Man with Down's Syndrome 'starved to death after hospital mistake'

The family of a man with Down's Syndrome, who died after reportedly being left without food for nine days while under NHS care, have spoken out about their horrific ordeal.

Adrian Poulton, 56, was admitted to Poole Hospital in Dorset in September 2021 following a fall at his care home that left him with a broken hip. During his hospital stay, doctors reportedly marked him as “nil by mouth” in error, meaning he was given no food for nine days. Mr Poulton tragically died on September 28, 2021, just two weeks after being admitted.

“Not being medical, we just naturally thought he was having nutrition, a feed," his father, Derek Poulton, told ITV News. "But as it turns out, they were starving him.”

READ MORE: Bloodstained rabbi hailed 'hero' for stopping more horror in Manchester attack

READ MORE: Pensioners due new health benefit could get their first payment in October

By the time Mr Poulton's family realised this, he was already too unwell to recover.

Lesley Bungay, his sister, said: “We were just so worried. He was really poorly. He did look at me and dad... he said to me, 'Lesley, I don’t want to die'. He knew he was going to die. It was just awful."

An internal hospital investigation confirmed that a lack of nutrition contributed to Mr Poulton's death. The report recommended better training across the Trust with regard to specialist care for patients with learning disabilities.

Dr Peter Wilson, Chief Medical Officer at University Hospitals Dorset, told ITV News: “We offer our sincere condolences once again to [Mr Poulton's] family and have apologised for the failings that resulted in his death. At the time, we undertook a serious incident investigation to identify any learning points. We have implemented a number of changes following this and have shared these with the family.”

The NHS-funded Learning from Lives and Deaths review, published in September 2025, revealed that adults with learning disabilities are dying on average nearly 20 years younger than the general population - with almost 40 per cent of those deaths deemed "avoidable". In 2023, common causes of these avoidable deaths included influenza, pneumonia, digestive tract cancers and heart disease.

"These stark new figures show people with a learning disability are dying a shocking 19.5 years younger than the general population," Jon Sparkes, chief executive of the learning disability charity Mencap, told the BBC at the time. "People with a learning disability and their families deserve better. In this day and age, no one should die early because they don't get the right treatment."

Mencap is now part of a coalition of 16 charities and campaigners sending an urgent letter to Health Secretary Wes Streeting, calling for immediate action to stop the collapse of the Learning Disability Nursing workforce.

According to ITV News, which has seen the letter, it warns: "The profession is in crisis, and urgent intervention is needed to avoid imminent collapse."

"The Learning Disability nursing workforce has declined by 43% since records began in 2009," the letter reads. "If nothing changes, it is predicted by 2028 there will only be a tiny number of Learning Disability Nurses qualifying in England, with a pattern of reducing numbers in the other UK countries too."

Adrian Poulton is not the only person whose death has sparked outcry. Oliver McGowan, an 18-year-old with autism and epilepsy, died in 2016 in an NHS hospital after he was given an anti-psychotic drug - despite medical records stating he had a known intolerance to it. A subsequent review found a “general lack of understanding and acknowledgement of Oliver's autism” among staff and concluded that his death was potentially avoidable.

His death led to the creation of the Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training programme - the government's gold standard training initiative for health and social care workers in England, launched in 2022. But according to ITV News, NHS England has so far failed to meet its own targets - with all but one region in England falling short of the goal to train 30 per cent of staff by 2025.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting told the broadcaster: "It really is shocking the unequal outcomes that we see for learning disabled people in the country. Not just unequal access to care but shockingly lower life expectancy. That's why we have committed to publish every single year the data about those patients and their care, so that we can hold ourselves to account and the public can hold us to account to improve their care."

An NHS England spokesperson said: “The rollout of Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training on Learning Disability and Autism is one of the largest health and social care training programmes in history with more than three million staff starting the course. We’ve been working with local health systems across the NHS to develop a sustainable model so that more staff have this essential training including investing in better data collection so we can identify areas that haven’t met this target and to provide more support.”