A CORONER will release a verdict next week after a man died from a brain injury, after being released from hospital when a doctor diagnosed him with vertigo.

John Ellery, Shropshire coroner, said he will release his conclusion into the death of Alan Busby, from Morda Road in Oswestry, on Thursday, October 29 after an all-day hearing in Shrewsbury yesterday.

Mr Busby died in hospital in Stoke on June 30, 2019 after emergency surgery on his brain following a fall days earlier at home. After his initial fall, he was released from Royal Shrewsbury Hospital's (RSH) A&E with a diagnosis of vertigo.

Originally, Mr Busby's death had been ruled as natural causes by an inquest in Stoke, but a request from Dr Adrian Marsh to Mr Ellery to investigate a potential misdiagnosis, led to a transfer of the case from Stoke's Coroner's office.

At the hearing on Thursday, the inquest primarily heard from Dr Vytautas Liesis, a locum doctor at RSH that treated Mr Busby before allowing him to return home.

The inquest was told by Elaine Busby, wife of Mr Busby, that he had struggled to inform the patient transport driver from RSH where he lived and was confused, had to sleep downstairs, before eventually he was returned to RSH in the morning where he was then transferred to Stoke.

Dr Liesis, who appeared remotely, told the hearing that he did not order a CT scan during Mr Busby's first visit to A&E because he had taken the patient at his word about a lack of headache, dizziness and other symptoms.

He said he diagnosed vertigo and finished his shift at 11pm on June 25 having arranged for Mr Busby to be taken home.

However, Jeremy Taylor, a solicitor representing Mr Busby's family, asked why he had not followed ambulance notes that stated Mr Busby had a headache and had vomited.

Dr Liesis said he has not seen the notes but took the patient's oral history of what symptoms he was presenting, and said the lack of a headache – according to Mr Busby – meant he did not follow headache guidance to order a scan.

Mr Taylor also asked why Mr Busby had not been walked around to show his balance, and that he had been left on a trolley, but Dr Lieses said this was not uncommon and was also a space issue.

In the afternoon, Mr Ellery took evidence from two consultant doctors from RSH; Dr Alexia Jones and Dr Marsh who authored a report that criticised Dr Liesis's diagnosis.

Both doctors said they would have ordered a CT scan for Mr Busby to check for a bleed on the brain and said the process would have been completed in around two hours.

But in response, Dr Lieses argued that he would not have had to follow headache guidelines because, in his opinion, Mr Busby had not presented to him with a headache.