A THIRD investigation has been carried out into the sudden death of an elderly resident at a Hampshire nursing home in less than two years.

The latest probe comes after granddad David Collins choked to death on a sandwich at the Kitnocks House Nursing Home.

It follows inquiries into the deaths of two other pensioners at the home.

Last year William Woodford, 67, died from carbon monoxide poisoning when his TV caught fire in his room at the care home, at Curdridge.

Seven months before that Down’s syndrome patient Roger Moore, 65, was fed to death by staff at the £3,000-a-month nursing home that cares for people with mental health problems.

Now following the death of Mr Collins bosses at the home, in Wickham Road, have launched a review of procedures.

It happened after the 70-year-old had finished breakfast and collapsed in front of a fellow resident in the smoking room.

But by the time staff got to him he was already dead.

At the inquest into his death in Winchester his son Glenn criticised staff for the amount of time it took to get to his father and for failing to administer CPR properly.

He said staff should have known his dad’s airway was blocked when his chest failed to inflate after an oxygen mask was put on him.

Glenn, 42, said: “Something is not quite right here. It seems to me that he collapsed and he was left for quite some time struggling with no help at all.

“If you (the matron) did not see his chest expand then you were not doing the CPR correctly.”

Matron Janice Stannard insisted she had done the CPR correctly and that it was “a matter of minutes”

before she arrived to treat his father.

Mrs Stannard, who has worked at the care home for 11 years, said: “There was absolutely no indication to me or any member of staff that he was choking. It was a sudden collapse. Had I thought he had choked I would have been more thorough looking inside his throat. But I could not see anything obvious.”

She added that she could see “straight away that he was dead”.

Fellow nurse Karen Myers told the inquest that on discovering the architect, who suffered from a degenerative brain illness, he looked like he had been dead for a “long time”.

The inquest also heard how Mr Collins, a former building surveyor at Havant Borough Council and Portsmouth City Council, was known to have difficulties eating and would often cram food into his mouth. He was banned from eating in his room or unsupervised and was on a soft food diet.

Hampshire assistant deputy coroner Sarah Whitby said she “was a little surprised” that the matron had not checked his airways further given that he was susceptible to choking.

Recording a narrative verdict, she said that the nursing home was not neglectful in their care of Mr Collins.

She said: “CPR was administered and proved ineffective. On the balance of probability an airway was not cleared and he died at the nursing home.”

Aaron Whitehead, chief executive of Kitnocks, said: “Whenever there is an incident at any of our facilities then we will always review practice and procedures and digest whatever the coroner’s comments have been.

“We run a high-risk service and incidents do happen. The important thing is how we respond to them and how we learn from incidents if necessary.”