Private hospital’s failures ‘contributed' to death of Richard Branson’s wife

Neil Theasby/Creative Commons Licence

By Sam Hall, PA Media

A private hospital’s failure to provide preventative anticoagulation medication contributed to the death of Sir Richard Branson’s wife, an inquest has concluded.

Lady Joan Branson, 80, died on 24 November after suffering a cardiac arrest at the private Lister Hospital in Chelsea, west London, which is owned and operated by HCA Healthcare.

Westminster Coroner’s Court heard that she died after suffering a pulmonary embolism, resulting from deep vein thrombosis (DVT).

The virtual inquest heard that Branson was admitted to the hospital on 17 November after a fall weeks earlier on Necker Island, a private luxury retreat in the Caribbean’s British Virgin Islands owned by her billionaire husband.

Branson described the fall to her GP as “tripping over some slippers by the bed” and was diagnosed with sustained fractures of the pelvis and fractures of the right hip, the inquest heard.

Haematologist Dr George Adams told the inquest that Branson was “extremely high risk” for blood clots and the “biggest risk factor by far was her immobility and her fracture”.