Mentally ill man in fall tragedy

Oct 18 2007 By Tony Deeley, Birmingham Mail

A ROAD accident victim with mental health problems plunged to his death from the third-floor window of a hospital ward, an inquest in Dudley heard.

Staff at Sandwell General, Hospital, who were given several false names by John Hussain, had been unable to fully confirm his identity or that he had problems which posed a risk, Black Country Coroner, Robin Balmain, was told.

Just hours earlier, police had returned him to the hospital for repeat plastic surgery on an horrific ear injury suffered in an accident with a car in West Bromwich.

They had found him wandering naked in nearby woods after he had absconded from the hospital.

Mr Balmain recorded a narrative verdict on the 41-year-old former salesman, of Victoria House, Warwick Passage, Birmingham, in which he outlined the facts of the tragedy and confirmed that multiple injuries caused his death .

He was told that, unknown to the hospital staff, Mr Hussain had been receiving lithium medication under a clinic in Ladywood for manic depression.

Joseph Brettell, senior staff nurse on the medical assessment unit at the hospital, said that prior to absconding Mr Hussain had shown no signs of having mental health problems.