Elderly man suffered hypothermia waiting to be found after fatal nursing home fall

A coroner has slammed the care an elderly man received at a Burnie nursing home after he died from an unwitnessed fall, developing hypothermia as he waited to be found.

Umina Park aged care facility in Burnie.

A coroner has slammed the unacceptable standard of care an elderly man received at a Burnie nursing home after he died from an unwitnessed fall.

In his findings published on Wednesday, Coroner Simon Cooper said Aubrey Charles Reeve, 98, suffered fatal injuries after falling at the Umina Park Nursing Home on July 24 last year.

When Mr Reeve arrived by ambulance at the North West Regional Hospital, the attending paramedics noted his body temperature was only 34.7C.

Mr Cooper said the fact Mr Reeve had hypothermia suggested he may have been on the floor of his room at the Shorewell Park facility “for some time” before he was discovered by staff.

After attending hospital with a hip fracture as a result of the fall, Mr Reeve was returned to his nursing home for palliative care, dying four days later.

Mr Cooper said Mr Reeve had been suffering from a number of comorbidities in the lead-up to his death, having lived at the nursing home since 2018 – and that he’d been suffering an “escalating” number of falls in the last year of his life.

“Clearly, steps needed to be taken to ensure, to the extent possible, that he was protected from the risk and consequences of falls,” the coroner said.

“Unfortunately, I am not satisfied that the care he received in the final weeks of his life at his (aged care facility) was of an appropriate standard.”

Mr Cooper said although Mr Reeve’s room was fitted with movement detectors, they apparently “did not operate appropriately”.

Umina Park has since confirmed the detectors were not working at the time of Mr Reeve’s fall.

Mr Cooper also slammed Umina Park for its lack of ability to provide him with Mr Reeve’s progress notes, care plans or falls assessments – despite Mr Reeve having been at an obvious high risk of falls.

He said the treatment Mr Reeve received at hospital was appropriate, but the care he received at Umina Park was not – and that likely contributed to the fall that caused his death.

The CEO of OneCare, which runs Umina Park, apologised to Mr Reeve’s family and said the organisation had made improvements so such a tragedy did not reoccur.

Peter Williams said procedures were now in place to ensure fall-detecting equipment was functioning properly.

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