Finding into death of Andrew Campbell
Deceased
Andrew Campbell
Demographics
51y, male
Date of death
2008-07-16
Finding date
2010-03-05
Cause of death
Cardiac arrest due to ischaemic heart disease
AI-generated summary
Andrew Campbell, a 51-year-old disability pensioner with multiple serious medical conditions (Type 1 diabetes, ischaemic heart disease, hypertension), died of cardiac arrest on 16 July 2008, six days after moving into public housing. He relied on a personal emergency device requiring a landline telephone connection. When Telstra attended on 10 July to install the phone, they found insufficient street cabling and installed only a temporary incompatible connection. Although community healthcare workers and the housing provider knew of this limitation, Mr Campbell moved in before proper installation was completed. He was discovered in distress during a welfare check six days later and transported to hospital where he died. The coroner found natural causes and concluded earlier medical assistance would not have changed the outcome given his serious health conditions and history of non-compliance with safety measures. However, recommendations were made to improve coordination between housing, community care, and telecommunications providers to prevent future deaths, including ensuring emergency devices are operational before occupancy and considering mobile phones as interim alternatives.
AI-generated summary and tagging — may contain inaccuracies; refer to original finding for legal purposes.
Specialties
Error types
Contributing factors
- Ischaemic heart disease
- Hypertension
- Insulin dependent diabetes mellitus
- Renal failure
- Lack of operational emergency communication device
Coroner's recommendations
- Upon being notified by community care provider or housing provider of reliance upon a personal emergency device, telecommunications provider should ascertain status of cabling and availability of services to proposed premises, and arrange for necessary upgrades in advance of scheduled connection date.
- In cases where a person in receipt of community care is reliant upon a personal emergency device requiring fixed line phone connection, community care provider or housing provider should ensure suitable connections are available prior to the person moving into the premises.
- In event that urgent occupancy is required, community care providers should consider additional welfare checks for persons vulnerable to medical conditions when their personal emergency device is known to be inoperative.
- Telecommunications provider should consider providing hand held mobile telephones as interim device rather than fixed telephone which may be more difficult to access in an emergency situation.
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