My partner died after hospital stay 9 yrs after I lost my son in ‘hell’ facility
Matthew was “alone, malnourished, over-medicated, scared, bleeding, bruised, raped, injected multiple times, ignored and frightened” while under the care of “so-called professionals”, she saidShe added: “If he walked through the door, you’d just be happy to see him because you knew you would be in safe hands.”



“The families have waited too long.”I sat down on the stairway and had this sinking feeling he wasn’t coming home, but I couldn’t have predicted why,” she said. Priya Singh, a partner at law firm Hodge Jones & Allen which is representing more than 120 victims and families, previously described the state of mental health services in Essex as an “ongoing scandal”.Matthew had claimed staff had raped him during the night, which the hospital described as a “paranoid and suspicious thought” related to his “delusional disorder”.
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“We, with the families, have fought for more than four years to get this statutory inquiry, so that it has the same powers as the Post Office and Covid Inquiries,” she said.”I welcome the Lampard Inquiry and we will do all we can to support Baroness Lampard and the team to deliver the answers that families and patients are seeking.””We will be pushing for interim recommendations to be brought in to prevent more people from dying while the inquiry is ongoing.”I know this is not uncommon as we get older, but it still was concerning.”
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“He excelled at school and he was smart. He was funny”Melanie has been one of the driving forces pressing for the inquiry after losing her two family members. “How a man in his 80s ended up flanked by security guards, naked, lying in urine-soaked sheets at the bottom of a hospital bed while suffering from a severe infection and a haematoma, is what led me to be here today.”
‘Alone, malnourished, raped’
“His death was not suspicious, I lived it with him and I saw exactly what went wrong.”Mind, www.mind.org, provide information about types of mental health problems and where to get help for them. Email info@mind.org.uk or call the infoline on 0300 123 3393 (UK landline calls are charged at local rates, and charges from mobile phones will vary).”I am bracing myself for the nightmare I know it will be,” she added. “This tragedy needs to stop.”Because it has statutory status, anyone called to give evidence is legally obliged to appear.



“It is only when we know what happened, can happen.”Suffice to say within 19 weeks my partner was dead,” she added.Paul Scott, chief executive of Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust (EPUT), said: “I want to say how sorry I am to anyone who has lost a loved one or whose care has not been of the standard it should have been.YoungMinds run a free, confidential parents helpline on 0808 802 5544 for parents or carers worried about how a child or young person is feeling or behaving. The website has a chat option too.”They deserve answers to what happened to their sons, daughters, fathers and mothers at the darkest moments in their lives, so that faith in mental health services can be restored.”If you, or anyone you know, needs help dealing with mental health problems, the following organisations provide support.
‘Sinking feeling he wasn’t coming home’
Rethink Mental Illness, www.rethink.org, gives advice and information service offers practical advice on a wide range of topics such as The Mental Health Act, social care, welfare benefits, and carers rights. Use its website or call 0300 5000 927 (calls are charged at your local rate).Melanie has long campaigned for a public inquiry amid similar complaints of “failings” from other families.Melanie had previously given a separate statement about her son Matthew, who was found hanged in 2012 while under the care of NHS mental health services in the county. Just three months after being discharged from an inpatient mental health unit run by North East London NHS Foundation Trust (NELFT), Colin died.The inquiry is looking into the deaths of more than 2,000 people between 2000 and 2023.One day, Colin checked his heart rate with an at-home monitor and found it was 38bpm, which is very low.She said she was still waiting for an inquest into his death with a feeling of “dread and deja vu”.She alleged that on visiting Colin at the hospital he had “bruises all up and down his arms,” and was “surrounded” by security guards.Melanie said she was “worried people would hear the name of an older man and assume he died because he was old”. “And I don’t know if I’d be here today if it wasn’t for Colin.In 2021, Colin became “confused” in the early evening, Melanie said. “How a man in his 80s [was left] lying in urine-soaked sheets at the bottom of a hospital bed while suffering from a severe infection, is what led me to be here today,” she told the inquiry in Chelmsford.The Lampard Inquiry, which opened earlier this month, has been hearing directly from the families of those who died.Addressing the inquiry beside a photo of Colin, Melanie said: “In 2012 when Matthew died Colin was there, he was by my side.She said the last eight days of her son’s life at the Linden Centre, Chelmsford, were spent “in a place… I truly believe was hell on Earth”.
‘You’d be happy to see him’
Melanie said she had been told Matthew’s body “was a crime scene” and she was not allowed to touch him.After calling 111, paramedics quickly rushed him to the hospital.Colin, who also played for Southend United, Leyton Orient and Romford in the 1960s and 1970s was admitted to the hospital in 2021 for a heart condition.The following are free to contact and confidential:Marjorie Wallace, founder and chief executive of mental health charity SANE, added: “Over more than 40 years of being involved with inquiries, this is the largest ever investigation into mental health services I have seen in this country.The former professional footballer, who played for Barnet in the FA Trophy final at Wembley in 1972, was described by his partner as having a “good sense of humour”.


‘This tragedy needs to stop’
It was set up to find out what happened and why, and make recommendations to try to prevent what went wrong from happening again.The Lampard Inquiry, chaired by Baroness Kate Lampardm, is examining more than 2,000 deaths at NHS-run children and adult inpatient units in Essex between 2000 and 2023.A WOMAN tragically lost both her partner and her son just years apart after they were treated at hospitals in Essex.”Helpless, I just watched the man I loved deteriorate in front of me.””But the way he died and what contributed to his death is why we are here today,” she added. Chaired by Baroness Kate Lampard CBE will hear evidence from former patients, bereaved families, experts and staff.”This inquiry must get to the bottom of how these people died, to allow the families some closure and understanding of why their loved ones were lost whilst under the state’s care.
The Lampard Inquiry
Melanie, who met her Colin more than 20 years ago, remembered him for his “good sense of humour,” which kept people laughing “even in the darkest of times.” “Colin never said a bad word about anyone, even in private. He would champion people and support them.Melanie Leahy’s partner Colin Flatt, 81, passed away mere months after being discharged from a hospital where he was “flanked by security guards, naked,” she said.
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Heads Together, www.headstogether.org.uk, is the a mental health initiative spearheaded by The Royal Foundation of The Prince and Princess of Wales.THE Lampard Inquiry is an independent statutory inquiry investigating the deaths of mental health inpatients in Essex.