This Is Cheshire

Blood clot killed man after fork-lift accident

From the Guardian Series, first published Thursday 14th Oct 2004.

A BLOOD clot killed a man weeks after a workmate drove a truck into him, an inquest heard on Tuesday.

William Young was working at haulage firm Eddie Stobart, in Dallam, when the incident happened on December 1 last year.

Mr Young, aged 51, was in an aisle at the warehouse when the fork-lift truck hit him, fracturing his leg.

Warrington Coroner's Court heard that he was taken to Warrington Hospital for an operation to insert a pin into his right leg and was discharged the same week.

But, on Boxing Day, he collapsed at his home in Whinchat Drive, Oakwood, and, despite attempts to resuscitate him, he was pronounced dead after being taken back to hospital.

His wife Lilian, aged 52, said: "I live with what happened every day. I have lost everything to me."

Mark Cowell, the warehouse operative who was driving the truck that hit Mr Young, told the court that he had a pallet on his vehicle so could see in front of him but not low down and did not see Mr Young or the small pallet truck Mr Young had been using.

He said that following the incident, Mr Young told him he had been crouched down.

Mr Cowell said: "It has haunted me for the past 10 months and I can appreciate what it has done to his family."

An investigation by the local authority's environmental health team took place, and since the incident, flashing lights have been installed on the pallet trucks - something that Mrs Young says was the brainchild of her health and safety-conscious husband.

Fork-lift trucks have also been banned from driving along the aisles when people or pallet trucks are stationed there.

A post mortem examination showed that Mr Young's fatal blood clot was caused by deep vein thrombosis, caused by the immobility due to the leg injury.

Orthopaedic and trauma surgeon Henry Casserley said that there can be a risk of a blood clot forming up to 40 days after an injury - even in a fit person like Mr Young.

A jury returned a verdict of accidental death.

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