Professor Robert Forrest described injections as inappropriate and even inexplicable (From The Northern Echo)

Professor Robert Forrest described injections as inappropriate and even inexplicable

10:01am Thursday 4th February 2010 in

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MORPHINE injections given to three men by their GP shortly before they died were inappropriate and even inexplicable, a professor told their inquests yesterday.

Eminent medic and forensics expert Professor Robert Forrest was giving evidence at a hearing into the deaths of Frank Moss, Harry Gittins and Stanley Weldon.

All three were patients of Dr Howard Martin when he was practising in south Durham.

He was cleared of murdering them after a trial in 2005.

Yesterday, Coroner Andrew Tweddle, sitting in Chester-le- Street, heard that lung cancer sufferer Mr Moss, 59, of Eldon, near Bishop Auckland, was given three 60mg doses of morphine throughout March 13, 2003.

He died the following day.

Prof Forrest said that although Mr Moss would have some opiate tolerance after taking painkillers for his condition, such high doses were “totally inappropriate”.

He said it would be more appropriate to give small five to ten milligram doses and monitor the patient or to leave anxiety and sleeping tablets that could be taken if needed.

“You could suggest a small glass of whisky and lemon with a milky drink,” he added.

Mr Moss’ daughter Allison told investigators her father had been changing a plug on his new mechanical bed before Dr Martin arrived.

The doctor had consulted Mr Moss in private and told her he was complaining of being short of breath and distressed.

The professor said when looking at the whole picture, he believed the morphine “was the proximate and immediate cause of death”.

Harry Gittins, who had throat cancer, was given a cocktail of injections by Dr Martin during three visits to his Newton Aycliffe home on January 21, 2004. The 74-yearold died early the next day.

Prof Forrest said a 60mg dose of morphine and two 100mg of diamorphine, which can be twice as potent as morphine, was “an awful lot”.

He said small gradual doses would have been more appropriate for pain relief and the second large dose of diamorphine was “inexplicable”.

Stanley Weldon, 74, who had dementia, died in a Newton Aycliffe nursing home on March 18, 2003, after a 60mg injection of morphine.

“For someone who is not tolerant and frail, that is a dose which is likely to have caused the death,” said the professor.

And he said the cause of death Dr Martin recorded on Mr Weldon’s death certificate, as a stroke caused by dementia, was “illogical”.

The hearing continues.