Father died after oxygen tube became dislodged

A father-of-two died after suffering “catastrophic” brain damage when nurses at a top private clinic failed to spot his oxygen tube had become dislodged, an inquest heard.

Shaun Fagan, 50, an independent financial adviser, was receiving treatment for pneumonia at the Harley Street Clinic when he suffered cardiac arrest after his air supply was cut.

He was starved of oxygen for up to several minutes as staff attempted to resuscitate him, Westminster coroner’s court was told. He died eight days later.

A nurse failed to tell her supervisor about the displaced tube, the inquest heard. Alarms indicating the low oxygen levels could have been going off for up to nine minutes before he went into cardiac arrest, the hearing was told.

Mr Fagan, of Mill Hill, was admitted to Barnet Hospital with chest pains on September 16 last year before being transferred to the clinic with a severe lung infection two days later.

Doctor Carlos Gomez, in charge of Mr Fagan’s care, told the inquest: “He was receiving oxygen through a tight-fitting mask, but we decided to put him on a ventilator to pre-empt him requiring emergency breathing assistance.”

Mr Fagan’s wife, Sandra, said she and her sons were not informed of the decision to place him on a ventilator, robbing them of their last chance to speak to him. Her husband had, she told the inquest, been “fit and healthy” before the illness that led to his hospital admission

The inquest continues today.