Hearing To Be Held At Stoke-on-Trent Coroners Court On January 10th

The widow of a father-of-one from Biddulph who died at home of sepsis and pneumonia earlier this year has expressed her hope that an upcoming inquest will provide vital answers regarding his death.

Customer service advisor Paul Hardy died aged 35 on the evening of February 20th 2017 after struggling for around a week with symptoms including pains across his body, a chesty cough, vomiting, diarrhoea and a fluctuating temperature.

Paul had attended the local Biddulph Doctors GP surgery twice during the week before his death, the last attendance on the morning of the day that he died. He was pronounced dead by paramedics who were called after his wife Rachel found him unresponsive in bed later that evening.

Following his death, Rachel, 35, instructed specialist medical negligence lawyers at Irwin Mitchell to investigate whether more could have been done to prevent his death. Now, with an inquest into Paul’s case set to take place at Stoke-on-Trent Coroners Court on January 10th, Rachel has outlined how the entire family is desperate to gain answers to how he died.

Margaret Ryan, the legal expert at Irwin Mitchell who is representing the family, said: 

Expert Opinion

“Less than a year on from Paul’s death, our client remains understandably devastated by the loss of her husband.

“Many questions still remain unanswered and so we are hopeful that this upcoming inquest will provide some of the answers that the family desperately seeks.

“It is vital that, lessons can be learned from cases like this so that care standards can ultimately be improved and to prevent other families from being left without a loved one.” Margaret Ryan - Partner

Rachel Hardy, who had been married to Paul for six years and who had one daughter together, Gabriella aged nine, added: “It is still hard to believe that Paul is gone and incredibly difficult to come to terms with the fact that I have lost my dear husband, whom I expected to grow old with and Gabriella has lost her doting father.”

“Losing him in this way has raised many questions so we are hopeful that this inquest will fully examine all of the facts and help us get the answers we deserve.”

Read more about Irwin Mitchell's expertise in sepsis claims.