'Please, please': 87-year-old calls for help after being left on Hedon care home floor for hour

Two care workers left an 87-year-old dementia sufferer on the floor of a care home for nearly an hour after he fell, a court heard.

Dianne Brown and Thitikan Khaengraeng deliberately ignored the man's "plight", repeatedly walking past him to prioritise other jobs, Hull Crown Court was told.

Other worried residents at Holyrood House, in Hedon, tried to help him up.

Charlotte Baines, prosecuting, said it was well known the man was prone to falls and should not be moved without help from the ambulance service, unless he was able to stand on his own.

The pensioner was sitting in a chair in a room off a hallway when he tried to stand, using a nearby walking frame to help himself up.

"He eventually got to his feet but lost his balance and fell on to the floor," Miss Baines said. "He began to cry out."

Brown was doing medication rounds and walked past the room where the pensioner was lying on the floor.

She said "Oh God", but did not attempt to help him.

She asked another resident what she was supposed to do if he kept falling and she said that she could not lift him.

She did not go back into the room to check on him.

Another resident in the hallway tried to persuade the pensioner to get himself up.

Seventeen minutes after his fall, the man started to shuffle his way out of the room.

"The resident present tried to assist him, but could not," Miss Baines said.

Khaengraeng appeared in the corridor about 23 minutes after the fall. She shut the door of the room he had "dragged himself from" and left the hallway.

Miss Baines said the distressed man could be heard saying "Please, please."

A couple of minutes later Brown came into the hallway and asked the pensioner what he was doing and why he was crawling around.

Miss Baines said: "She told him that he needed to sit in a chair in the hallway. She told him that she cannot lift him on her own and remarked that there was not enough staff."

Brown told another resident: "He's okay because he's moving around."

Khaengraeng came into the hallway and told the pensioner that she needed Brown to help her. She went upstairs and other residents then tried to intervene.

"After a couple of minutes or so, Dianne Brown re-entered the hallway and told the residents not to lift him," Miss Baines said.

Brown told him that, if he was going to crawl around, he would have to stay on the floor.

The two carers then lifted the pensioner from the floor and placed him on the chair.

"This was at just before 9pm, approximately 57 minutes after the initial fall," Miss Baines said.

The incident came to light when the care home manager came on shift the next day and spotted the fall and its aftermath on CCTV.

Neither Brown nor Khaengraeng had made a note about the pensioner's fall.

They were suspended immediately and an investigation was carried out and it was reported to the police.

Both carers blamed short staffing and a lack of training but admitted they should have put the man "at the top of the list" for urgent help after his fall.

Brown, 57, of Hedon, and Khaengraeng, 37, of the New Bridge Road area of east Hull, admitted ill-treating a person while working as care workers on June 22, 2022.

Recorder Andrew Latimer said the man was "very vulnerable" and "deserved compassion and respect towards the end of his life".

"Both of you saw him and walked past him and left him there for the better part of one hour," said Recorder Latimer.

"Each of you walked past him several times, sometimes not even speaking to him, and certainly ignoring his plight. That gentleman was distressed.

"He understood his situation and I imagine it was embarrassing and even humiliating for an adult to be left that way. Other residents saw him and saw you ignoring him.

"You left one of your patients on the floor. He was left unaided for an hour. You inflicted no injury. You simply failed to care for a man who had fallen."

Both defendants were given community orders. Brown was given 110 hours' unpaid work. Khaengraeng was given 80 hours' unpaid work.

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