Lady Joan Branson, wife of Sir Richard Branson, died last year after a cardiac arrest at the private Lister Hospital in London, and a recent inquest has concluded that the facility's failure to administer preventative medication contributed to her death. Senior coroner Professor Fiona Wilcox determined that Lady Joan, 80, did not receive prophylactic anticoagulants despite a "very high risk of developing deep vein thrombosis."
"I do find her death would have likely been prevented and the lack of anticoagulation did cause or contribute to her death probably," Professor Wilcox stated at Westminster Coroner's Court on Wednesday.
Lady Joan was admitted to the hospital on November 17, a few weeks after a fall on Necker Island, a British Virgin Island owned by her husband. She died on November 24 from a pulmonary embolism, a potentially fatal blockage in a lung artery that resulted from deep vein thrombosis.
During the inquest, hematologist Dr. George Adams testified that Lady Joan was at "extremely high risk" for blood clots, citing her immobility and fracture as the most significant risk factors. Despite this, she did not receive any anticoagulation treatment from her admission until her death.
The hospital's admitting doctor, Dr. Basir Kunduzi, reportedly did not complete a bleeding risk assessment on the day of her admission. Dr. Kunduzi shared that Lady Joan's death prompted him to reflect on his role and the importance of communication among medical teams.
Professor Wilcox clarified that the findings did not indicate neglect, stating there was "wasn't an absence of treatment." Following her death, Sir Richard Branson described his wife as the "shining star around which our family's universe has always orbited."