Patient died after landing inside hospital oven, inquest told

A patient died after falling through a roof and landing inside a hospital oven, an inquest has heard.

Craig Smith was being treated at Kettering General Hospital when he absconded from a ward on Sept 7.

Staff searched the hospital for Smith and found his body inside a catering oven.

Opening the inquest at The Guildhall in Northampton, Anne Pember, Northamptonshire’s senior coroner, said: “Craig Smith died on Saturday, Sept 7, 2024, at Kettering General Hospital.

“He was extremely vulnerable. They did a thorough search of the hospital and a search of his home address.

“It was not until just after 4am that a roof was found with a hole in it. He had fallen into the kitchen below into a large oven.”

The inquest heard Smith had been admitted to Clifford Ward, a medical short-stay unit, on Sept 5. No provisional cause of death was given but toxicology and histology tests were ordered.

Mrs Pember adjourned the inquest until March 20 next year and ordered that his body be released to the family.

Northamptonshire Police investigators did not treat the death as suspicious.