THE body of a dead hospital patient could have lain undiscovered in a hospital bathroom for more than three days, a court heard today.

Jason Hearn, 22, of Branch Road, Park Street, was discovered dead in a toilet and shower unit at Watford General Hospital on Wednesday, May 6, 2009.

Hertfordshire Coroner’s Court heard today that he may have been in there – just meters from staff and patients – since the morning of Sunday, May 3, when the room was last used.

The court heard how Mr Hearn, a motorcycle mechanic and driver, had been admitted to the hospital on Saturday, May 2, after displaying psychotic symptoms at his mother’s house in Abbots Langley.

While in the hospital, the normally quiet and placid man became distressed and fled from its A & E department, trailing an array of medical wires and tubes behind him.

After running into the street outside and attempting to open the door of a parked car, he was restrained by police officers, detained under the mental health act and taken back to the hospital.

The inquest hearing, which is scheduled to last another two days, will examine what happened next: how a man who should have been prevented from leaving the hospital was transferred to a standard ward and allowed simply to walk out – effectively discharging himself.

Questions will also be asked as to how – as a huge police search was initiated – he was allowed to stroll back into the building and lose his life.

The court heard from one senior police officer that when Mr Hearn was discovered, in the early hours of May 6 he had suffocated himself and “it was clear that he had been dead for some time.”

The death was not treated as suspicious.

Although the inquest will not apportion responsibility (and establish only the cause of death) legal representatives for West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust and Hertfordshire Constabulary spent much of today blaming each other for a string of tragic and ultimately fatal failures in communication.

Hertfordshire Constabulary, through barrister Stephen Morley, claimed that its officers had told A&E staff about Mr Hearn’s so called “section 136” status – which allows for arrest under the terms of the mental health act for personal and public protection.

Under the terms of a joint protocol, officers should have then stayed with Mr Hearn until a full psychiatric evaluation had taken place – an evaluation could have led to his detention in a secure wing of the hospital.

Instead, the two police officers on duty left the scene with the permission of a senior doctor.

That doctor, however, and four other key medical staff deny ever having received notice of the section 136 order, meaning that Mr Hearn was left unguarded at the hospital’s Acute Admissions Unit and, ultimately, allowed to walk free.

All of them had expressed concern at Mr Hearn’s behaviour and symptoms but felt it best – in apparent ignorance of the 136 order – to test for other potential causes, including epilepsy, brain injury or a viral infection, before a full psychological assessment was carried out.

Coroner Edward Thomas, describing crucial CCTV evidence, explained what happened next, as Mr Hearn, ignoring the pleas of a male nurse, wandered outside at about 9.10pm, saying that he was “going home.”

As worried staff called the police – initiating a major search and a subsequent investigation by the independent police complaints commission – Mr Hearn was filmed strolling back into the building behind a female member of staff who had used her pass card to open a security door. He was then filmed making his way the third floor where he would later be found dead.

Hospital managers, who have made a number of security and protocol changes since the tragedy, admitted that the hospital itself was not subjected to a thorough search because Mr Hearn did not fit the criteria of a missing patient – because he had discharged himself. Instead, search operations were conducted well away from the hospital.

The male nurse who discovered the body, meanwhile, explained how an unusually bad smell had led him to the cubicle, which was locked form the outside and clearly marked with an “out of order sign” because of persistent drainage problems.

A care assistant, however, said that she had used the room early on Sunday morning to shower a patient – meaning that Mr Hearn could have lain undiscovered inside for more than three days.

The hearing will continue tomorrow, when Mr Thomas will question police witnesses about their handling of incident.