A VULNERABLE woman died after eating a chicken sandwich which had not been prepared according to guidelines for her care, an inquest heard.

Deputy manager, Shona Bairstow, was quizzed at an inquest over the death of Olivia Rosemary Keenan, who died at Middleton Lodge Care Home, in Middleton St George, near Darlington, on March 15, 2016.

The inquest into Miss Keenan' s death opened at Crook Coroners Court yesterday.

Assistant coroner Oliver Longstaff heard how Miss Keenan – who was known as Rosie – was living with dementia and also had Down's Syndrome.

A care plan was put in place which stated Miss Keenan could eat independently but had to have soft food and be supervised while eating as she had a habit of eating too much too quickly.

However, a transcript of a voluntary police interview read out to the court, heard how Mrs Bairstow gave Miss Keenan a chicken roll while she watched TV and "pottered around" while she ate it.

She said it was about three or four minutes later that she discovered Miss Keenan on the floor near the dining room and raised the alarm.

An ambulance was called and Mrs Bairstow gave Miss Keenan CPR but she was declared dead at the scene.

In her police interview, Mrs Bairstow was asked if she was responsible for causing the death by wilful neglect, which she denied.

She said she believed the sandwich she had made counted as soft food because it had a lot of butter on it and she did not class the chicken as solid. She also cut it into four pieces.

Mrs Bairstow said it was only after the death that she was made aware by Miss Keenan's occupational therapist that all bread had to be cut into 2cm pieces and soaked in sauce, soup or gravy.

She told police officers: "If I had believed for one second she could not have had it she would not have.

"My initial thought when I found her was that she had had some sort of catastrophic event, a heart attack or stroke – it was only on the Wednesday [the day after the death] that I was absolutely beside myself thinking I had done this."

Mrs Bairstow – who had only been hired as deputy manager two months earlier – said she had worked in the industry for 23 years and was initially at Middleton Lodge through an agency before being made permanent that December.

She said she had concerns about medication dispensing and financial accounts not adding up at the home – run by the company Potens UK Ltd – which she was trying to tackle, but was under the impression she would receive more training to fulfil her role properly.

Paul Clark, who represented Miss Keenan's family at the inquest, said he believed Mrs Bairstow was not qualified for the role.

He accused her of disregarding documents specific to Miss Keenan that he said should have been read before preparing food for her – a task Mrs Bairstow said she had never done before.

Mrs Bairstow said certain documents had "slipped my mind" and she had "made a mistake" – one she wished she could change – but that had no immediate concerns about Miss Keenan as she had never seen a member of staff sit with her while she ate and none of her eating had ever given her any concerns.

She said: "I would never knowingly put any residents or patients at risk. I have a 23-year-long career and have never been investigated before. I have never had a suspension before or had any complaints.

"I spent around eight years working in Holme House Prison looking after people I'm fairly sure people would not want to and even in those circumstances my integrity was never questioned. I have never had any blot on my career until this date."

The inquest resumes today.