Coronial
VIChospital

Finding into death of MD

Deceased

MD

Demographics

82y, male

Coroner

Coroner Sarah Gebert

Date of death

2025-02-07

Finding date

2026-01-23

Cause of death

Complications of large bowel obstruction in a man with diverticular disease and other co-morbidities

AI-generated summary

An 82-year-old man died from complications of large bowel obstruction secondary to a sigmoid mass while incarcerated at Port Phillip Prison. He presented with abdominal pain and vomiting following a fall, and imaging confirmed large bowel obstruction. A colorectal fellow recommended emergency surgery (laparotomy and Hartmann's procedure), but perioperative medicine and ICU teams deemed him too high-risk due to extensive comorbidities including heart failure, chronic kidney disease, atrial fibrillation, and peripheral vascular disease. Following discussion with the patient and family, palliative management was chosen. The coroner found the medical care was reasonable and the death was not preventable, noting that early detection of the bowel mass would unlikely have changed outcomes given his comorbidities precluded most treatments.

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

Specialties

general surgerycolorectal surgeryanaesthesiaintensive carecardiologynephrologyforensic medicine

Drugs involved

warfarin

Clinical conditions

large bowel obstructiondiverticular diseasesigmoid massheart failure with preserved ejection fractionchronic kidney disease stage 4atrial fibrillationischemic heart diseasestrokeobstructive sleep apneahypertensionperipheral vascular diseaseabdominal aortic aneurysmpopliteal aneurysmepilepsydepression

Contributing factors

  • Large bowel obstruction secondary to sigmoid mass
  • Diverticular disease
  • Extensive comorbidities including heart failure with preserved ejection fraction
  • Stage four chronic kidney disease
  • Atrial fibrillation
  • Supratherapeutic INR on warfarin
  • Advanced age
  • Physical frailty and limited mobility
  • Fall with head strike preceding presentation
Full text

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