UK NEWS

NHS FAILED TRAGIC BREAST OP WOMAN

Marlene Wightman bled to death during surgery, not pictured

Saturday November 7,2009

THE death of a woman following breast surgery was “entirely preventable”, a sheriff ruled yesterday.

Marlene Wightman, 49, bled to death after a mastectomy more than two-and-a-half years ago and after listening to 40 days of evidence Sheriff Isabella McColl said reasonable precautions could have saved her life.

These precautions included transferring Mrs Wightman to a high dependency unit for a minimum of 24 hours after her surgery.

The sheriff also hit out at the hospital records which were kept about Mrs Wightman.

She told the court they were “incomplete and contained inconsistencies, inaccuracies, alterations and errors”.

The judge told Edinburgh Sheriff Court that the treatment of Mrs Wightman’s family at the Western General Hospital in Edinburgh had been “fairly appalling”.

Expert witness Professor Alistair Thompson of Ninewells Hospital, Dundee, told the Fatal Accident Inquiry that if Mrs Wightman had not died she could have looked forward to at least an 82 per cent chance of surviving for 10 years after her surgery.

Sheriff McColl listed defects in the systems which she said contributed to Mrs Wightman’s death.

These were a failure to provide an adequate system of education for nurses and junior medical staff; a failure to have a system which provided on-site out of hours medical cover for the ward concerned, with medical staff who had adequate experience or training; and a failure to have a system of handover from the breast surgery medical staff to the junior house doctor on call or to the hospital night team.

In a statement, husband Tom, son John and daughter Lisa, described Mrs Wightman, from Dalkeith, Midothian, as “the heart and soul of our family”.

They added: “It pains us deeply to have heard during a very lengthy fatal accident inquiry over the course of a year that Marlene was suffering for hours before anyone realised she was deteriorating.

“Marlene fought for a long time to stay alive, but was failed by the system that so many of us put our trust in.”

NHS Lothian medical director Charles Swainson said: “We fully accept that Mrs Wightman and her family were severely let down resulting in tragic consequences, and we apologise.”