He was this time put in Milton Ward and coroner Catherine Wood heard how his condition began to deteriorate to the point he struggled to speak to family via an iPad. He, along with six others in the ward, tested positive for the virus.Ī week later his family were rung late at night by Sittingbourne Memorial Hospital and told he was being moved there and to ring again in the morning to check up on him, but by the time they woke up they had been informed he was rushed back to Medway Maritime A&E and was experiencing “breathing difficulties”. Mr Brown was tested for coronavirus on November 20, but staff only got the results two days later and the family only found out after a text from test and trace. The 83-year-old had been admitted to the Pembroke Ward of the Windmill Road site, just over a month before his death, for an operation on his right hip which he injured after having a fall at home on the day of his late wife's funeral.Īn inquest at Maidstone’s Archbishop Palace heard how in the four weeks leading up to this death Mr Brown’s family struggled to get updates on his condition. John Brown of Minster, Sheppey, died at Medway Maritime Hospital

John Brown, from Minster, died from Covid pneumonia at Medway Maritime Hospital in Gillingham on December 5.

A Sheppey grandfather who died after contracting Covid-19 while at a Kent hospital was “just a number”, his family have told an inquest.

Grandfather escape hospital