- Eddie Cassin, 67, died in June 2023 after he was “negligently being fed [jello] by nurses” in England, according to a release from his family’s legal team
- A coroner’s court record obtained by PEOPLE confirmed that Cassin died four days after he was given the food
- Jello was “specifically and repeatedly highlighted in his notes as a food he should not be given,” the legal team added in their release.
An elderly man with swallowing difficulties died at a hospital in England after he was wrongly fed jello, a court has heard.
A two-day inquest held last week in the city of Milton Keynes, around 50 miles north of London, heard that Eddie Cassin, 67, died in June 2023 after he was “negligently being fed [jello] by nurses at Milton Keynes University Hospital despite having a known problem with swallowing certain foods and liquids,” according to law firm Fieldfisher.
A Milton Keynes Coroner’s Court Record of Inquest obtained by PEOPLE confirmed that Cassin died four days after he was given the food. He had previously been diagnosed with dysphagia, which “can be a painful condition” and “is a medical term for difficulty swallowing,” according to the Mayo Clinic.
Fieldfisher — who represented Cassin’s family at the inquest — added that he had been “on a modified diet and required supervision when eating to mitigate aspiration risk.”
“Jelly (jello) was specifically and repeatedly highlighted in his notes as a food he should not be given,” they added in their release.
“Despite this, he was repeatedly fed [jello] throughout his stay in hospital, including on the 24th June. That day he was generally ‘out of sorts’ with little appetite,” the law firm’s post continued.
The victim had been “admitted to hospital after falling at his care home and at the start of June was fit and waiting to be discharged to a new care home,” the firm said.
Assistant Coroner Sean Cummings recorded Cassin’s medical cause of death as aspiration pneumonia, chronic dysphagia and type 2 diabetes, according to the Record of Inquest obtained by PEOPLE. The document added that Cassin “was an elderly man with complex medical needs and learning difficulties.”
Aspiration pneumonia is “a pulmonary infection” that damages “the lower respiratory tract,” according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
“Individuals with learning disabilities or gastrointestinal and neurologic disorders that disrupt normal swallowing function are also at heightened risk,” the description added.
Cummings said that neglect contributed to Cassin’s death, and if he’d been treated for his developing aspiration pneumonia, he likely wouldn’t have died when he did, the Record of Inquest confirmed.
The assistant coroner added that the victim’s diabetes had reportedly been “difficult to manage” and that there had been “several alterations to his insulin regime.”
“Because he was not adequately supervised, Mr. Cassin was left with food and medication in his mouth, which caused him to aspirate (inhale),” Fieldfisher added in its post. “Medical staff did not recognize this and the coroner concluded it exacerbated his already developing aspiration pneumonia.”
The Record of Inquest stated that on June 24, 2023, Cassin had suffered a hypoglycaemic episode that required treatment, but the hospital guidelines were reportedly not followed.
Hypoglycemia “needs immediate treatment” and “is a condition in which your blood sugar (glucose) level is lower than the standard range,” per the Mayo Clinic.
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A spokesperson for Milton Keynes University Hospital said in a statement obtained by PEOPLE, “We are profoundly sorry for the failings in Mr. Cassin’s care. We fully acknowledge the deep distress experienced by Mr. Cassin’s family and would seek to assure them that we have taken careful steps to understand what happened, including commissioning an independent external review.”
“Furthermore, we have made meaningful changes to policy and practice to prevent similar incidences happening in the future. We will respond to His Majesty’s Coroner’s Prevention of Future Deaths notice in full,” the statement concluded.
Fieldfisher didn’t immediately respond when contacted by PEOPLE for additional information.
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