A 93-year-old woman suffering from dementia was fatally poisoned after eating laundry tablets she mistook for sweets, an inquest heard.
Elizabeth Van Der-Drift’s death prompted a coroner to write to the Health Secretary and the cleaning products trade body in a bid to investigate how the tablets are packaged.
The former nurse’s dementia meant she could not remember when she last ate food and often went out to find something to eat, an inquest into her death heard earlier this month.
She woke up in her sheltered home in March to find the brightly colored laundry detergent tablets.
Ian Potter, assistant coroner for Inner North London, said: “Given the nature of the packaging and the tablets/capsules, I determined that, given her cognitive impairment as a result of dementia, Ms Van Der-Drift likely believed them to be some form of sweet or confectionery.”
Elizabeth Van Der-Drift, 93, who suffered from dementia, died after eating laundry detergent tablets when she mistook them for candy.
An inquest at Inner North London Coroner’s Court found that Ms Van Der-Drift was living in a sheltered home when the incident took place.
After biting into a pill, Van Der-Drift complained of stomach pain and difficulty breathing. An ambulance took her to the hospital where she received treatment, but her condition worsened and she died in hospital on March 19.
Mr Potter issued a report on preventing future deaths to Wes Streeting, as well as the director of the UK Cleaning Products Industry Association and the head of the Product Safety and Standards Office after hearing evidence “giving rise to concern”.
He said: ‘The main concern here is that detergent tablets and capsules and their packaging are being produced in a way that, by virtue of their bright colouring, appearance and packaging, they are being mistaken for food by people living with dementia or other cognitive impairment.
“The problem is aggravated, in my opinion, when we take into account that the products themselves are far from being harmless in case of accidental ingestion.”
The investigation concluded that Ms Van Der-Drift suffered an accidental death.
The cause was aspiration pneumonia, ingestion of a toxic substance (laundry detergent) and dementia.
He said there was no evidence that the care provided at her home in Regent’s Park caused or contributed to her death in any way.
Ms Van Der-Drift’s daughter Marjolein described her mother as “really fearless” and also a keen traveller.
Philip Malpass, director general of the UK’s Cleaning Products Industry Association, said: “Like any other household cleaning product, detergent pods should be stored in a secure location where vulnerable people cannot easily access them.”
A government spokesman said: “We will carefully study the coroner’s report to understand the circumstances of this case.”
A spokesman for Riverside, the company that manages the care home where the pensioner lived for seven years, said: “We would like to extend our deepest condolences to Ms Van Der-Drift’s family.”
