THE sending home from hospital of a man, who developed a bleed on his brain after falling at his home, did not contribute to his death, a court heard.

Mohammad Fazal suffered the injury after hitting his head at his home in Blackburn in January.

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And Blackburn Coroner’s Court yesterday heard that, despite medics at Royal Blackburn Hospital sending the 85-year-old home with his family twice, they followed set guidelines and could not have prevented his death by acting differently.

The retired mill operator’s son, Naime Fazal, told the court he was concerned over the care provided by the hospital, on what he described as a ‘chock-a-block’ evening in A&E on January 4.

He said: “I have never seen A&E as overloaded as it was that night.

“It was horrendously busy. It was quite frightening really. It was packed to the rafters and people were being shipped out.”

But consultant Dr Sabrat Sivaraman, who assessed Mr Fazal before sending him home to be cared for by his family, defended his actions, and said he was following national guidelines.

He said it was not possible to admit every patient that arrived with a head injury as a precautionary measure, and said admission and a brain scan would have been ordered immediately if Mr Fazal had vomited, passed out, developed amnesia, or if a neurological scale used to recording the conscious state of a patient dropped below Mr Fazal’s original score of 15 out of 15.

Naime Fazal told the court he returned his father to hospital after initially setting off home.

He found Dr Sivaraman in a hospital corridor and told him that his father wasn’t fully alert.

He was told an assessment had already been carried out and they should go home.

Later, the family again contacted medics, and an ambulance was called to take Mr Fazal back to A&E.

After being admitted in the early hours of the following morning at the third time of asking, Mr Fazal vomited several times and a CT scan was carried out, which showed a bleed on the brain.

Medics called experts at Preston hospital for advice, which was to continue observations.

A second scan was ordered after his condition deteriorated, but Mr Fazal, who lived in Mollington Road, Blackburn, went into a cardiac arrest and died before it could be carried out.

Coroner Mr Singleton said the death was caused by a bleed on the brain due to a fall, with heart failure and type two diabetes contributing factors.

Mr Singleton said: “It seems to me that this is simply an accidental death and unfortunately the head injury proved fatal.

“From the evidence I have heard there was nothing that should or could have been done that would have changed the course of events.”

Mr Singleton recorded a verdict of accidental death.