'Woman dies after getting trapped in window due to hospital failure'

Family Handout A woman with glasses sits on a red sofa. She has brown hair and brown eyes. — Jessica Powell died when staff did not adequately monitor and protect her medical room

A woman who died while trying to escape from a psychiatric ward did not intend to take her own life, an investigation has revealed.

A jury investigating the 20-year-old man’s death ruled that staff failed to adequately monitor and protect the room.

Miss Powell was awaiting specialist treatment, and was known to have made previous attempts to escape.

Hospital failures included not updating a faulty alarm system that sent staff to the wrong room. The investigation ruled that workers were also unable to release Miss Powell due to a lack of access to the external and internal doors.

Miss Powell’s parents John and Vicky and her sister Lucy, pictured above, believe it was an “error of judgement”

Three people were standing together, two women outside and a man in the middle. — Miss Powell’s parents John and Vicky and her sister Lucy, pictured above, believe it was an “error of judgement”

On the evening of 19 August, when she failed to take her medication at around 22:00 BST, staff began searching for her.

She was found between 22:30 and 22:40 with her lower body protruding through a narrow space no more than 10 cm wide.

The investigation found that despite his earlier attempts to escape, the room had been left unlocked.

He died three days later in Yeovil District Hospital. The primary cause of his death is believed to be hypoxic brain injury, which is caused by a lack of oxygen.