An inquest jury has ruled that neglect and gross failure by hospital staff to quickly attempt resuscitation contributed to the death of Antiques Roadshow expert Alice Gibson-Watt. The 34-year-old jewellery specialist died in 2012 from a brain injury caused by a cardiac arrest.
The inquest heard that Mrs Gibson-Watt was admitted to Chelsea and Westminster Hospital following a psychotic episode a month after giving birth to her first child. She was then transferred to the Lakeside Mental Health Unit at West Middlesex Hospital. At around 03:00 GMT on 16 November, she suffered a cardiac arrest, but her heart was not recorded as restarted until 03:48 after emergency paramedics used a defibrillator.
Doctors giving evidence said that if there had been a proper response to the cardiac arrest, the brain injury that caused her death could have been avoided. The coroner ruled that the use of restraint by police and ambulance staff during a previous psychotic episode was not a factor in her death.
Her widower, Anthony Gibson-Watt, thanked the coroner for investigating the circumstances. 'It will never bring Alice back, but it has given us a better understanding of how she came to die and in time may help us to move forward,' he said. He added that he would one day tell their four-year-old daughter about her 'wonderful mother'.
Mrs Gibson-Watt, a Sotheby's specialist who appeared on the BBC's Antiques Roadshow, had suffered from postpartum psychosis, a serious mental illness affecting around one in 1,000 women after childbirth.
