Gross neglect by staff at a Birmingham care home led to a grandmother dying of dehydration, a coroner has ruled.
Norma Spear, 71, died in Moseley Hall Hospital on November 6, 2011, three days after she was admitted from Druids Meadow residential home in Highter's Heath, Birmingham.
Ms Spear, from Harborne, Birmingham, developed a urinary tract infection in her five weeks at the home which stunted her appetite and led her to become dangerously dehydrated, the inquest heard.
Carol Clay said her mother's stay at the home, during which she lost 35lbs in weight, was only supposed to be temporary and that she was due to return home once a new fire had been fitted.
Birmingham's deputy coroner Sarah Ormond-Walshe identified 11 failures - five of them severe enough to merit gross neglect - by staff at the home.
In reaching a verdict, following a six-day inquest at Sutton Coldfield Town Hall, Mrs Ormond-Walshe said Ms Spear had 'died of natural causes to which neglect contributed'.
She added: 'The failures I found are gross because they were so terribly simple.
'Without one or more of these gross failures, Norma Spear would have survived.
'She was at risk of the very thing she died of and that risk had been told to staff by a social worker.
'It should have been obvious she was not drinking sufficiently for at least the last two weeks. It does not require medical training.'
Most of the errors catalogued centred around the staff's failure to call a doctor, despite repeated requests from Mrs Clay, and to properly investigate Ms Spear's worrying weight loss.
More... 'Only cannabis spray relieves my MS - so why won't the NHS give it to me?' Sufferer refused drug to help ease affects of disease Is this nurse serving 30 years for murders that never happened? Compelling new evidence suggests 'Angel of Death' is innocentMrs Ormond-Walshe also highlighted four criticisms against some of the GPs attached to Druids Meadow, including failures to establish Ms Spear's medical history and to properly diagnose her dehydration.
Speaking after the verdict, Mrs Clay, 52, said: 'It's a bittersweet feeling really.
'We've got the decision that she would have lived longer and had that confirmed by medical experts.
'We feel vindicated but it's an empty win.'
During her five week stay at the home her daughter, Carol Clay, claims she lost 35lb in weight and did not drink properly for two weeksMs Spear's granddaughter, Becky Arnold, wept as the list of failures were read out in court.
The 35-year-old mother said: 'She did nothing but care for other people and she died because she was not properly cared for by other people.
'I'm disgusted with them and hope it affects them for the rest of their lives.'
Birmingham City Council's legal advisor, Edward Pepperall QC, said the coroner should feel comforted the home closed in 2011 and that the authority had replaced a large number of its care homes with four care centres.
He said an internal review of how paperwork was updated and stored had taken place and that the Care Quality Commission had carried out subsequent inspections.
In reaching a verdict, following a six-day inquest at Sutton Coldfield Town Hall, coroner Mrs Ormond-Walshe said Ms Spear had 'died of natural causes to which neglect [ at the home, pictured] contributed'Those in charge of the home could still face disciplinary proceedings, he said.
The inquest had been told how Ms Spear was taken to Moseley Hall on June 3, 2011, after suffering a fall at home.
She fully recovered from her injuries and despite needing encouragement to eat and drink, her weight was stabilised at around eight stone.
But her weight dropped and her health quickly deteriorated after she moved from the hospital into Druids Meadow on September 28.
Mrs Clay, who now lives in Hampshire, told the court how she had repeatedly asked staff to arrange for a doctor to see her mother amid fears she was dangerously dehydrated.
Despite her concerns, exacerbated by Ms Spear's medical history, staff at the home did not arrange for a doctor to see Ms Spear until November 1.
