BOY, 9, CHOKED ON CHICKEN BURGER; Father's hospital horror as son eats favourite meal.

Byline: BY GEORGE JACKSON

A BOY died after choking on a chicken burger while in hospital, a coroner's court heard yesterday.

Hugh Marshall was being treated at Derry's Altnagelvin Hospital in 2003 when he was found unconscious by a nurse.

He had been admitted for tests after suffering abdominal pains.

The next day the nine-year-old had "an unwitnessed sudden collapse" during a meal and suffered seizures and cardiac arrests.

Hugh, who had cerebral palsy, died five days after he choked on the burger in an isolated ward room.

His father, Hugh Snr, told the inquest in Derry his son had been delighted when he was told chicken burgers were on the hospital menu.

Mr Marshall, from Ballyarnett in Co Derry, said: "It was one of his favourite meals. I cut his burger up because he liked to finger-eat.

"I turned on the television in the ward room to allow him to watch The Simpsons.

"He had one small piece of burger left. I propped him up in the bed and went for a cup of tea and a smoke.

"I told a nurse I would be back in 10 to 15 minutes. I'd been with Hugh all night and day.

"When I came back and opened the door to the ward I could see a lot of people moving around. Two nurses called me forward and told me that Hugh was very, very ill and that they were working on him."

Asked by a barrister for Altnagelvin Hospital if he had left his son with a whole burger, Mr Marshall replied: "Definitely not. I wouldn't have left my son to eat his food on his own, no chance."

Paediatric staff nurse Triona Taylor said she found the boy on his back with his head tilted backwards.

She told the court: "There was a large piece of a burger and bap sticking out of his mouth. It was almost an entire burger about, four inches across.

"I tore that part of the burger from Hugh's mouth. His teeth were clenched around it.

"One portion of the burger had been bitten off and was in Hugh's mouth.

"The burger had not been cut up into small portions." Asked if it was possible someone had given Hugh an additional burger in the absence of his father and of medical staff, Mrs Taylor said: "That would be speculation but it is possible.

"The food trolley was around at the time."

Hugh was transferred to the Royal Hospital For Sick Children in Belfast but his condition deteriorated.

He died there three days later as a result of bronchia pneumonia, brain damage and cerebral palsy.

Senior Coroner John Leckey sympathised with the Marshall family, adding: "The nurses had come across this shocking incident where this almost moribund young boy was distressed in bed."

CAPTION(S):

THE PARENTS HUGH AND MAUREEN; TRAGIC VICTIM HUGH MARSHALL; WARD Altnagelvin Hospital, Derry