Mary Joan Purnell

Mary Joan Purnell died from septicaemia following a toxic septic abortion.

It was not known how the abortion had come about and an open verdict was returned, it being noted that the evidence did not fully disclose how her death had been caused.

However, it was noted that her death was not at first associated with a miscarriage and it was not until a doctor became suspicious following her death that a post mortem was ordered and the cause of her death determined.

Mary Purnell had lived at 4 The Council Houses in Parsonage Lane, Chilcompton and was the mother of nine children.

It was heard that Mary Purnell's doctor had seen her on 16 February 1959 and had diagnosed her with pneumonia, however, he said that her husband was not willing for her to go into hospital. However, her condition steadily deteriorated and on 20 February 1959 she was admitted to hospital with her husband’s consent.

A nurse that attended to Mary Purnell on Hamilton Ward at the Royal United Hospital at Bath said that when she spoke to Mary Purnell that she told her about a baby that she lost but said that she didn't ask more about it as Mary Purnell was often irrational and said that she didn't think that she would have understood her if she had asked.

The doctor that treated Mary Purnell, a consulting physician at the Bath Group of Hospitals, said that Mary Purnell was given every known combination of anti-biotic drugs but that 'she still went steadily downhill'.

However, the doctor that treated her said Mary Purnell denied that any miscarriage had taken place and following her death he asked for a post mortem examination to take place.

When the pathologist carried out the post mortem he discovered that an abortion had occurred one or two months previously and that that had caused septicaemia.

At the inquest the Coroner noted that but for the action of the doctor that the matter would never have been recorded.

When the Coroner summed up he said that 'an abortion may arouse your suspicions of a criminal act' and noted that some of the other facts in the case might strike the jury as 'suspicious and rather odd'.

At the inquest, a staff nurse who worked on Hamilton Ward said that she had been brought a letter from one of her nurses which mentioned something that Mary Purnell had taken but said that the rest of the letter was 'just nonsense'. When the Coroner asked the staff nurse why she did not ask Mary Purnell about the letter after having read it, the staff nurse said, 'She was just irrational'.

Another staff nurse that had talked to Mary Purnell said that Mary Purnell had admitted to her that she had lost a baby two months before coming into the hospital but said that she didn't question her as to how she had come to lose the child. When the staff nurse gave her evidence, the Coroner asked 'Are you really asking the jury to believe that you didn't ask her how', to which the staff nurse replied, 'I certainly did not ask her. It didn't occur to me to ask'.

A senior house physician at the RUH said that when he learned that Mary Purnell had lost a baby that he realised that that might have been the possible cause of septicaemia which had been suspected for a month.

When the Coroner asked the senior house physician, 'Didn't you think it was important to find out if it were natural or criminal?' the senior house physician said, 'I am not of a suspicious nature and it didn't enter my mind as to how the woman had had an abortion. I didn't think it would have made any difference to the treatment if it had been natural or criminal. It didn't occur to me to ask. It was, I think an unfortunate omission'.

A chemist's assistant said that a boy came into the chemists sometime after Christmas and with a slip of paper asking for three bottles of quinine and said that she gave him two one-ounce bottles and one two-ounce bottle of ammoniated tincture of quinine. When her employer gave evidence, he agreed that it had been suggested that quinine might be an abortive agent, but said that its main use was for colds and flu and noted that there was no restriction on its sale.

Mary Purnell's husband, who was cautioned by the Coroner, said that he knew at the time that Mary Purnell had sent their son to fetch the quinine.

Mary Purnell's husband then asked the Coroner to allow him to correct a statement that he had earlier made to the Somerset police, saying, 'I think it as very unfair of anyone to take a statement from me at the time. I was in no frame of mind'. He noted that in his statement he had said that Mary Purnell had 'said something to the effect that she had had a miscarriage' but then told the Coroner 'My wife never admitted she had a miscarriage, and if she did, I would not have believed her'. He said that at the time that Mary Purnell was taken ill that she had been slimming and that he was completely unaware that she was pregnant.

Mary Purnell's sister said that when he visited Mary Purnell at the hospital that she appeared to be in a coma and that he never found out why she was in the hospital.

After hearing the evidence the Jury retired twice before returning their verdict.

The Coroner noted that he thought that it was peculiar that the hospital staff had not inquired into the abortion after receiving information about it.