Doctor declines to speak at trial

Patricia Leighton died at the hospital in July 1998

A doctor accused of giving a patient a fatal injection of adrenalin has declined to give evidence at her trial for manslaughter.

Patricia Leighton, 51, had been taken into Staffordshire District General Hospital suffering from septic shock. She died there in July 1998.

Dr Priya Ramnath, 40, denies manslaughter by gross negligence.

An expert told Birmingham Crown Court Mrs Leighton probably died of septic shock - not the injection.

Mrs Leighton, from Burntwood in Staffordshire, had rheumatoid arthritis and an infected bunion and was admitted to hospital in Cannock on 20 July 1998.

Septic shock

The trial previously heard how Dr Ramnath continued to give the adrenalin against the advice of three colleagues.

Dr John Coakley, an expert in intensive care medicine who works at London's Homerton Hospital, was called as a defence witness.

Dr Coakley told the court he had studied the papers in the case and believed Mrs Leighton died as a result of septic shock rather than the injection of adrenaline.

He added that the patient's condition had been critical when she was admitted to the hospital and that she had about a 50% chance of survival.

Asked about Dr Ramnath's decision to administer the injection, Dr Coakley said: "I don't envy any of the doctors that were present - this was a critically ill patient.

"If you believe that the situation, having been stable, is becoming out of control then you have to do something."

The trial continues.