Deceased
Beverley Joy Leggett
Demographics
79y, female
Date of death
2014-12-09
Finding date
2016-11-10
Cause of death
Pulmonary thromboembolism in the setting of right elective total hip replacement
AI-generated summary
A 79-year-old woman died from pulmonary embolism eight days after undergoing elective right total hip replacement. She received multimodal VTE prophylaxis including aspirin, early mobilisation, mechanical foot compression, and hypotensive anaesthesia. Post-operatively, she had delirium and confusion, which may have contributed to reduced mobility despite physiotherapy. Foot compression was discontinued on transfer to rehabilitation. The coroner found her treatment was appropriate and consistent with emerging evidence favouring multimodal prophylaxis over chemical anticoagulation alone for hip arthroplasty. The key clinical lesson relates to outdated national guidelines: current orthopaedic literature suggests multimodal prophylaxis without routine potent anticoagulants is safer and at least as effective as anticoagulant-based regimens, with anticoagulants possibly associated with higher all-cause mortality due to bleeding complications.
AI-generated summary and tagging — may contain inaccuracies; refer to original finding for legal purposes.
Error types
Clinical conditions
74y · Male·Acute myocardial infarction complicated by multiple organ failure
Ronald William Beaumont, 74, died from acute myocardial infarction complicated by multiple organ failure following a second shoulder washout procedure. Key clinical lessons: (1) Despite inadvertent withholding of dual an…
44y · Female·Pulmonary thromboembolism complicating a fractured left ankle (not operated), su…
A 44-year-old woman died from pulmonary thromboembolism 27 days after sustaining a Weber B ankle fracture from a fall. She was managed conservatively with a CAM boot then below-knee cast, with progressive immobilisation …
53y · Male·Aspiration pneumonia in the setting of Down syndrome and pelvic fractures
Damien Mark Stone, a 53-year-old man with Down syndrome and early-onset Alzheimer's disease, died from aspiration pneumonia following a pelvic fracture sustained during hospital admission. Key clinical lessons include: (…
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 —