losing consciousness after a fall at his home at Le Marchant Avenue in Lindley.

Mr Pearson suffered from lung condition emphysema and medical staff thought he may have suffered a blood clot on his lung.

He was given the anti-clotting drug Heparin and he was also prescribed another blood-thinning agent, warfarin.

The aim was to get Mr Pearson’s blood thin enough to prevent clots, but thick enough so that he would not bleed excessively.

Tests on June 11 showed that his blood needed to be thinner.

On June 13, laboratory records showed his blood had reached the desired thickness – but it was not clear whether this information showed up on computer records used by doctors to decide on prescribing drugs.

Dr David Tesh, who was a first year house officer at HRI, was responsible for prescribing more warfarin to Mr Pearson. After checking the computer records, he prescribed the drug.

On June 17, tests showed Mr Pearson’s blood was much thinner than it should be.

After his fall and broken ribs he initially did not seem injured. But later that day, he suffered a cardiac arrest and had to be resuscitated. His condition deteriorated and he died at 5pm.

The coroner stopped the inquest so that the computer records for June 13 could be obtained. He said it would help him decide whether a computer problem or human error was the cause of Mr Pearson being prescribed more warfarin than he needed.

He said: “Dr Tesh has effectively said it is his mistake, but I want to be sure it is a mistake he has made rather than one brought up on a screen on which he relied.”