HOSPITAL staff have been cleared of any negligence in the case of a man who died of a blocked artery eight days after he was admitted to hospital following a fall from a ladder.
Ian Black, 52, suffered a went into cardiac arrest at Glasgow Royal Infirmary after suffering a deep vein thrombosis (DVT) while he was being treated for injuries suffered in the fall.
A Fatal Accident Inquiry at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court heard that Mr Black wad been putting plaster on a wall on 22 July 2013 when he tumbled 12 feet after a ladder he had placed on a wet tarpaulin slipped.
He suffered a broken hip, arm and wrist and was taken to hospital for treatment, dying eight days later.
Sheriff Principal Duncan Murray, presiding, said that no aspect of Mr Black's care had contributed to his death, which was unavoidable under the systems in place.
The Sheriff criticised a failure by staff to keep adequate records, but said that it had not contributed to Mr Black's death.
He ruled that the workman had failed to take necessary steps to ensure he was working safely, and had left a secure scaffold tower to work on the ladder without considering the consequences.
In his judgement, Sheriff Murray said that Mr Black was the "author of his own misfortune", adding "A reasonable precaution by which the death may have been avoided would have been by Mr Black taking reasonable care for his own health and safety
"In particular Mr Black should not have worked from the outside of the tower scaffold without precautions to prevent a fall and the ladder he was using should have been secured or held in position."
It added that Mr Black’s death was a "tragic inevitability" regardless of any intervention by the medical team caring for him.
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