Hospital must learn from City banker’s death, say family of Robert Entenman

Robert Entenman, 57, with wife Athina and children Alexander and Chloe
Ross Lydall @RossLydall24 October 2016

The family of a City banker who died after heart surgery when a piece of breathing equipment was turned off today said they hoped the private hospital would learn lessons from the “avoidable tragedy”.

Robert Entenman, a married 57-year-old American with two children, died at London Bridge hospital, part of the HCA group, on May 30 last year after suffering irreversible brain damage caused by the lack of oxygen.

Southwark assistant coroner Henrietta Hill QC found a humidifier that prevented his breathing tube from becoming blocked had been switched off for 19 hours.

In her narrative verdict, she said: “The failure to provide him with the treatment of the humidifier amounted to neglect.”

She added the failure to spot the tube had become blocked “also played a causative role in his death”.

Mr Entenman, of Chislehurst, was a global manager at UniCredit bank.

Entenman family solicitor Paul McNeil, of Fieldfisher, said: “It beggars belief that the London Bridge hospital critical care unit failed to provide basic medical care when Robert most needed it.

"The family hope that the hospital will learn lessons so that this avoidable tragedy never happens again.”

An HCA spokesman said: “The London Bridge Hospital extends its deepest sympathy to Mr Entenman's family. We aim to deliver the highest possible standard of patient care and we have listened very carefully to the coroner's verdict on this matter. The well-being of patients is our utmost priority and based on our own internal investigation, we had already taken action to review our policies and processes prior to the inquest.

"We will incorporate the coroner’s feedback as part of our commitment to continually assess and improve our services."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in

MORE ABOUT