Lack of medication contributed to death of Richard Branson’s wife – inquest

Sir Richard Branson with his wife Joan, and daughter Holly arriving at The Odeon Leicester Square, London, for the UK premiere of Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle (Yui Mok/PA) - (PA Archive)

A private hospital’s failure to provide preventative medication contributed to the death of Sir Richard Branson’s wife, an inquest has concluded.

Lady Joan Branson, 80, died on November 24 after suffering a cardiac arrest at the private Lister Hospital in Chelsea, west London, which is owned and operated by HCA Healthcare.

Westminster Coroner’s Court heard on Wednesday that she died after suffering a pulmonary embolism, a sudden, dangerous blockage in a lung artery, resulting from deep vein thrombosis.

The virtual inquest heard that Lady Joan was admitted to the hospital on November 17 after a fall weeks earlier on Necker Island – a private luxury retreat in the Caribbean’s British Virgin Islands owned by her billionaire husband.

Professor Fiona Wilcox, senior coroner for Inner West London, said Lady Joan did not receive prophylactic anticoagulants at the hospital despite a “very high risk of developing deep vein thrombosis”.

Giving her conclusion, the coroner said: “I do find her death would have likely been prevented and the lack of anticoagulation did cause or contribute to her death probably.”