CARE workers have described the moment they found an autistic teenager unconscious in a bath at a health unit, an inquest heard.

Connor Sparrowhawk had been diagnosed with autism, a learning disability and epilepsy before he was admitted to the short-term assessment and treatment unit at Slade House, in Headington, Oxford.

A jury at Oxfordshire Coroner’s Court heard the 18-year-old was found submerged in the bath on the morning of July 4, 2013.

In a statement read to the court yesterday, support worker Lenka Mullerova said she heard colleague Maxine Hemmings shout out for staff nurse Kieran Dullaghan, then rushed to the unit’s bathroom.

She added: “I heard Maxine shout for Kieran. Kieran and me both ran from the office to the bathroom. Connor was under the water and was blue in the face.

“Kieran pulled him out of the bath, I ran to the medical room to get the defibrillator.”

The jury heard that when she returned, Mr Dullaghan was performing CPR on Connor on the bathroom floor.

Ms Mullerova called 999 and paramedics took Connor to the John Radcliffe Hospital, but he died later that morning.

A post mortem examination revealed that Mr Sparrowhawk had died from drowning as a result of suffering an epileptic fit, and had traces of painkillers, epilepsy drugs and anti-depressants in his system.

Mr Sparrowhawk’s mum Sara Ryan told the jury that she did not know the medication he had been given increased the chances of him having a fit.

She added: “This was not mentioned to us at that appointment [with the psychiatrist].”

Dr Ryan said her son had been a “quirky and “funny” boy, but had become anxious and suddenly prone to violent outbursts.

She added: “A few months before his 18th birthday his behaviour began to worsen. He became anxious, agitated and sometimes aggressive, which he’d never been before.

“He was aggressive to me and Richard [Huggins, her husband], which was shocking and surprising. He would punch himself and bang his head on the wall.

“His behaviour was becoming increasingly distressing.”

Mr Sparrowhawk was admitted to the unit in March, following a second psychiatrist’s appointment, after he punched a teaching assistant at his school.

Oxfordshire coroner Darren Salter told the jury that an independent investigation found that Mr Sparrowhawk’s death had been preventable.

Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust, which ran the in-patient assessment centre for people with learning disabilities and epilepsy, accepted the report’s findings.

Mr Salter said that although Mr Sparrowhawk was a patient at the unit, plans were under way to move the teenager home.

He added: “Initially Connor was detained under the Mental Health Act, but thereafter he was a voluntary patient.

“Plans were under way for him to be discharged with a view to him going home.”

The hearing continues.