Woman dies in hospital toilet

The Royal Free Hospital has launched an inquiry

A London hospital has launched an inquiry after the body of a 36-year-old woman lay undiscovered in a toilet for 12 hours.

Krisztina Parodi, an actress from North London, arrived at the A&E department of the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead complaining of chest pains.

She was told by staff that she was a "yellow" priority case which meant that she would be seen within an hour.

However, 10 minutes later, Mrs Parodi went to use a lavatory where, it is believed, she suffered a fatal heart attack.

"I don't want this to happen to someone else

Giovanni Parodi

Staff presumed Mrs Parodi had left the hospital when they called her name out in the A&E department one hour later.

They carried out "several searches" of the hospital after being contacted by Mrs Parodi's husband Giovanni.

However, they failed to find her and the body was not found until early the next day when police carried out their own search.

In a statement the hospital apologised for the incident and said it was carrying out an inquiry into the case.

It said: "The Royal Free offers its condolences to the family and friends of Ms Parodi and apologises for the failure to locate her promptly.

"An inquiry is underway into this tragic event."

However, Mrs Parodi's husband is considering taking legal action against the hospital.

"I don't want this to happen to someone else.

"The staff might not have been able to do much to save my wife but, if she had been monitored, there could have been a chance."

Mr Parodi said the hospital had failed to check the toilets when carrying out its search for his wife.

"I was in a panic. It was not like her to disappear. A member of staff looked around but they didn't look in the toilets."

Speaking to London's Evening Standard newspaper, he added: "There is a sign in the toilets which says they are checked regularly but they didn't notice when someone was dead in the cubicle for 12 hours."

A post-mortem examination put the cause of Mrs Parodi's death as natural causes. No inquest will be held and she was cremated on Tuesday.

The hospital said the coroner's report showed that the patient had died suddenly.

"From the coroner's report, it is clear that Ms Parodi died very suddenly," its spokeswoman said.

"An alarm inside the cubicle linked to the main department, which was in working order, had not been used."

Mrs Parodi was due to appear in a play this week. Under her stage name Krisztina Vaszko, she had toured the country in several productions and had appeared in small parts in television programmes including Eastenders.