Inpatient died after excessive water drinking, inquest told

A woman collapsed and died when staying as an inpatient at a private mental hospital after staff noted she had been drinking excessive amounts of water, an inquest has heard.

- Jamie Grierson

Lillian Lucas, 28, known as Lily, died in September 2022 after being found unresponsive in her room at the Cygnet hospital at Kewstoke, near Weston-super-Mare, where she had been an inpatient since June.

Lucas, who lived in Malmesbury, Wiltshire, was a mental health nurse who had previously been diagnosed with schizophrenia and had been admitted to various hospitals multiple times in the years before her death, the inquest heard.

Avon coroner's court was told that in early September 2022 while at the Cygnet hospital she had been prescribed clozapine, an anti-psychotic drug. Due to Lucas's training, she had been aware it could have severe side-effects. She and her father, Paul, raised concerns about the prescription of the drug, the jury was told.

On 8 September 2022 after drinking "excessive amounts of water", she was found unresponsive and transferred to Bristol Royal Infirmary (BRI), the jury heard. She died the next day.

James McIntyre, a consultant psychiatrist who had treated Lucas prior to her admission to the Cygnet hospital, spoke at the inquest about possible reasons why someone would drink excessive amounts of water.