Family critical of care given to ex-Newmarket pub landlord after fall from horse

A fall from a horse cost a Newmarket pub landlord and former racehorse trainer his life, an inquest has ruled.

Ken Clutterbuck, 77, of The Shoes in Moulton Road, died on April 3 last year after being discharged from West Suffolk Hospital where he had driven himself on March 31 after the fall which had left him unconscious for around a minute before he had walked back to the stables. He had complained of a mild headache which had then worsened.

Speaking on behalf of his family, Mr Clutterbuck's daughter, Emma, told the hearing in Ipswich on Monday they believed the care he received, following the discovery that he had sustained an acute subdural hematoma as a result of the accident, had not been sufficient.

She said on the day he was discharged he had still been texting people saying he did not feel great.

"He had contacted a friend asking him to bring a wheelchair to the ward," she said.

"My dad was a highly active and mobile man, why would he need a wheelchair if he was well enough in himself to be sent home. If someone of his age had suffered a head trauma and was still complaining of a headache, is it really safe for him to be discharged given he lived on his own. We all feel he was rushed out and should have been monitored further. "

She said her father had been wheeled down to the hospital pharmacy to collect medication. He had then collapsed and she said it had taken 10 minutes for any medical help to arrive. Mr Clutterbuck had suffered a stroke which proved to be fatal.

"That was not good enough and probably the difference between life and death," she said.

Helen Bolton, an advanced trauma clinical practitioner at the hospital, said Mr Clutterbuck had a CT scan which had been sent through to Addenbrooke's Hospital, in Cambridge, and the advice from the neuro surgeon there was the injury could be managed and monitored at West Suffolk.

She said a headache was normal with a head injury and she described Mr Clutterbuck's as a normal case and he had expressed a wish to go home.

"There had been no red flags to prevent his discharge," she said.

Consultant Mr Georgios Konstantopoulos said Mr Clutterbuck had been fit for discharge and had been told to return for a further CT scan in four weeks' time.

The inquest heard what no-one knew at the time was that when he fell from his horse Mr Clutterbuck had also damaged the carotid artery in his neck which was eventually to lead to the stroke.

Senior Suffolk Coroner Nigel Parsley said: "The carotid artery dissection was the delayed effect from the fall from the horse. But we can't say exactly at what point that injury to the artery caused the split and that is what caused the stroke."

Mr Parsley asked Dr Kaushik Bhowmick, of the hospital's intensive care unit, whether a delay getting to Mr Clutterbuck when he collapsed would have made any difference to the outcome.

He said not because when an artery ruptured there was nothing surgically or medically that could have been done.

Mr Parsley said: "Once the dissection happened the die was cast and I don’t think there was anything anyone would have been able to do which would have made a difference to the tragic events ."

He concluded: "It is clear to me that had the fall from the horse not occurred Mr Clutterbuck would not have died.”

Expressing his condolences to the family, he said Mr Clutterbuck had died as a result of an accident.

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