Corporate manslaughter charges are being considered against the prestigious Saint George’s Hospital in South London after a 22-year old patient’s mother discovered him dehydrated and delirious. He died within hours.

According to a report in the Daily Mail online the previous day the young man apparently was so desperate for water that he called police and begged for help. When police responded doctors told them everything was under control.

The young man was suffering from a brain tumor and his mother said nurses failed to give him vital drugs that controlled fluid levels, she said he was totally dependent on the nurses who failed him.

The Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 is a landmark in English law. For the first time, companies and organizations can be found guilty of corporate manslaughter as a result of serious management failures resulting in a gross breach of a duty of care. The Act, which will come into force on 6 April 2008, clarifies the criminal liabilities of companies including large organizations where serious failures in the management of health and safety result in a fatality.

The first trial under the Act got underway in Bristol, England on February 23, 2010.