Horrific Fall Through Hospital Roof into Oven Kills Patient

Inquest hears tragic circumstances behind man whose body was discovered in Kettering General Hospital kitchen

A patient was discovered missing from his hospital room only to be found having fallen through the building’s roof and into an oven; he did not survive.
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At an inquest at The Guildhall in Northampton, England, about 68 miles northwest of London, this week, Northamptonshire’s senior coroner Anne Pember said: “Craig Smith died on Saturday, September 7, 2024, at Kettering General Hospital. He was extremely vulnerable.

The circumstances of Smith’s bizarre and tragic death were something out of a thriller, with the patient dying after falling through the hospital’s roof and then landing inside a metal cooking appliance in the hospital’s catering department.

According to reports, Smith was receiving treatment at Kettering General Hospital when he absconded from his ward on September 7. Staff searched the hospital for several hours, looking for Smith before eventually finding his body in the oven.

“[The hospital] did a thorough search of the hospital and a search of his home address,” Pember said, which was first reported by the Daily Mail. “It was not until just after 4 a.m. [that] a roof was found with a hole in it; he had fallen into the kitchen below into a large oven.”

Smith’s age was not disclosed, and no provisional cause of death was given. Police said, currently, the man’s death was not being treated as suspicious, but toxicology and histology tests were ordered. The inquest has been adjourned until March 20 next year.

“We are working with Northamptonshire Police so that they can complete a report for the coroner into the circumstances of this tragic incident, University Hospitals of Northamptonshire NHS Group Chief Nurse Julie Hogg stated.

“Our thoughts are with the man’s family and loved ones. We will not be commenting further at this time,” Hogg added.

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Bryan Gottlieb is the online editor at Engineering News-Record (ENR).

Gottlieb is a five-time Society of Professional Journalists Excellence in Journalism award winner with more than a decade of experience covering business, construction, and community issues. He has worked at Adweek, managed a community newsroom in Santa Monica, Calif., and reported on finance, law, and real estate for the San Diego Daily Transcript. He later served as editor-in-chief of the Detroit Metro Times and was managing editor at Roofing Contractor, where he helped shape national industry coverage.

Gottlieb covers breaking news, large-scale infrastructure projects, new products and business.