Coronial
VIChospital

Finding into death of Anthony Ian Gaylard

Deceased

ANTHONY IAN GAYLARD

Demographics

56y, male

Date of death

2012-09-21

Finding date

2013-09-23

Cause of death

Hypoxic ischaemic encephalopathy following cardiac arrest

AI-generated summary

Anthony Gaylard, a 56-year-old man with severe intellectual disability living in residential care, suffered a cardiac arrest on 14 September 2012 (note: document states 2007 in one place, 2012 elsewhere; finding date is 21 September 2012) while on a group outing. He had a seizure, aspirated food matter, and became unresponsive. Autopsy revealed multiple contributing cardiac and respiratory pathology: myocardial fibrosis with mural thrombus, pulmonary thromboembolism, chronic liver disease with portal hypertension, and pulmonary fibrosis. The sequence of events—whether primary cardiac arrhythmia triggered seizure with aspiration, or seizure led to aspiration and arrest—remained unclear. He was extubated after five days in ICU with no meaningful neurological recovery and died from hypoxic-ischaemic encephalopathy. The death was determined to be from natural causes. No specific clinical management errors or preventable factors were identified by the coroner.

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

Contributing factors

  • myocardial fibrosis with mural thrombus predisposing to cardiac arrhythmia
  • pulmonary thromboembolism
  • chronic liver disease with portal hypertension and oesophageal varices
  • pulmonary fibrosis complicated by pulmonary hypertension
  • aspiration of food matter
  • possible seizure disorder
  • metabolic derangement from chronic organ disease
Full text

Source and disclaimer

This page reproduces or summarises information from publicly available findings published by Australian coroners' courts. Coronial is an independent educational resource and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or acting on behalf of any coronial court or government body.

Content may be incomplete, reformatted, or summarised. All court orders for redaction and non-publication are respected; documents with technically defective redaction have been excluded from the database entirely. Always refer to the original court publication for the authoritative record.

Copyright in original materials remains with the relevant government jurisdiction. AI-generated summaries and tagging are for educational purposes only, may contain inaccuracies, and must not be treated as legal documents. We welcome feedback for correction —