Man with Down syndrome's starvation death in UK hospital part of a larger issue 

A man with Down syndrome died after “failings” within a United Kingdom hospital left him starving to death for nine days after being admitted. According to a report from ITV News, others with disabilities have also died due to mishandling of their cases. 

Key Takeaways:

ITV reported that...

• Adrian Poulton, 56, disabled, died of starvation in a National Health Service (NHS) hospital nine days after admission.

• Oliver McGowan, 18, disabled, died in hospital after being erroneously administered a drug to which he was listed as allergic.

• Louis Cartwright, 17, disabled, died in hospital of “unascertained” causes after not receiving the care his family believed was necessary.

The Details:

Adrian Poulton, 56, who had Down syndrome, suffered a broken hip from a fall in his care home and was taken to an NHS hospital on the south coast of England to receive rehabilitative care. According to his family, his hip was on the mend but his overall health was rapidly declining.

Lesley Bungay, Poulton’s sister, told ITV News, “We were just so worried. He was really poorly. He did look at me and dad... He said to me, 'Lesley, I don’t want to die'.”

In the time it took for Poulton's family to figure out that the hospital mistakenly listed him as ‘nil by mouth,’ (meaning to withhold food and fluids) his body was already shutting down from starvation.

Derek Poulton, Adrian’s father, told ITV News, “Not being medical, we just naturally thought he was having nutrition, a feed. But as it turns out, they were starving him.”

Adrian died on September 28, 2021 — just two weeks after being admitted to Poole Hospital. He had received no food or drink for nine days.

Commentary:

A press release from the Down’s Syndrome Research Foundation (DSRF UK) offered condolences to Poulton's family, adding that the group "resolves to fight for equity and adequate safeguards to protect the rights of people with Down syndrome, particularly the fundamental right to life." DSRF added:

It has... taken four years for the current story on Mr Adrian Poulton to break. The full extent of existing problems of discrimination, neglect, communication issues, and vulnerability to coercion affecting people with intellectual disabilities, including those with Down syndrome, is likely to be more widespread than we know.

The group also pointed out how Poulton's death adds to the concerns over the assisted dying bill currently before the House of Lords. "It is clearer than ever that Kim Leadbeater’s proposed Assisted Dying Bill tramples on these sensitive issues," DSRF UK said, "without due regard to specific vulnerabilities and current failures in end-of-life care."

DSRF UK Chair Dr Elizabeth Corcoran was clear in that people with disabilities are at risk in many ways in the UK:

“We denounce the fact that the Assisted Dying Bill does not explicitly protect the rights of people with intellectual disabilities, as we consider that this will push heavily in an extremely dangerous direction. There are simply too many cracks in the UK’s healthcare system for further pressure to be added. Rejecting the Bill is the best course of action to explicitly protect people with Down syndrome from euthanasia.

We call on Peers in the House of Lords to firmly reject the Assisted Dying Bill. Such damning emerging evidence on prematurely occurring deaths of people like Adrian Poulton who have intellectual disabilities is a scandal that we cannot allow to continue unchecked.”

The Big Picture:

Adrian Poulton isn’t the only disabled person to lose his life while under the care of UK hospitals.

ITV News conducted an investigation into what appears to be a critical and deadly disparity in care for patients with learning and cognitive disabilities. Research published in September 2025 by the BBC  found that, of deaths among people with learning disabilities and autism in 2023, 39% were classified as avoidable — almost twice as high as the general population. 

Oliver McGowan

Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training — a program for health and social care that was established in 2022 to “save lives by ensuring the health and social care workforce have the right skills and knowledge to provide safe, compassionate and informed care” — was created in memory of 18-year-old Oliver McGowan, who also lost his life due to a medical mistake connected to his disabilities.

McGowan was autistic and had epilepsy, and had a known intolerance to an antipsychotic medication that was noted in his medical records. In spite of this, he was administered this medication, resulting in his death.

It was found that there was a “general lack of understanding and acknowledgement of McGowan's autism” by hospital staff and that his death was potentially avoidable. 

Louis Cartwright

ITV News also discussed the disturbing case of Louis Cartwright, who was a healthy 17-year-old with autism and learning disabilities. The media outlet indicates that on September 23, 2023, Cartwright's school called to notify his mom, Jackie, that he was unwell. Two days later, there were no signs of improvement and he was taken to the hospital.

Due to his disabilities, Cartwright became agitated with the idea of having his blood drawn. After almost two weeks, several doctors' visits, and still no blood draw (despite his parents' strong suggestion to sedate him out of necessity), he remained untreated and undiagnosed.

On February 3, 2023, Jackie found her son on the floor. "He was saying mumbled sentences, which we couldn't work out. I went over to him... I picked him up, and he fell into my arms, and he died," she told ITV News.

The family attempted to go through South London Coroner’s Court to get answers as to how their perfectly healthy son died, seemingly for no reason except being disabled.

“It was from the start that things went wrong for him. He didn’t even access basic healthcare” Jackie said. “This is the problem when you’re a mum of a child with a disability,” Jackie told ITV. “Everything is 20 million times harder than for anybody else. You’re hitting brick walls constantly. You’re fighting all the time to get anything.”

After hours of testimony and evidence the coroner was unable to determine the cause of death, calling it “unascertained.” Cartwright's family was devastated and shaken, still believing there is more that could have been done to save their son. 

Go Deeper: 

Awareness is key. Countries such as Iceland claim to have nearly eradicated Down syndrome, but in reality, they have eliminated the preborn children diagnosed with it. Upwards of 85% of women in Iceland elect to have prenatal testing, and close to 100% of pregnancies where Down syndrome is diagnosed are terminated. Click the links below to read more Down syndrome-related news: 

Tear-jerker: Animated music video shows man with Down syndrome’s ‘life well lived’

Head of Down Syndrome clinic says his work gives him a ‘deep sense of purpose’