AN ELDERLY man who lived alone was found by his concerned neighbours after dying of hypothermia, an inquest has heard.

Bryan Burton, 77, was found dead at his home on January 19, 2023, after a neighbour became worried when she had not seen him for several days.

Mr Burton, who had no living relatives, was found at around 3.15pm.

Assistant Coroner for Cumbria Dr Nick Shaw heard a statement submitted by PC Wilkinson of Cumbria Police, who attended the scene.

He described the house, on Market Street in Flookburgh, as 'freezing cold and unkempt', so much so he could see his breath, with letters piling up, and the bedroom light, where he was found, not working.

He thought that the electricity in the house did not work but noticed other lights did work.

He reported speaking to neighbours, who told him that Mr Burton had never married and had no children, and had lived with his mother until she passed away.

Neighbours had seen his bathroom light on the previous Sunday evening, (January 15), but nothing since then.

One neighbour stated that she believed Mr Burton had dementia, and used to drive up and down the lane at night, without going anywhere, apart from weekly Friday trips to the village fish and chip shop.

She said he used to be 'very smart and well-dressed', and used to go to the local pub regularly - but had become reclusive in the last year.

A statement by Dr Julie Colclough from Cartmel Surgery said that Mr Burton’s death was 'entirely preventable'.

She said that during a routine search of medication records it was flagged that Mr Burton had not collected his medicines or attended appointments to have routine bloods taken.

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In April 2022, a telephone review was scheduled, and Mr Burton seemed 'very cheerful'. He said that he had a stock of medicines but asked for them to be delivered in future.

Subsequent blood results were consistent with Mr Burton not taking any medicines, and district nurses said they were not prepared to visit him again, as he told them he was mobile, and regularly went out for fish and chips.

The surgery asked Flookburgh Pharmacy to take over the ordering and delivery of his medicines but this was never done.

The surgery arranged for a trainee registrar to visit him to assess whether he had memory issues, if he genuinely did not wish to engage with medical services, and if he had the capacity to make this decision.

The registrar reported the house as 'warm and relatively clean' but Mr Burton said he lived with his mother and couldn't remember the medication he was prescribed.

Dr Colclough said that upon reflection on the case, the surgery 'should have considered a physical visit back in April', but they were routinely done over the phone to make it easier for vulnerable patients.

She said an action plan was made after the registrar's visit but that the registrar did not follow this up, or leave the required electronic reminders.

The statement said: "We had not anticipated that he wouldn't be able to alert anyone if his heating failed."

Concluding, Dr Shaw said that the postmortem showed no physical cause of death, but the presence of beta-hydroxybutyrate in his system was consistent with hypothermia.

He said: "Bryan was becoming increasingly detached from the community and his memory was failing."

He recalled that this was a 'particularly cold week in this part of the world', and said it was likely that a blown fuse may have caused the heating to fail.

Mr Burton's official cause of death was recorded as pneumonia.