Hospital staff praised for efforts to save colleague who died after pool fall

Thursday 07 March 2019

Intensive Care staff have been praised for their attempts to save the life of a “friend and colleague” who died after falling into his pool at home.

The comments came from Advocate Mark Harris, who was acting as Coroner in the inquest into the death of Dr Chelliah Ilangovan (69), a hospital anaesthetist of over 20 years, known to many as 'Govan'.

Dr Ilangovan, who was born in Dindigul, India, was believed to have died on 1 November 2018 after suffering a head injury, causing him to fall into his pool.

He was rescued from the pool, but later passed away in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) after being treated by colleagues who knew him well.

Held this week, the inquest aimed to establish exactly what had led Dr Ilangovan to suffer the pool fall.

Pictured: The inquest was heard at Morier House.

His wife, Usha, who moved to Jersey from India with him in 1989 and also became a hospital anaesthetist, gave evidence.

She told Police Officers how on 31 October she last saw her husband standing on their home’s patio looking out to the swimming pool while she took an iron upstairs.

She explained that the father-of-two regularly swept the area to get rid of fallen leaves, of which there were many that day. She assumed her husband was checking the weather to see if he needed to sweep. 

After setting the table for lunch, Mrs Ilangovan started looking for her husband but couldn’t find him anywhere. She rang his mobile, which was in the study, before looking in the garage as well as in the garden, where gardeners had been working. 

She then checked under the pool cover, explaining she had “no idea what made me think or run to that end”, and found her husband underwater. It is believed he had been in the water for around 10 minutes.

Pictured: Mrs Ilangovan started CPR while waiting for an ambulance.

She called a neighbour for help and started CPR after managing to get him out of the pool. Emergency Services arrived shortly after and transported her husband to the hospital. 

Mrs Ilangovan said she had noticed that a statue, which usually stood by the pool, was lying at the bottom of it and that her husband had a large laceration on his forehead. “I thought he was maybe concussed,” she explained. “He was a very strong swimmer, I’m confident he would have been able to save himself had he been conscious."

She told Advocate Harris that her husband was a good diver, which is why he wanted a pool with an 8ft deep end. “When he bent down to pick up leaves, he either banged his head or lost his balance,” she suggested.

When Dr Ilangovan arrived at the hospital, he was in cardiac arrest and hypothermic. His ICU colleagues gave him treatment, but he never regained consciousness. His condition continued to deteriorate to the point many of his organs were failing. 

Dr Andrew Woodwood, one of his friends who was involved in his treatment, explained that a decision was made to withdraw active treatment. Dr Ilangovan died shortly after. 

Pictured: Dr Ilangovan died in the hospital's ICU on 1 November 2018.

There was no evidence of a heart attack or other medical condition that could have explained the fall. Advocate Harris therefore said it was “more likely than not that [Dr Ilangovan] lost his balance and fell,” noting that there was only a narrow space between the pool and the wall where he entered the water.  

PC Glenn Cleave, Assistant Police Coroner’s Officer, said Police suspected the cut to the anaesthetist’s head might have been caused either by the statue falling on him, either during his fall or as he tried to get himself out, or by his head hitting the edge of the pool. The fall was treated as accidental and not suspicious.

Concluding the inquest, Advocate Mark Harris praised Dr Woodward and his colleagues for their efforts in trying to save Dr Ilangovan's life.

“I know he was your colleague and friend,” he said. “It’s amazing the amount of work that goes in intensive care and people don’t often realise that. You’ve been able to demonstrate that today… I thank you for everything you have done for Govan.” 

He registered the cause of death as “multi-organ failure following a-systolic cardiac arrest as a consequence of near drowning.”