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A young patient who died of dehydration at a leading teaching hospital phoned police from his bed because he was so thirsty. Officers arrived at Kane Gorny's bedside, but were told by nurses that he was in a confused state and were sent away. The keen footballer and runner, aged just 22, died of dehydration a few hours later.

Kane Gorny, needed drugs to regulate his hormone levels after successfully beating brain cancer. However, during a hospital stay nurses forgot to give him his medication. A coroner had such grave concerns about the case that she referred it to police. The inquest was told how Mr Gorny died after blunders and neglect by 'lazy and careless' medical staff at St George's Hospital in South London. His mother Rita Cronin, a civil servant told Westminster Coroner's Court that staff tutted at her and repeatedly refused to listen to her concerns that her son hadn't been given vital medication.

At one point he became so desperate and upset that staff sedated and restrained him – and on the night before his death, his mother said, he was not checked on by medical staff, despite being in a room on his own. 

Following his death, a nurse allegedly enquired whether the family, from London, was 'finished' and asked a matron in front of them whether she could 'bag him up'. 

Mr Gorny, had survived a malignant brain tumour in 2008. Part of his treatment included a course of steroids to regulate the fluid levels in his body. These drugs, however, weakened his bones and he was in hospital for a routine hip replacement. Doctors told him that, without regular medication to control his fluid levels, he would die.

When he arrived at hospital for the hip operation, nurses assured the family they would give him his medication and said: 'Don't worry, he's in good hands – we'll look after him.' But, despite the repeated reminders and insistence by both Mr Gorny and his family, staff failed to give him the tablets and he became severely dehydrated after being refused water.

A doctor doing the rounds then checked on Mr Gorny. Miss Cronin said: 'He took one look at him then he started calling to everyone “Get in there quickly”. Miss Cronin said: 'The main doctor came out and you could tell he was really angry. He said: “You need to go and see your son. He's dying.” Nurses at the hospital were said to have been offered counselling as a result of Mr Gorny's death. The case is still being considered by the Crown Prosecution Service.

Later......