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Heidi Knight acted for the family of Amy Pickard who in 2001, when 17 and seven months pregnant, was found collapsed with her boyfriend in a public toilet in Hastings having suffered a hypoxic event due to an injection of heroin. Amy was left in a persistent vegetative state from which she never recovered.
She died aged 25 on October 10 2009 whilst a resident at Mary House care home in Hastings where she had been transferred some 10 days earlier after spending seven years at the Raphael Medical Centre in Tonbridge, Kent.
The family raised concerns about the standard of care given to Amy at Mary House. Ms Pickard, Amy’s mother, told the inquest that at Mary House checks, including of oxygen levels, were not carried out properly and that her positioning in her bed on the day of her death was "odd". Days before her death, Ms Pickard also said Amy's airway had been compromised during a physiotherapy session in her room when her tracheostomy was mistakenly removed.
Coroner Alan Craze found that Amy’s death was the result of a cardiac arrhythmia due to cardiac arrest causing profound brain damage because of the heroin overdose. A verdict of "non-dependent abuse of drugs" was returned.
Heidi Knight was instructed by Mayo Wynne Baxter.
http://news.sky.com/home/uk-news/article/15410361
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-16066791
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