A PATIENT at Calderstones who ate everything from dried flowers to shoelaces and plastic eventually died from her habit.

An inquest heard that Frederica Vilia Staden, 55, had lived at Calderstones and Brockhall Hospitals for many years and had a compulsion to eat non-digestible materials.

Pathologist Dr Richard Prescott told the inquest he had found a large bolus of plastic and polythene materials in Miss Staden's stomach and two other lengths of similar materials in her intestines.

He said the cause of death was acute intestinal obstruction due to impacted foreign bodies.

Recording a verdict of accidental death, Coroner Andre Rebello said that there had been no question of neglect but clearly a high level of care from staff at Calderstones.

Nursing staff told the inquest that great care was always taken to keep rubbish bins locked away and that the ward was kept very sparse so that she could find nothing to eat.

However, the inquest heard that it was not possible to watch her every minute of the day and night.

Staff said that Miss Staden had not been feeling well during the night before her death and that a night nurse had sat with her because Miss Staden could not sleep and seemed "off colour".

Night Sister Lesley Wheldon told the inquest that she had contacted the duty doctor because Miss Staden seemed to be suffering severe constipation, which was not unusual given her eating habits.

The doctor advised staff to give Miss Staden an enema and following that, nurses decided to bath her.

Shift leader Ruth Thomas told the inquest that it was after the bath that Miss Staden seemed to slump and the doctor was called again.

However, Miss Staden died shortly afterwards.

Mr Rebello asked if the enema or bath could have contributed to Miss Staden's death in any way.

Duty doctor at the time Dr Jaynarayan Bhattacharya said that in some patients whose mental disorders gave them eating compulsions, enemas could be life-saving.

Dr Prescott added that there could have been a number of ways in which death could have occurred because of Miss Staden's habit but that it was not possible to say exactly what happened.

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