A 56-year-old man with Down syndrome suffered a preventable death after medical staff at an NHS hospital denied him food for nine days, his family said, highlighting what advocates decry as a devaluation of vulnerable lives in a system that too often fails those with disabilities.
Adrian Poulton was admitted to Poole Hospital in September 2021 following a fall at his care home that broke his hip. His condition initially improved, but doctors mistakenly marked him as “nil by mouth,” leaving him without nutrition during his stay.
By the time his relatives discovered the error, he was too weak to recover and died on Sept. 28, 2021, two weeks after admission. An internal hospital investigation confirmed that the lack of nutrition contributed to his death.
Poulton’s father, Derek, expressed shock at the oversight. “Not being medical, we just naturally thought he was having nutrition, a feed. But as it turns out, they were starving him.”
His sister, Lesley Bungay, recounted the heartbreaking final moments: “We were just so worried. He was really poorly. He did look at me and dad… He said to me, ‘Lesley, I don’t want to die.’ He knew he was going to die. It was just awful.”