Coronial
TASmental health

Coroner's Finding: Pasinski, Alexander

Deceased

Alexander Pasinski

Demographics

59y, male

Date of death

2014-02-25

Finding date

2016-08-16

Cause of death

asphyxia due to choking on food

AI-generated summary

Alexander Pasinski, age 59, died from asphyxia due to choking while an involuntary psychiatric patient in Launceston General Hospital's Northside unit. He had major depression and paranoid schizophrenia with complex psychiatric presentation. After a significant breakfast choking incident causing loss of consciousness and Code Blue activation, the clinical review meeting did not implement soft diet precautions or order comprehensive assessment. At lunch, he aspirated a large meat mass causing complete airway obstruction. Although emergency response was timely, MET arrival was delayed five minutes due to distance from the unit, and resuscitation failed. The coroner found the death accidental, resulting from a 'perfect storm' of medications affecting swallowing, fast eating habits, hypoxia-induced jaw clenching, and delayed response. The coroner identified failure to implement dietary precautions after the morning incident as a preventable system failure. Recommended staff training in Magill forceps use and establishment of complex case review panel.

AI-generated summary and tagging — may contain inaccuracies; refer to original finding for legal purposes.

Contributing factors

  • Complex psychiatric illness (major depression and paranoid schizophrenia with psychotic features)
  • Medication effects on swallowing mechanism: Amitriptyline causing dry mouth, Paliperidone and Chlorpromazine affecting swallowing reflexes
  • Habit of rapid eating
  • Failure to implement soft diet precautions after significant morning choking incident
  • MET response delayed five minutes due to geographic distance from Northside
  • Hypoxia causing jaw clenching, preventing manual airway clearance by nursing staff

Coroner's recommendations

  1. Provide training for Northside psychiatric unit staff in the use of Magill forceps for removal of airway obstructions
  2. Update and upgrade resuscitation equipment on Northside
  3. Ensure lab results are signed as cited by medical team
  4. Develop and implement extensive suicide risk assessment protocols where indicated
  5. Implement comprehensive case review for all patients after 30 days of admission
  6. Install swipe card access for code blue team members to enable faster response
  7. Consider establishment of a Statewide high-risk and complex case review panel comprising two senior clinicians not associated with the patient, to provide 28-day interval reviews for high-risk involuntary psychiatric patients
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