Coroner's Finding: WILKS Deslandes
Deceased
Deslandes Wilks
Demographics
79y, male
Date of death
2017-07-08
Finding date
2020-06-18
Cause of death
Pneumonia complicating ischaemic heart disease and dementia
AI-generated summary
A 79-year-old man with advanced Alzheimer's disease, ischaemic heart disease, and behavioural disturbance died of pneumonia while on a Level 2 Inpatient Treatment Order at Flinders Medical Centre. He was admitted from a nursing home with aggressive behaviour, skin lesions, and respiratory symptoms. During hospitalisation he developed delirium in the context of respiratory infection, experienced a fall, and had declining swallow function with aspiration risk. Comfort care was implemented on 7 July and he died the following day. The coroner found no concerns regarding the lawfulness of detention or quality of care. Clinical lessons include recognising delirium superimposed on dementia, managing aspiration risk in elderly patients with cognitive decline, and appropriate end-of-life decision-making in advanced dementia with multiple comorbidities.
AI-generated summary and tagging — may contain inaccuracies; refer to original finding for legal purposes.
Drugs involved
Clinical conditions
Procedures
Contributing factors
- Alzheimer's disease with advanced cognitive decline
- Delirium superimposed on dementia in context of respiratory tract infection
- Aspiration risk due to declining swallow function
- Ischaemic heart disease
- Fall with head strike on 27 June 2017
- Poor oral intake and deconditioning
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