A nurse told told an inquest how she saw a mentall
A nurse told told an inquest how she saw a mentally ill patient standing with her arms stretched out in a crucifixion-style pose while flames leapt from her hair and upper body.
Greta Sayed saw smoke pouring from under the door of Jacqueline Kennedy’s hospital room and was shocked to see the schizophrenic woman ablaze.
Miss Kennedy is thought to have doused herself in perfume before igniting her clothes.
She died of severe burns more than a month later.
Miss Sayed was working at the Florence Nightingale Clinic, at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in Radnor Walk on October 24 last year when she smelt smoke coming from Miss Kennedy’s room.
She told Westminster Coroner’s Court she opened the door to discover the horrors inside: ‘It was quite dark.
I could see her standing in the middle of the floor and there were flames coming from her clothing, body and hair.
‘I was quite disturbed by the fact she wasn’t shouting or screaming or asking for help.
She was just standing there on fire.
‘
Miss Sayed then dramatically demonstrated how Miss Kennedy stood with both arms outstretched in a style reminiscent of Jesus Christ on the cross.
Miss Kennedy, of (53) Camden Road, South Croydon, spoke only once about the incident before she passed away.
She told a doctor at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital that she may have doused herself with something like perfume before she set herself on fire.
After being transferred to the specialist burns unit at the Queen Victoria Hospital, East Grinstead, Miss Kennedy passed away on 27 November.
Miss Kennedy had been admitted to the clinic complaining she had heard voices in her head.
Coroner Dr Paul Knapman told the inquest: ‘There is no doubt this is a woman suffering from a serious mental illness but I think this is a case where she
has embarked on very purposeful course of action, to cover herself with something such as perfume.
‘I’m satisfied she has killed herself, but I want to make it perfectly clear at the time she was suffering from schizophrenia and the balance of her mind
was disturbed.
‘
Verdict: Suicide.
ends
